Tutorial 4 - Displaying Mapbox Tiles on the Sphere


If you look back at Tutorial 1 of this series, we demonstrated how to display different sets of tiles on the sphere using the Altus Mapping Engine for the browser. This line from Tutorial 1 demonstrates how easy it is to show a set of Mapbox tiles on the sphere:

It is a very simple process. And this may be the first time you have ever seen Mapbox tiles on the sphere. The BA3 Altus Mapping Engine automatically reprojects the flat Mapbox tiles onto the sphere and they look beautiful.

If you would like to try your hand creating and displaying your own Mapbox tiles on the sphere, here are the steps you take:

  1. Go here and create a map: https://www.mapbox.com
  2. When you click “Save”, you will be asked to create a Mapbox account
  3. Once the account is created, you will see a screen like this:

  4. The key thing we need from this screen is the Map ID, which in this case is: “ba3-demo.hi127abc”. When you create your own Mapbox map, use your ID instead.
  5. Look at Tutorial 1 and add your id to the HTML code.

Your HTML code will look like this:

Find the place where it says, “{YourMapboxIDGoesHere}” and replace it with your new Mapbox ID. You will see your Mapbox tiles:

Have fun playing with your Mapbox tiles on the sphere!

If you have any questions about the Altus Mapping Engine, any feature requests or suggestions for improving the Altus Mapping Engine, please send them to [email protected].