Which technology should I choose for 3d globe web application

Question

Hello, i would like to ask you for an advice.

I'm currently developing application in Spring consisting of Spring CRUD application as backend, SpringMVC application as tool for management and third part is where my problem lies as I need have application that renders 3d globe which is fed by data from backend from a data set selected by user (user may switch those at will). It has to be web application (though I would prefer not to implement this in flash/flex), composed of two main parts - main part is classic web GUI where user makes his choices and second part is 3d globe which renders the globe with selected set of data visualised.

My question is, what do you think is the best option to implement this? Would be SpringMVC framework usable for this kind of application? I will be gratefull for any leads or directions, thank you.

Answer 1

Are you sure that a 3d globe will provide a more useful visualization than a 2D map-based "chart" such as Google Map Charts?

That question aside, Flash is probably going to be the most robust solution for a 3D visualization, although you could try using a JavaScript library such as processing.js.

Answer 2

To be honest, for 3D in the browser, Java is a pretty poor choice. There is Java3D which was previously a Sun project but now is open sourced. That said, it doesn't play well with all browsers ( for example, it doesn't launch in Chrome ) and sorta has the feeling of being abandoned.

Then there are a number of questions. Do you have a budget ( aka, can you spend money ) and is a user download viable? If you can get away with a user download, you can use something like Unity in the browser and make web service calls to your java backend. If you want "Free", frankly Flash is your best bet, with Silverlight as the second choice.

Answer 3

Have a look at NASA World Wind.