Welcome to lidar.boydsmaps.com!

Boyd

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Just to close the book here, the boydsmaps transition is complete and lidar.boydsmaps.com no longer exists. All old links will now just open a similar type of map centered on Apple Pie Hill in the new boydsmaps web app. I am going to leave this thread open, since there's some discussion of other interesting topics.
 
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Boyd

Administrator
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Site Administrator
Jul 31, 2004
9,502
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Ben's Branch, Stephen Creek
The site will shut down permanently this Thursday. But I will investigate adding some similar capabilities to the boydsmaps app in the next few months. Could be awhile before anything like this is implemented however.

Looks like 3d LIDAR imagery will return much sooner than I ever imagined... and better than ever, with truly seamless coverage of the whole Pines, thanks to the amazing Mapbox GL API. See this thread for more information:

https://forums.njpinebarrens.com/th...-app-is-finally-here.13910/page-4#post-167592]
 

Boyd

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Jul 31, 2004
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Ben's Branch, Stephen Creek
Full 3d LIDAR coverage of Southern New Jersey is now available via the boydsmaps web app, a huge upgrade of the very limited coverage on the old site. The following three maps are available, here are views of Apple Pie Hill on each map. These maps are fully integrated into the boydsmaps app so you can easily flip between them and any other maps.

Monochrome shaded terrain
https://boydsmaps.com/#16.99/39.807046/-74.589179/mbx3dsolid/-62.40/83.80

Color shaded terrain
https://boydsmaps.com/#16.99/39.807046/-74.589179/mbx3dshader/-57.00/84.20

Aerial Imagery
https://boydsmaps.com/#17.20/39.807681/-74.589168/mbx3dortho/-128.40/84.20
 
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Boyd

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Jul 31, 2004
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Ben's Branch, Stephen Creek
Just a heads-up, I have decided to shut down lidar.boydsmaps.com.

Well, at boydsmaps.com, it ain't over until it's over. The LIDAR site is returning (in a sense)....

newlidar.png


I liked playing with the lighting to bring out details on this old site, but it only covered a small area and required lots of work to make the maps. The other day I had a flash of inspiration that it would be possible to take this old code and "re-wire" it to use the same mapbox-format 3d data from the main site. So, I dove in and have the basics up and running on my development server now. Lots more to do, but I hope to put it online before the end of this month.

Coverage will be the same as the Mid-Atlantic LIDAR 3d map (New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Connecticut and Rhode Island with partial coverage of Virginia, West Virginia, New York and Massachussets). There will be a new button in the boydsmaps app toolbar (desktop version only) that opens the 3d LIDAR viewer with your current location in the middle of a 2.5km x 2.5km "slice" of the terrain. You can then play with the "sun" x-y-z coordinates and brightness to bring out different details in both 2d and 3d view.

Here's a little 45-second video of the unfinished app to tease you. :D We start in a familiar location in the boydsmaps app, then switch to the LIDAR viewer and play a bit with the lighting. But the fun part comes towards the end - live, interactive vertical exaggeration control - stretch and squeeze the terrain all you want. Unlike the regular boydsmaps app, it works in both 2d and 3d view.

I also hope to add 3d aerials of the whole Mid-Atlantic region and a shader that generates a custom color scheme based solely on the elevation range in the 2.5km slice of terrain. This will take a little time, but it's coming!

 
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Boyd

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Jul 31, 2004
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Looks like it may use integer math, each of those "steps" is like an elevation contour on a topo map, but in one-foot increments. They become more noticeable as you increase vertical exaggeration. There may be some different rendering options that affect this with the 3js API, have been meaning to look into that.

Just got it working with NAIP aerial imagery!

naip.png


Update 7/2/23: The new 3d Terrain Viewer is now online and the boydsmaps 3d dataset has been completely re-processed to remove a large number of errors. Join the discussion in this new thread!

 
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