Thanks for pointing this out, indeed I was referring to google earth, but I realized this only after I had submitted.
At the moment I am using only google earth, since it shows street names in Germany overlayed onto the satellite images, which is not available with google maps.
For a 3D FPS I would agree. You are a person moving yourself inside e.g. a building, then you would use wheel up = bringing yourself forward = zooming in.
For a surgical planning software we use the other metaphor: there is a tiny implant, which is moved around a huge patient and observer. Wheel down = pulling the implant towards your virtual camera position = zooming in.
The annoying part is, that ms (later to market) is doing it exactly the other way round from google.
It is really annoying, that zooming is done differently:
google: wheel down: zoom in
ms: wheel down: zoom out
But this is an old problem with any CAD software. Which metaphor is used ? Are you pulling an object towards yourself (above: google like moving earth towards yourself) or are you moving yourself towards an object (above: ms like moving yourself towards earth).
(BTW, pesonal note: I prefer the "wheel down=zoom in" and use this in our 3D surgical planning software for dental implantology, www.med3D.com)
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Thanks for pointing this out, indeed I was referring to google earth, but I realized this only after I had submitted.
At the moment I am using only google earth, since it shows street names in Germany overlayed onto the satellite images, which is not available with google maps.
> Wheel up = zoom in, anything else is wrong.
For a 3D FPS I would agree. You are a person moving yourself inside e.g. a building, then you would use wheel up = bringing yourself forward = zooming in.
For a surgical planning software we use the other metaphor: there is a tiny implant, which is moved around a huge patient and observer. Wheel down = pulling the implant towards your virtual camera position = zooming in.
The annoying part is, that ms (later to market) is doing it exactly the other way round from google.
It is really annoying, that zooming is done differently: google: wheel down: zoom in ms: wheel down: zoom out But this is an old problem with any CAD software. Which metaphor is used ? Are you pulling an object towards yourself (above: google like moving earth towards yourself) or are you moving yourself towards an object (above: ms like moving yourself towards earth). (BTW, pesonal note: I prefer the "wheel down=zoom in" and use this in our 3D surgical planning software for dental implantology, www.med3D.com)