This article is more than 1 year old

Gaming supremo creates maps that turn real world into Sim City

Complete with live cartoon buses that sync up with real-time bus arrivals

Ian Hetherington, formerly of games companies Realtime Worlds and Psygnosis - yes, the company responsible for '90s legend Lemmings - and has applied games technology to mapping, making your 3D navigation feel like a trip to Sim City.

eeGeo's maps can show weather conditions – so you can make it snow – and time of day, with night-time images.

The software has a cartoon-like feel, but uses real 3D models rather than pasted-on bitmaps. The Dundee-based company claims it offers companies which want to give their maps a human face a better option than Google Maps and Bing.

Loking across London

There are hooks to show data in real time, so a bus mapping app might show where all the buses are or a delivery company might show where your delivery is - which would be very cool if it was a drone bought from Amazon being delivered by an Amazon Drone.

Using geolocation, the source of Twitter tweets can be plotted on a map.

While eeGeo only currently has the US, UK, Japan and Canada mapped, the company claims it can get France sorted within two weeks, and most other countries within eight weeks.

Bear in mind this is full 3D data and eeGeo works with multiple companies such as architects to do this. One of the applications is for architects to show how their new designs will fit into a landscape. An animation can be produced showing the old building and then dropping the new one on top.

The software is available for iPhone and Android with a web version pending, and developers can download an SDK and have a tinker here. ®

Youtube Video

More about

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like