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This site is great but it's only an approximation.

We've used this website for years for checking the sun in various potential homes and holiday rentals. It's a half decent approximation but it doesn't really have proper height data (I think it's using standard building classification from Open Street Map data?) so it's only a guide.



Plus it seems to be missing a boat load of trees in the streets.

But it's pretty cool overall! And I'll keep it in mind as we're in the process of looking for a new home.


Did you try the paid data? The free one missed most the trees, but the $2 map showed all the trees in my nearby park. Really impressive.


So - how do I know if the paid version is accurate if the free version is inaccurate? It shows me a sample of some place I don't know so it's impossible to evaluate.

They should offer some other way to trial the full version.


$2 is how.

The sample convinced me. $2 is a really small investment.


Nice! Last time I found something like this was a 15$/mo yearly subscription, which was clearly targeted at real state agents, and didn't make any sense for a one time check... Luckily they just believed the system clock, so at least I could check over the year by changing the computer time


Edit: looks like they already show side-by-side samples, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40535186.

They could probably have a side-by-side comparison of somewhere famous like Central Park (I'm from UK, fwiw) showing the free vs paid data to give an idea of what one might get; I guess it varies by location how much detail is mapped though, and how recently.


The ‘try a sample’ link in the upgrade flow drops you into Central Park West with the full data.


A few months ago I paired for the tree data to figure out the best place on our property to place some planter beds.

I’m very happy with the results. It confirmed my guess that a specific section gets more light over the year even though there is a bit more shade in the mornings until late spring.


Can you share screenshots of both side by side? (perhaps of some area not your backyard if you don't want to reveal where that is?)


If you click on the premium version, it will show a sample of a chosen area to show you how much more detail (esp re: trees) will be available. Even that was kinda worse than what I got.


For me it only increases the resolution, but not the correctness. The shadows have more detail, but are still wrong.


What's the data source?

The premium map is really good for my neighborhood!

I wonder if it's image processing from Planet data or something. Shape from shadows (then back to shadows?)


I’m surprised; I was thinking they might buy a few satellite photos through a sunny day and just… look at where the shadows are (with code).

Maybe working back from that could feedback how high the buildings might be.


They seem to have proper shadow information. I live in a semi-rural village and shadows from trees along our street are quite accurate ( and seem to be based on one section before it was cleared a year ago or so)


The trees thing seems to be new, I’m not sure I’ve noticed that before


Funnily enough... it's completely missing the vacation rental mini chalet my neighbors built which casts shade over most of my backyard. I suppose this means it won't be missed on any surveys if it mysteriously gets knocked down.


It definitely has no data about roof shapes.




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