Thursday, July 25, 2013

Pirates Attack on Google Maps


Ahoy mateys, Yarr, Pirate Maps is one damned clever map. Yarr, Pirate Maps is a Google Map but it uses a few clever tricks to create a distinct pirate themed design, complete with animated waves, birds and pirate ships.

The paper looking effect is created by using a number of background images and z-index on the map. The colored map tiles are created using the Google Maps API Styled Maps feature. The animated waves, birds and ships are created using animated gifs as map markers.

The really clever feature on this map however is that the ships and waves are only placed in the sea, the sea-gulls only appear near land and trees only appear in parks. The elevation service of the Maps API is being used to determine sea and shore locations. The Google Places API is being used to find the locations of parks.

I told you - this map is very clever!

2 comments:

Carpie said...

Elevation isn't a foolproof way of finding the edges of oceans. You occasionally end up with ships in the desert.

Keir Clarke said...

Ships of the desert. Yes, those should definitely be camels.