Virtual 3d globe for your website

Published October 29th, 2014

3D globe with GL technology for the web

Custom online globe can become an attractive feature for visitors of your website. No plugin is needed - just the modern web browser or a mobile device. In the following video tutorial we will show you, how to create your own globe from a texture, using MapTiler, and an open-source project developed by Klokan Technologies, WebGL Earth 2 API.   

To create your custom globe, you will need a texture of the globe with a size ratio 2:1, in a spherical or equirectangular mode. In the tutorial, we used Cassini globe downloaded from the David Rumsey’s website. If you already have the texture, just use MapTiler and then suitable hosting - either on Amazon S3 or on any webserver using Tileserver.php.

And how to go from a real globe to a texture? Typically by photographing in a light box to prevent reflection and processing with a software such as Autopano (http://www.autopano.net/wiki-en/action/view/Understanding_Projecting_Modes) or AgiSoft Photoscan. More information about processing of the globes can be also found in this article.

Video available at:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pf8itiTwo6w

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