IPFS "peers" map is quite .... mono-planetary

[michaelb]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

Not a problem but rather an amusing constatation for the Interplanetary filesystem to display a planar map of only one planet (though arguably the most important one).

https://github.com/ipfs/ipfs-webui/blob/main/docs/screenshots/ipfs-webui-peers.png

Describe the solution you'd like

While a globe (out-zoomable with possibly satellites, moons and other planets) would be nice, I realize that making it work in practice would require protocols for IP geo localization that probably aren't mainstream enough yet, if they exist at all.

Though, we're not very far technologically from having IPFS nodes in space

Describe alternatives you've considered

I'll gladly continue to use the current map

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[SgtPooki]

Thanks for submitting this issue @michaelb. I love the idea of having this peers representation be future-proofed by supporting the ability to zoom out so we can view different satellites/planets/etc..

We could solve the visual problems with this screen now, but geoip support for interplanetary locations probably won't exist for a while. P3 because of the need for design and interplanetary solution; leaving this open for discussion

[SgtPooki]

@juliaxbow would you mind throwing together some mocks for this? (low priority)

[juliaxbow]

Here's a preliminary vector graphic mock-up created with Figma for lack of better animation tooling. If this is the direction we want to go in, I'll remedy that! Let me know your initial feedback so I can deliver addt'l mockups.

Style

• I assumed we'd like to keep the look of the existing map rather than incorporate satellite view, so that's why it's a vector graphic. It comes across as a bit retro.

Inter-planetaryness

• there is a planet on the horizon but it still is relatively mono-planetary, showing just a hint of the universe beyond earth. Of course, we can build more "space" around earth so I would ask that you first determine if you like the design visually

Zoom Out/In

• I considered having a sliding bar to zoom but given the nodes are (for now at least ;) ) on earth, I figured users would zoom out more for play/curiosity. So, I'd recommend the scroll/touchpad zoom that users are generally familiar with to keep the interface clean.

Inter-planetary.Peer.Map.mov

[whizzzkid]

Hey @juliaxbow another interesting approach could be: https://github.blog/2020-12-21-how-we-built-the-github-globe/

I don't know anyone who visits github homepage, but they built a pretty nice visualization that's performant and memory efficient.

[SgtPooki]

I would love to utilize that githubGlobe and allow users to enable/disable transmission paths and rotation/etc. using something like threejs or other rendering library will probably be necessary to go interplanetary

there is https://github.com/janarosmonaliev/github-globe if we want to investigate that. @juliaxbow do you have any problems with that representation? We could probably utilize that globe lib for any other planets.

this is related to #2072