Maps & Dioramas AR

Maps & Dioramas(MAD) was to be for iOS ecosystem. iPhones and iPads are existing hardware and my access to Vision Pro is both limited in time and geography.

Such a long way we have come in app development. I have developed in React Native earlier to launch in both Android and iOS but this time I chose SwiftUI because my platform was iOS and then later the VisionOS. This language and the platform is just amazing for designers and developers.

I chose an Udemy course to learn SwiftUI and then spent the next 3 days learning and building one course project. I decided to do the project using the VisionOS SDK even though the instructions were for iOS. The result was amazing to see in the VisionOS simulator.

While this was great, my product will have to wait for months before it could reach any user. I started MAD in iOS and chose another Udemy course for AR. I had already spent the month before working on Blender where I was making 3D maps using elevation data from USGS. I decided that even though the experience of looking at 3D maps will not be as immersive in iOS as it will in VisionOS, it's still a great product for me have. Looking at maps and dioramas have always given me pleasure and I suspect there are many others too who share this.

From start to end I had a simple UI/UX and focused on optimising the AR experience. More about this in the later posts.

You see, for the past two years I started-up and grew my business in making immersive experiences for brands and enterprises. Started as an indie developer and them managed a team of 6 developers and 3D artists to deliver projects. I enjoyed it but soon developed this urge to get back to building products.

So in October, I winded down the team, closed pending projects and jumped back to making immersive apps. While, the long term vision is to make for VisionOS, I couldn't wait that long and decided to make for iOS.

Combine this urge with my love for maps brought this idea into looking at centuries old maps and make them 3D using elevation data. With Google Maps releasing their tiles API, I also wanted to make small dioramas of places that I have visited and fallen in love with. Maps & Dioramas was born and I spent the month building it in SwiftUI.