WebGL Overlay (ThreeJS wrapper)

  • This example showcases the use of WebGLOverlayView with the js-three library to render a 3D model on a Google Map.

  • It features a 3D pin model with ambient and directional lighting, positioned and scaled within the scene.

  • The example includes an animation loop that adjusts the map's tilt, heading, and zoom over time for a dynamic effect.

  • Sample code is provided in both TypeScript and JavaScript, along with HTML and CSS for setup and styling.

This example demonstrates using the WebGLOverlayView to display a 3D image with animation on a vector map, using the js-three library.

Read the documentation.

TypeScript

import * as THREE from "three";

import { GLTFLoader } from "three/examples/jsm/loaders/GLTFLoader";
import { ThreeJSOverlayView } from "@googlemaps/three";

let map: google.maps.Map;

const mapOptions = {
  tilt: 0,
  heading: 0,
  zoom: 18,
  center: { lat: 35.6594945, lng: 139.6999859 },
  mapId: "15431d2b469f209e",
  // disable interactions due to animation loop and moveCamera
  disableDefaultUI: true,
  gestureHandling: "none",
  keyboardShortcuts: false,
};

function initMap(): void {
  const mapDiv = document.getElementById("map") as HTMLElement;

  map = new google.maps.Map(mapDiv, mapOptions);

  const scene = new THREE.Scene();

  const ambientLight = new THREE.AmbientLight(0xffffff, 0.75);

  scene.add(ambientLight);

  const directionalLight = new THREE.DirectionalLight(0xffffff, 0.25);

  directionalLight.position.set(0, 10, 50);
  scene.add(directionalLight);

  // Load the model.
  const loader = new GLTFLoader();
  const url =
    "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/googlemaps/js-samples/main/assets/pin.gltf";

  loader.load(url, (gltf) => {
    gltf.scene.scale.set(10, 10, 10);
    gltf.scene.rotation.x = Math.PI / 2;
    scene.add(gltf.scene);

    let { tilt, heading, zoom } = mapOptions;

    const animate = () => {
      if (tilt < 67.5) {
        tilt += 0.5;
      } else if (heading <= 360) {
        heading += 0.2;
        zoom -= 0.0005;
      } else {
        // exit animation loop
        return;
      }

      map.moveCamera({ tilt, heading, zoom });

      requestAnimationFrame(animate);
    };

    requestAnimationFrame(animate);
  });

  new ThreeJSOverlayView({
    map,
    scene,
    anchor: { ...mapOptions.center, altitude: 100 },
    THREE,
  });
}

declare global {
  interface Window {
    initMap: () => void;
  }
}
window.initMap = initMap;
index.ts

JavaScript

import * as THREE from "three";
import { GLTFLoader } from "three/examples/jsm/loaders/GLTFLoader";
import { ThreeJSOverlayView } from "@googlemaps/three";
let map;
const mapOptions = {
  tilt: 0,
  heading: 0,
  zoom: 18,
  center: { lat: 35.6594945, lng: 139.6999859 },
  mapId: "15431d2b469f209e",
  // disable interactions due to animation loop and moveCamera
  disableDefaultUI: true,
  gestureHandling: "none",
  keyboardShortcuts: false,
};

function initMap() {
  const mapDiv = document.getElementById("map");

  map = new google.maps.Map(mapDiv, mapOptions);

  const scene = new THREE.Scene();
  const ambientLight = new THREE.AmbientLight(0xffffff, 0.75);

  scene.add(ambientLight);

  const directionalLight = new THREE.DirectionalLight(0xffffff, 0.25);

  directionalLight.position.set(0, 10, 50);
  scene.add(directionalLight);

  // Load the model.
  const loader = new GLTFLoader();
  const url =
    "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/googlemaps/js-samples/main/assets/pin.gltf";

  loader.load(url, (gltf) => {
    gltf.scene.scale.set(10, 10, 10);
    gltf.scene.rotation.x = Math.PI / 2;
    scene.add(gltf.scene);

    let { tilt, heading, zoom } = mapOptions;

    const animate = () => {
      if (tilt < 67.5) {
        tilt += 0.5;
      } else if (heading <= 360) {
        heading += 0.2;
        zoom -= 0.0005;
      } else {
        // exit animation loop
        return;
      }

      map.moveCamera({ tilt, heading, zoom });
      requestAnimationFrame(animate);
    };

    requestAnimationFrame(animate);
  });
  new ThreeJSOverlayView({
    map,
    scene,
    anchor: { ...mapOptions.center, altitude: 100 },
    THREE,
  });
}

window.initMap = initMap;
index.js

CSS

/* 
 * Always set the map height explicitly to define the size of the div element
 * that contains the map. 
 */
#map {
  height: 100%;
}

/* 
 * Optional: Makes the sample page fill the window. 
 */
html,
body {
  height: 100%;
  margin: 0;
  padding: 0;
}

#map {
  pointer-events: none;
}

style.css

HTML

<html>
  <head>
    <title>Simple ThreeJS Overlay View</title>

    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="./style.css" />
    <script type="module" src="./index.js"></script>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div id="map" class="map"></div>

    <!-- 
      The `defer` attribute causes the script to execute after the full HTML
      document has been parsed. For non-blocking uses, avoiding race conditions,
      and consistent behavior across browsers, consider loading using Promises. See
      https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/load-maps-js-api
      for more information.
      -->
    <script
      src="https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/js?key=AIzaSyB41DRUbKWJHPxaFjMAwdrzWzbVKartNGg&callback=initMap&v=weekly"
      defer
    ></script>
  </body>
</html>
index.html

Try Sample

Clone Sample

Git and Node.js are required to run this sample locally. Follow these instructions to install Node.js and NPM. The following commands clone, install dependencies and start the sample application. 

  git clone -b sample-threejs-overlay-simple https://github.com/googlemaps/js-samples.git
  cd js-samples
  npm i
  npm start

Other samples can be tried by switching to any branch beginning with sample-SAMPLE_NAME. 

  git checkout sample-SAMPLE_NAME
  npm i
  npm start