How to add a North sign to my terrain model

Hello, I wonder how can I add some direction to my maps; for example like, a North sign that will move in the way that indicate north direction all the time whether the movement of the map by user

Hi @paobunjin_s,

Studio doesn’t currently provide functionality to access the device’s GPS, so there’s no method of retrieving a user’s position/rotation relative to a cardinal direction.

All the best,
Seb

Any updates on this? I have a client that asked about this functionality today. Please let me know!
Thanks!

Hi @wil,

No updates on this. Device GPS information isn’t collected by the Zappar app or WebAR and would need to be done so in order to acquire the information you would need, because of this, it’s not something we have on our roadmap for Studio.

With the addition of Universal AR, you have the ability to integrate our computer vision libraries into existing toolkits and frameworks. If you can find an API for getting the device GPS location then it’s possible this type of experience can be created. Please bear in mind it is out of our scope as the ZapWorks support team to help with integrating any external APIs you might find.

George

I’m a bit confused, as the question seems to be about getting the device orientation (usually called “heading”), and I don’t understand why GPS would be required for that.

Getting the orientation would also be useful in creating interactive Photo Spheres so that action could be taken relative to the user’s real-world orientation. It would not require GPS.

So @George, are you saying that such an experience is not possible with Zappar even if location data is not required?

If your looking for just device orientation from a set point in a photo spheres. (Ex. On load your are facing down the Z access and as you move you get Gyro orientation data) then yes you can do this with zapppar. But you can not have it linked to a true gps north.

Steve

That’s what I was after. Orientation relative to N should not require GPS, but maybe I’m missing something.

With out gps data or compass data there is no way to make the system point at true North.

Now you can tell the user to point the device north and then track changes as they move the device from a set start point.

Steve

Thanks, Steve.

If you need magnetic variation, yes, but for magnetic N, GPS should not be needed.

That, I understand; but magnetic N would be good enough for what I have in mind.

As @George said, though, there are existing libraries that can be used for geolocation; and for basic needs, even the geolocation web API is pretty straightforward.

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