"On the other side of the screen, it all looks so easy."

October 14, 2016 11:33 AM

Tron 2.0 - Creating a Visual Language of Scale "Today we introduce TRON version 2 as a fully realized Mapzen house style, rebuilt from the ground up to take advantage of the latest features of the Tangram graphics engine and Tangram blocks. With this new version, visual forms and elements transform per zoom, revealing new cartographic details and a deep exploration of scale transformations."
posted by Tevin (16 comments total)

Aesthetically pleasing, but when it comes to cartography, I am decidedly in the function over fashion camp. Street? Highway? Alley? Bike path? At one zoom depth, blue, at another, black knockout on blue-gray land. Remember that slightly purplish blue you from the other zoom level, that blue that told you it was a street? Those are building outlines now.

Very pretty, but it pings my WTF meter on design consistency and flexibility.
posted by tclark at 12:25 PM on October 14, 2016 [1 favorite]

For the record, the actual Tron 2.0 is a vastly superior sequel to the movie (Lisberger accepted it as canon), and a fun game to boot.
posted by lmfsilva at 2:47 PM on October 14, 2016

Definitely cute but the little car/vehicle things are driving on the wrong side of the road in the UK :(
posted by motty at 4:11 PM on October 14, 2016

For the record, the actual Tron 2.0 is a vastly superior sequel to the movie

Oh goodness yes. The original was ultimately Not Very Good outside of the special effects (the entire frame story could have been resolved by just typing a thing and sending it to a printer, apparently). The worst one could say about the sequel is that it was merely okay, which is honestly still better than the original.
posted by DoctorFedora at 4:16 PM on October 14, 2016

Their website looks pretty cool overall. The map is fun eye candy and I would love using it at night.

I've been looking for something other than google maps. This looks really promising.
posted by Annika Cicada at 4:54 PM on October 14, 2016

Rather than argue with those who disrespect the first CGI movie, I will say that I look forward to the OpenStreetMap ecosystem replacing Google Maps, who has claimed for years that there's a no-wake manatee zone in a crowded subdivision.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 5:44 AM on October 15, 2016 [2 favorites]

I don't see OSM totally replacing Google Maps for a single reason: street view. While it is sluggish and the satellite view has been considerably worsened when they added the terribly executed 3D mapping on top of it (and no opt-out other than disabling browser hardware acceleration), Street View is still incredibly useful to find out what a place looks like before getting there.

Also, Tron 2.0 doesn't even work here. Very likely, because of said disabling of hardware acceleration.
posted by lmfsilva at 6:07 AM on October 15, 2016

Rather than argue with those who disrespect the first CGI movie

Wasn't Wrath of Khan the first CGI movie?
posted by biffa at 10:53 AM on October 15, 2016

Lmfsilva, those tools aren't quite the same class yet but they're getting there. I was at State of the Map conference this year and there are some cool things.

https://www.mapillary.com is probably the closest to street view, but also includes machine-learning that can identify sidewalks, buildings, greenery, etc.

http://navmii.com seems to be a pretty good navigation/routing app.
posted by cult_url_bias at 11:40 AM on October 15, 2016

It's biodigital jazz, man.
posted by a lungful of dragon at 12:37 PM on October 15, 2016

Wasn't Wrath of Khan the first CGI movie?

Ok, we're both wrong. But in 1982 Tron had by far the most CGI in terms of quantity, 15 minutes or so.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 1:44 PM on October 15, 2016

mapillary might be usable stateside, but in here, it's almost useless, and a long way from usability.
posted by lmfsilva at 3:22 PM on October 15, 2016

(also, I think the idea is quite good - I'm not shitting on the concept, but on the execution of what I have locally - I recall a city that had no street view, think it's either Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City, and someone strapped a 360 camera and took photos every few meters on the major roads, and while they can't be navigated as google car streets, they are still more useful than a GoPro strapped to the dash)
posted by lmfsilva at 4:40 PM on October 15, 2016

 → Also, Tron 2.0 doesn't even work here

Check your adblocker. If you block Google Analytics, there's a key piece of the rendering infrastructure that relies on Google's tracking code. So a hearty “GFYS, Mapzen!” for taking crowdsourced data and turning it into a honeypot.

I find it utterly hilarious that its animations purport to show the DVP at the 401 as moving. For those lucky enough never to have to deal with Toronto traffic, this intersection is — at best — moving at walking pace.
posted by scruss at 9:53 AM on October 16, 2016

Tried that. I think it's more likely this has something to do with disabled hardware acceleration that breaks some WebGL.
posted by lmfsilva at 10:02 AM on October 16, 2016

scale-dependent rendering is not new
posted by j_curiouser at 2:26 PM on October 17, 2016