Marker or overlay moving animation moving smoothly in openlayers 3

Question

I created a plunkr which has a moving marker like a car.

var olview = new ol.View({
    center: [-5484111.13, -1884437.22],
    zoom: 18,
    minZoom: 2,
    maxZoom: 20
});

var osm = new ol.source.OSM();

var lineString  = new ol.geom.LineString([]);

var map = new ol.Map({
    target: 'map',
    view: olview,
    renderer: 'canvas',
    layers: [
        new ol.layer.Tile({ 
            source: osm,
            opacity: 0.6
        })
    ]
});

var car  = document.getElementById('geo1');

var marker = new ol.Overlay({
    positioning: 'center-center',
    offset: [0, 0],
    element: car,
    stopEvent: false
});

map.addOverlay(marker);


var path = [
    [-5484101.57, -1884475.44],
    [-5484114.71, -1884432.74],
    [-5484117.70, -1884416.62],
    [-5484106.95, -1884392.28]
];

lineString.setCoordinates(path);

map.once('postcompose', function(event) {
    console.info('postcompose');
    interval = setInterval(animation, 500);
});

var i = 0, interval;
var animation = function(){

    if (i == path.length){
        i = 0;
    }

    marker.setPosition(path[i]);
    i++;
};

This is written in openlayers, I want it to look smooth when moving similar to this.

https://github.com/terikon/marker-animate-unobtrusive

I'm a complete beginner in openlayers, can someone help me with this? Thanks!

Answer 1

I've made three tests. First and second are pure ol3 and last is with tween.js.

I'm using Arc.js to create a path.

The first example is using setInterval.

The second example is using window.requestAnimationFrame.

And the last with Tween.js.

Your example doesn't run smoothly because it is just a few coordinates.

Note that the Tween.js integration is not an integration at all. It is just a tricky CSS manipulation.