iMap on Windows Phone 7 (with screenshots)

I have now been able to setup the iMap map control to run on the Windows Phone 7 emulator.

I have had to revert the code back to Silverlgiht 3 as I was getting errors due to the different versions of mscorlib between Silverlight 4 and Silverlight for Windows Phone 7.

At this point in time iMap is kind of slow on WP7 but I am able to show 3D buildings and change the pitch of the map.




The Bing/Local tile layers seem to stall in loading which is why the screenshots look a bit odd.



I assume this is because although the building models are not in the visual tree, they are still using memory.


Here is a side by side comparison of the Silverlight 4 Web aplication and the WP7 application



I have also been able to load the building floor plans on the WP7.


The floor plan is fully rotatable, pitch and angle, just like the web version as it is essentially the same code.


I think this is pretty cool, just need to make a few optimisations to impove perfomance but i seems that WP7 would be a viable platform for iMap handheld.

Now I just need to get my hands on some actual hardware and we will see how it runs.

Please if you have any thoughts or comments please leve them below.

New Performance Improvements

Welcome to another installment about the development of 3D onto Bing Maps Silverlight control (University of Otago - Interactive Campus Map, iMap)

Recently the performance of iMap has become rather slow, which an increase in displayed elements.

I have started to improve performance of loading/usability by removing objects (buildings) from the visual tree if they do not fit in the current viewable area, then adding them back in when they are within the viewable area.

One performance downside of this is that the adding and removing of a large number of UIElements form the visual tree such as when going from viewing the whole of the Dunedin campus to viewing the Invercargill campus is slow and the application freezes and the view does not transition to the new location it just jumps.
There may be some background way to remove these items without the performance loss, which is something I will look into.

Thank you for the positive comments we have received for the application and please if you have any please use the "iMap Feedback" button at the bottom left of the application to send us any feedback.

Duncan

Bing Maps with 3D Buildings: Some Detail

Hello to all whom are interested.

I was asked if I could expalin how I setup the binding of psudo 3D (3D transofrmed to 2D) buildings to the Bing Maps Silverlight control.

Here is a basic overview, I will do into more detail later.

On the map I have a Canvas bound to a LocationRect which is at the Longitude/Latitude bounds of each building.

To handle scaling I have setup handling of the LayoutUpdated event on the Canvas, passing in the Canvas as a paramater, using an EventHandler Delegate, since the LayoutUpdated event does not pass in a sender object.

In this handler I get the Transform from the canvas to the Map control so I can transform the position of the Canavs to the position on the screen, this is where I set the Canvas.Left and Canvas.Top onf the Model Canvas to the same screen position.
Then I also get the ActualWidth and ActualHeight of the Canvas on the Map control and use a ScaleTransform to scale up the Models Canvas.

Then Model Canvas is added to a Canvas that sits over the Map control (in the same clip region as the map so the models disapear is their base is not visible on the Map.

The model canvas contains the psudo 3D object to display on it.

In the next post I will provide more detail on how to convert 3D into 2D space, and also how to speed up transofrmation calcullations by only rendering updating visible objects.

Bing Maps Silverlight with 3D Buildings

I have been working on how to get 3D Buildings only the Bing Maps Silverlight control.

Many people believe this to be impossible (or at least not possible for many years)

I have now worked out how this can be achieved. Have a look at the image below.

This is from the University of Otago iMap Campus map http://www.propserv.otago.ac.nz/iMap/

To access this view leave the "Bing Maps View" radio button selected and ckick on "Dunedin" in the menu

There is also a pitch control up the top right

When you mouse over the centre you will get up and down arrows

Click these to adjust the pitch.

Please let me know what you think

iMap going Live

The 3D campus map Silverlight website I have been working on is going live tomorrow with a story in the staff buletin.

The website has been named "iMap" meaning interactive map.

I have moved to writing my own 3D engine as it allowed access to all the objects I require and I can quickly and easily change the colour of models as compared to Kit 3D which can take a while to change.

If you have the appropriate access rights the building floor plans can be viewed in full 3D you can rotate it and view the building as a full stacked building.

If you would like to view the iMap then goto http://www.propserv.otago.ac.nz/web/iMap

Let me know what you think by using the iMap feedback link at the bottom left of the website.

Silverlight 3D using Kit3D

I have been continuing my work on our campus plans website (Silverlight application)

For the display of the campus I have decides to move from the pseudo 3D version to an actual 3D plan.
I have chosen Kit3D by Mark Dawson http://www.markdawson.org/Kit3D

Here is the current result:

I have keys setup to navigate the 3D model, e.g. left arrow to rotate left

One issue this I am facing with Kit3D is that when I move the camera in closer to the "ground" some triangles/faces appear in front of the camera so you cannot see the models that should be in front of you.

An advantage of having the campus in 3d is the future ability to send the camera through the campus, between the buildings, to perhaps show how to get from one building to another, or just to show a virtual tour of the campus.

There are plenty of possibilities which is very exciting, and I'm really enjoying the task.