The OSM-3D.org project aims to provide a Web-based interactive 3D view on OpenStreetMap data. It is currently maintained by the University of Heidelberg, GIScience Group http://giscience.uni-hd.de. It is used as a show case to demonstrate the potential of 3D maps as well as how 3D Spatial Data Infrastructures (3D-SDI) can be set up using standardized and open interfaces. The map display goes beyond simply rendering cached tiles that are somehow distorted in order to create a perspective effect. It is based on a scene graph model that incorporates an elevation model and as many OSM features that we could process. This scene graph can be explored using the online viewer XNavigator. Preparing OSM data to be viewed in OSM-3D requires a lot of preprocessing steps which are done on GIScience's servers.

Project home page: http://www.osm-3d.org

Author: User:Aschilli

Data Availability

As the name implies, all of the map features are imported from OSM. We tried to extract all significant features that can be incorporated into a generic all-purpose 3D map. Since OSM does not provide a landscape model, the height information was imported from another source. The elevation model is derived from SRTM (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission) data kindly provided by CGIAR. It has a resolution of ca. 90 m. CGIAR closed many no-data voids that occured in mountaineous regions and on water surfaces using interpolation techniques. The original SRTM data set was not usable for our terrain triangulation package since it relies on homogenously distributed point. The regions at the poles from 60 N to 86 N and 60 S to 86 S where no SRTM data is available have been filled up with GTOPO30 data, a coarser data set with a resolution of ca. 1km.

The terrain is available as rectangular tiles matching the Spherical Mercator reference system from OpenStreetMap. Levels 3 - 13 have been completely processed. Levels 14 - 18 are computed on demand and cached. Hence, if you visit a place for the first time it may take a little longer to load.

Buildings and POIs are processed worldwide and updated on a regular basis.

The combined OSM and SRTM data set is redistributed as Web 3D Service (W3DS). The W3DS is a 3D portrayal service is currently discussed at the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) as component for distributing geospatial data encoded in X3D, VRML, Collada, KML and other 3D internet standards. It is designed for providing landscape and city models as well as information layers such as POIs and labels. The W3DS for the OSM-3D project has been made available as reference implementation for the OGC standardization process. More information, a test client, and the interface documentation can be found on

http://www.w3ds.org/doku.php?id=osm-3d_w3ds

Map Features

Map Functions

Displaying and navigating through the map is not the only purpose of the OSM-3D project. Access to feature information, finding places and routes, importing your own tracks, and other interactions with the map are equally important. Most of these functions have been realized by connecting to specialized geo-services with open OGC interfaces. Using OGC services has the advantage that components can be easily replaced, for instance a third party OGC service working on local, non-OSM data can be plugged in. These services are the actual building blocks of a spatial data infrastructure. However, usually geo services provide 2D data, e.g. a geocoder will provide most likely 2D coordinates. In order to be displayed together with the virtual landscape model, the height must be obtained from an additional source. For this purpose we set up an Elevation Query Service (EQS) which interpolates height values from the DEM. The EQS contains a PostGIS database with triangulated SRTM data.

The following plugins are available in the XNavigator Webstart edition. Some must be enabled in the Panels menu:

Get Feature Info

GetFeatureInfo is an operation of the W3DS. You can click on the map and will receive a list of attributes of the selected feature.

Geocoder

Geocoder is a common component in map applications. It allows to search for places and addresses. The Reverse Geocoder receives coordinates and looks up the address in the database. Click on a building and the address will pop up.

POI Search

Convenient function to search for POIs. All OSM POIs have been categorized, spatially indexed, and stored in a PostGIS data base. Access to this data base is enabled through an OGC Directory Service. The POI search panel ("Yellow Pages") offers a list of all available categories and sub types. Click on the map, specify a search radius, select either a category or a single feature type, and you will see all nearby POIs that match your query.

