Tilt and Rotation

  • This sample demonstrates how to programmatically adjust the tilt and rotation (heading) of a vector map using the Google Maps JavaScript API.

  • You can control the map's tilt using setTilt() and getTilt(), and the heading using setHeading() and getHeading().

  • The sample provides interactive buttons to adjust the map's tilt and rotation, allowing users to explore different perspectives.

  • The code includes examples in both TypeScript and JavaScript, showcasing how to implement this functionality in either language.

You can programmatically adjust tilt and rotation (heading) on a vector map. In this example, we add some buttons to programmatically adjust tilt and heading.

Understand the code

Setting tilt and heading

  • Call setTilt() to set the tilt angle of the map. Use getTilt() to get the current tilt value.
  • Call setHeading() to set the heading of the map. Use getHeading() to get the current heading value.

TypeScript

function initMap(): void {
  const map = new google.maps.Map(
    document.getElementById("map") as HTMLElement,
    {
      center: {
        lat: 37.7893719,
        lng: -122.3942,
      },
      zoom: 16,
      heading: 320,
      tilt: 47.5,
      mapId: "90f87356969d889c",
    }
  );

  const buttons: [string, string, number, google.maps.ControlPosition][] = [
    ["Rotate Left", "rotate", 20, google.maps.ControlPosition.LEFT_CENTER],
    ["Rotate Right", "rotate", -20, google.maps.ControlPosition.RIGHT_CENTER],
    ["Tilt Down", "tilt", 20, google.maps.ControlPosition.TOP_CENTER],
    ["Tilt Up", "tilt", -20, google.maps.ControlPosition.BOTTOM_CENTER],
  ];

  buttons.forEach(([text, mode, amount, position]) => {
    const controlDiv = document.createElement("div");
    const controlUI = document.createElement("button");

    controlUI.classList.add("ui-button");
    controlUI.innerText = `${text}`;
    controlUI.addEventListener("click", () => {
      adjustMap(mode, amount);
    });
    controlDiv.appendChild(controlUI);
    map.controls[position].push(controlDiv);
  });

  const adjustMap = function (mode: string, amount: number) {
    switch (mode) {
      case "tilt":
        map.setTilt(map.getTilt()! + amount);
        break;
      case "rotate":
        map.setHeading(map.getHeading()! + amount);
        break;
      default:
        break;
    }
  };
}

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

JavaScript

function initMap() {
  const map = new google.maps.Map(document.getElementById("map"), {
    center: {
      lat: 37.7893719,
      lng: -122.3942,
    },
    zoom: 16,
    heading: 320,
    tilt: 47.5,
    mapId: "90f87356969d889c",
  });
  const buttons = [
    ["Rotate Left", "rotate", 20, google.maps.ControlPosition.LEFT_CENTER],
    ["Rotate Right", "rotate", -20, google.maps.ControlPosition.RIGHT_CENTER],
    ["Tilt Down", "tilt", 20, google.maps.ControlPosition.TOP_CENTER],
    ["Tilt Up", "tilt", -20, google.maps.ControlPosition.BOTTOM_CENTER],
  ];

  buttons.forEach(([text, mode, amount, position]) => {
    const controlDiv = document.createElement("div");
    const controlUI = document.createElement("button");

    controlUI.classList.add("ui-button");
    controlUI.innerText = `${text}`;
    controlUI.addEventListener("click", () => {
      adjustMap(mode, amount);
    });
    controlDiv.appendChild(controlUI);
    map.controls[position].push(controlDiv);
  });

  const adjustMap = function (mode, amount) {
    switch (mode) {
      case "tilt":
        map.setTilt(map.getTilt() + amount);
        break;
      case "rotate":
        map.setHeading(map.getHeading() + amount);
        break;
      default:
        break;
    }
  };
}

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;
}

.ui-button {
  background-color: #fff;
  border: 0;
  border-radius: 2px;
  box-shadow: 0 1px 4px -1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.3);
  margin: 10px;
  padding: 0 0.5em;
  font: 400 18px Roboto, Arial, sans-serif;
  overflow: hidden;
  height: 40px;
  cursor: pointer;
}
.ui-button:hover {
  background: rgb(235, 235, 235);
}

style.css

HTML

<html>
  <head>
    <title>Tilt and Rotation</title>

    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="./style.css" />
    <script type="module" src="./index.js"></script>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div id="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-webgl-tilt-rotation 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