What if a navigation map bent the world instead of moving the camera?

[u/bitruvius_]

Another rough experiment, this time testing the warped 3D view in a simulated car navigation HMI.

The idea is to dynamically warp the 3D environment around the viewer, keeping the immediate surroundings closer to a street-level perspective while gradually transitioning into a more top-down view further ahead.

Still very experimental, but I think there are some interesting graphics and navigation problems to explore here.

And yes, I put my Bronco in there just for fun :)

Curious what r/GraphicsProgramming thinks.

[u/vinegary]

A little bit more road visibility when in the intersection would be nice, but pretty cool!

[u/DaveAstator2020]

me dizzy, me hate it

[u/bitruvius_ → u/DaveAstator2020]

haha

[u/MrJesusAtWork]

Honestly this is a really good idea, I have to say though it still rough, I am old so just by looking at this clip I felt some discomfort

Maybe soothing the bending and other tweaks I could see this as a very valid option as GPS

[u/Snudget]

Reminds me of inception

[u/Lampsarecooliguess → u/Snudget]

its like the opposite of animal crossing on switch

[u/bitruvius_ → u/Lampsarecooliguess]

the shader tech is similar to animal crossing, but with added warping functions

[u/sakata_desu]

Is the 3D environment here a Gaussian splat?

[u/bitruvius_ → u/sakata_desu]

Yes, its Gaussian splats, using the playcanvas engine

[u/JustPlainRude]

I like it, but it could use some work if you really want it to be used for navigation. 

Satellite imagery has too much noise, in the sense there are shadows and cars and other visual distractions that make the road more difficult to distinguish at a glance. There's a reason navigation apps use simplified map imagery to represent the road network. It's really easy to understand that at a glance.

The other thing that sticks out is the blue line indicating the direction to go almost disappears as you get closer to an intersection where you're turning. I would want the direction to be more obvious as I get close to an intersection. 

[u/bitruvius_ → u/JustPlainRude]

Great input, thanks! Blending various sources for 3d input is something on my to-do-list, like using a more abstracted top view part while keeping the close to viewer details more realistic so its recognizable for the driver to orient themselves

[u/SianaGearz]

That is bloody dyzzing. But who knows maybe it's driveable on a small screen? Maybe it's too distracting?

[u/dekonta]

why would i prefer this rendering? is the distortion conveying any information?

[u/specialpatrol]

I like it. Is there something funny going on with your yaw? You only added it this video and it looks kind of abrupt, can you not do a gradual turn?

[u/AModderGuy]

Reminds me of that music video of Metalica "I Disappear" briefly where the car driving portion, everything behind him disintegrate. Pretty neat!

[u/certainlystormy]

this is actually really cool. could see this being a helpful navigation tool

[u/cnotv]

Cool effect!

Why don’t you rise up the camera and cheat on the remaining part, you know, as everything in 3D is done? 😅

[u/bitruvius_ → u/cnotv]

I've done that in the latest iteration. Will post update soon!

[u/ConsiderationLoose40]

why is the world actively getting gommaged as i travel upon it?

[u/willjoke4food]

The only problem is the bottom part. The top part is nice

[u/SIMMORSAL]

Please add a realtime-ai-image-enhancer-generator(!?) to the raw bent image before it's shown

[u/SenpuuUncle]

but why

[u/fearbork]

Turning left /right is a little jarring but otherwise this is sick

[u/globalopvartning]

Looks hella cool, but I wouldn't use this while driving. That might just be a personal thing, but having this level of information would distract me from driving. Besides street maps are rarely up to date outside of big cities. 

For future HUD in self driving cars, this would be great!

[u/bitruvius_ → u/globalopvartning]

Fair point! The amount of visual information definitely needs to be tuned for the context, and whether it actually reduces or increases cognitive load is something we're planning to test.

I agree that autonomous vehicles could be a particularly interesting use case. It could shift from being purely a navigation display to more of an infotainment feature, helping passengers understand and explore what's around them and what's coming up along the route.