3D Routing

Routing allows to find shortest or fastest connections between two points. The 3D route service (3DRS) is a special modification of the service used in OpenRouteService. It supports several modi: fastest route for cars, shortest route for cars, routes for pedestrians, and routes for bicycles. All these modes can be used in OSM-3D. The 3DRS delivers, in contrast to the normal RS, 3D line strings in the route description, which can be easier imported and displayed together with the DEM. You can either pick two arbitrary points, or specify addresses for the start and end point.

GPX Import

If you have recorded your own GPS tracks, you can upload the GPX file and display the track in OSM-3D.

Access to Sensor Data

Sensor data can be obtained from an OGC Sensor Observation Service (SOS). The display of sensor data includes a 3D symbol representing the sensor category and a list of values which were recently recorded by the sensor. The SOS contains environmental sensor data collected from another source.

OSM-3D Client Software

The web client that is used in OSM-3D is called XNavigator. It has been mainly developed as client for the W3DS reference implementation, but it also allows access to a couple of complementary OGC services. Hence it is sometimes also referred to as "integrated client", but in the OSM-3D project its main purpose is to fly through the city and landscape models without the need to install or configure anything.

XNavigator can be used in 3 ways:

• as Applet embedded in a webpage. This is the simplest version. Selection and configuration of layers is fixed and cannot be changed. Permalinks can be created and distributed. The Applet provides an External Authoring Interface (EAI) giving a limited access to internal functions. See OSM-3D Applet page for details.

• as Java Webstart. This gives you a complete GUI and full access to layers, settings, and map functionalities, including routing, geocoding, sensor data access and others. As additional navigation mode a 2D overview map can be used.

• as installation. Same as Webstart, but without restrictions. Webstart is running in a sandbox environment with limited access to system resources. With the installation you can also import models from your local hard drive. The installation is sometimes faster than Webstart, therefore it is the recommended version.

XNavigator homepage: http://xnavigator.sourceforge.net/doku.php

Data Updates

It does not update anymore. --Henriko 11:48, 29 April 2011 (BST)

yes, we are doing updates: Buildings, POIs, labels etc. are updated approx. weekly or more often. But: Landuse & streets are only updated occasionally at the moment (very rarely) az 15. July 2011

Some Interesting Places

City of Rostock
The first complete city model in OSM-3D was made available for the City of Rostock. In April 2009, The Land Surveilling Office (Kataster-, Vermessungs- und Liegenschaftsamt - KVL) of Rostock donated all their building data to OSM. The building footprints have been slightly simplified and have an accuracy of <= 1m, which is sufficient for an LOD-1 (see CityGML) city model. On request of the University of Bonn, they also provided building height information which could be imported in August 2009. For more information on the data import see Rostocker Gebäudehöhen Import 2009.

Screenshots

more OSM-3D Screenshots

Servers

OSM-3D is running on several servers installed in the Computing Center of the University of Heidelberg (URZ).

This table is a wiki template with a default description in English. Editable here.

Statistics

As of 02/14/2012:

  Buildings: 50.043.209 / 76 GB
  Point Objects: 3.514.446 / 1GB
  Terrain Tiles: 68.562.212 / 398GB
  Total Database Size: 475GB
  Processing Database Size: 1425GB

As of 01/15/2011:

  Buildings: 23.262.900   
  Point Objects: 5.659.070
  Terrain Tiles: 120.030.291 / 513GB
  Total Database Size: 572GB
  Processing Database Size: 1425GB

As of 07/20/2010:

  Buildings: 2.378.301
  Point Objects: 5.659.070
  W3DS Database Size: 99 GB
  Processing Database Size: 306 GB

Links

• OSM-3D_Applet
• Proposed_features/Building_attributes
• 3D_Development
• 3D_Development/Modelling
• 3D_Development/Tagging
• Indoor
• ProposedRoofLines

External links

• http://www.osm-3d.org
• OSM-3D in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TK85iSeLrGY
• http://srtm.csi.cgiar.org
• http://www.geog.uni-heidelberg.de/giscience.html
• http://www.w3ds.org
• http://xnavigator.sourceforge.net/doku.php
• http://sourceforge.net/projects/xnavigator/