# custom mapbox vector tiles using deck.gl

**URL:** <https://talk.observablehq.com/t/custom-mapbox-vector-tiles-using-deck-gl/4718>\
**Category:** Help\
**Created:** [February 28, 2021, 2:35pm UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/custom-mapbox-vector-tiles-using-deck-gl/4718 "2021-02-28T14:35:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![cornhundred](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.observablehq.com/cornhundred/32/1705_2.png) [@cornhundred](https://talk.observablehq.com/u/cornhundred)\
**Post date:** [February 28, 2021, 2:35pm UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/custom-mapbox-vector-tiles-using-deck-gl/4718/1 "2021-02-28T14:35:41Z")

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Does anyone have any experience visualizing custom mapbox vector tiles on Observable?

I was able to get this MVTLayer example from the deck.gl documentation working on Observable:

> **[Deck.gl MVT Layer](https://observablehq.com/@cornhundred/deck-gl-mvt-layer?collection=@cornhundred%2Fdeck-gl)**
>
> Adapting example from https://deck.gl/docs/api-reference/geo-layers/mvt-layer

but I would like to build custom mapbox vector tiles using my own data (e.g. using tippecanoe - see [GitHub issue](https://github.com/visgl/deck.gl/discussions/5519)). Does anyone have experience connecting to a tile server service (e.g. mapbox) or hosting the individual tiles (e.g. on S3 or GitHub)?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cornhundred](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.observablehq.com/cornhundred/32/1705_2.png) [@cornhundred](https://talk.observablehq.com/u/cornhundred)\
**Post date:** [February 28, 2021, 5:39pm UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/custom-mapbox-vector-tiles-using-deck-gl/4718/2 "2021-02-28T17:39:18Z")

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I was able to get a custom built MVT dataset (built following the [tippiecanoe Rhode Island example](https://github.com/mapbox/tippecanoe#discontinuous-polygon-features-buildings-of-rhode-island-visible-at-all-zoom-levels)) working on ObservableHQ:

> **[Deck.gl MVT Layer - custom](https://observablehq.com/@cornhundred/deck-gl-mvt-layer-custom)**
>
> Adapting example from https://deck.gl/docs/api-reference/geo-layers/mvt-layer Data The data was produced from the tippecanoe example and was uploaded to mapbox as a public map. References...

by using mapbox to host the MVT data as a public tileset.

However, it be nice to host the MVT tileset on GitHub or S3 - so I’ll update if I can figure that out.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cornhundred](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.observablehq.com/cornhundred/32/1705_2.png) [@cornhundred](https://talk.observablehq.com/u/cornhundred)\
**Post date:** [March 3, 2021, 4:44pm UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/custom-mapbox-vector-tiles-using-deck-gl/4718/3 "2021-03-03T16:44:58Z")

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Here’s an example where the protobuf files are being hosted on GitHub [Deck.gl MVT Layer - GitHub PBF Files / Nicolas Fernandez / Observable](https://observablehq.com/@cornhundred/deck-gl-mvt-layer-custom)