Cesium brings geospatial data to Unity via a free plugin

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Over the past two decades, the mapping and representation of the world in digital space has made great progress. For example, early flight sims used large colored boxes to denote different areas of the map. Now I can fly over where I grew up and easily point out landmarks and friends' houses. This type of accurate map data comes from geospatial computer mapping companies such as Cesium.

Cesium, which already works with Unreal, has announced the release of its Unity plugin. The plugin, available for free under the Apache 2.0 license, allows the integration of real-world maps into Unity projects.

“Real-time 3D graphics and game engines are key elements for an engaging and creator-empowered metaverse,” Cesium CEO Patrick Cozzi said in a press release. "We look forward to the inspiring experiences the Unity community will create with 3D geospatial data enabled by Cesium for Unity."

Cesium for Unity comes with a highly detailed globe.

Cesium integrates with Unity objects, components, and character controllers. Also of note, the plugin comes with a very detailed WGS84 globe. As an option, the software can integrate with Cesium Ion, a platform for tiling, hosting and disseminating geospatial data in the form of 3D mosaics.

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As of now, the software supports mobile and VR development on Windows, MacOS, Android, Quest 2 and Quest pro. Other platforms will be available after full launch in 2023.

Check out Cesium for Unity on the developer site.

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