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Show HN: Metiq: a real time 3D globe for 100 public datasets (metiq.space)

148 points by rakeda ↗ HN
The concept for metiq.space came after playing Global Magnates with friends and realizing how fragmented live global data is. ships, aircraft, satellites, ports, weather, hazards, infrastructure, cyber, and public datasets all exist, but they usually live in separate tools and maps.

The goal was to build one interactive 3D globe where live public data could be visualized by latitude, longitude, and altitude. Surface data stays on the globe, while aircraft, satellites, and other above surface things can be represented in actual 3D space instead of being flattened onto a map.

The outcome is an interactive globe that showcases Earth, air, sea, space, cyber, defense, infrastructure, politics, and the list is continuously growing.

Majority of development right now is going into data filtering and deduping.

30 comments

[ 3.7 ms ] story [ 51.5 ms ] thread
daviding
Very impressive! What's the stack used?

Also, is there a way to stop the 'Satellite Inspect' dialog from coming up when clicking around the globe? It obscures a bit of the map.

rakeda
On it right now, should see the change live in 10 minutes! Was supposed to only show when imagery was selected.
dwa3592
This is amazing. I have been exploring open public datasets for some GIS projects. How are you dealing with any rate limits for how much you can pull from these public servers?
rakeda
I'm routing and caching a majority of the data into my own database so that all usage and rates are through my service. There are some client based api calls that are made (mostly around existing enrichment) but 95% of traffic hits the db my workers populate.
brailsafe
Cool, but the UI could use more vibing. Seems unusable on mobile because it's not responsive and the controls can't be hidden or collapsed
jwardbond
Very cool. The satellite views are awesome! I clicked around for 20 minutes and still felt like there was so much more to explore. Thoughts:

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Unless there is a soviet military installation in Southend, Saskatchewan, something is seriously funky with the "military installation" layer.

It would be nice if clicking didn't lower the zoom level. It's fine to zoom in and center, but having it zoom me out every time I click something was annoying.

miniman1337
really great stuff on here, exploring any of the layers makes me want to learn more about it, maybe finding a way to link to relevant wiki articles for some of the data layers would be neat.
[dead] 0fuz
[flagged]
sleepytimetea
Very nice...the maritime vessels view seems very sparsely populated...especially in the Strait of Hormuz.
fsuts
Very cool

What’s the tech stack?

ionwake
I spent about a decade building a game that looks remarkably like this, I for one think this looks fantastic. Took me years of working with old 3d libraries and networking... and it never was finished....

Its incredible what can now be built with a little good ai tooling, just awesome.

EDIT > This is my favorite post this year (after Mythos) on HN good job

gavmor
I wonder if Mollweide or Atlantis projections wouldn't be more performant?
robby1110
I really like this. Is this just pulling from free data sources? Wonder if you could also hook it up with a maps provider to show real terrain
noAnswer
I know it's "just" AI but one could think there is a forkable project out there. I have seen like tenths of projects like this. OPs explanation is different though. Usually the line is "inspired by movie".
hsuduebc2
V2 rocket owned by Israel in Poland kinda surprised me. But I understand. I'm currently working on data heavy platform. The most menial task is to clear data to be usable. Keep up the good work!
BobMontgomeryJr
horrible UX on tablet-have-to-turn-sideways-or-window-clipped. Get the basics right. Globe slice in vertical-stripmap? drifts uncontrollably. can't set roi nor reposition nor minimize nor resize any of the three panels. tremendous amounts of wasted space - all the time. map legends overlay map undismissibly. great eye-candy first glance;
bigjick
wow - very impressive, visually pleasing

one UX improvement I feel would make it nice is the mouse wheel zoom in to be smooth, atm it jumps from one zoom level to the next, if it could pan in and out that would make it feel more immersive in a subtle but pleasing way

vivzkestrel
- stupid question, how do you make a globe like that
darth-pixit
Crazy cool. The idea and approach is super cool, spent 20 odd mins looking through. A timelapse is one thing that excited me on top of this - you guys already have a window to change but a play from let's say last 5 year feels different - data might be an issue I understand. Inspired to build this for some of my data.
brownpoints
How much of the data is real time? And how do you interpose different timelines?
vessenes
In Plowing the Dark (2000), Richard Powers suggests that a globe-based visualization would give you a lot more if you could put your head inside it. Nice topological idea -- can I suggest you add it?
ProllyInfamous
Feedback: when you select an object (e.g. a powerstation) the targeted/crosshairs sprite should not scale with the zoom (i.e. it should remain the same pixelcount). The problem is when zoomed way-out or way-in, you cannot see the crosshairs.

Why is the zoom-out so slow while the zoom-in so quick [scrollwheel]?

Missing many TVA generating facilities.

I like your simplified windmap more than Windy.com 's!

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Added to my "maps" bookmarks

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Sick hyperlinking: the feed to the livecam from the International Space Station !!! thanks !!!

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuuC4dpSQ1M>