Most of the images on the Views of the Earth website are designed for and rendered at sizes of 8-40 Megapixel - image sizes comparable to those produced by current high-end digital cameras and suited for prints up to moderate poster size. With the necessary data the techniques used to generate these views are also suited for generating much larger and more detailed images.
To demonstrate the possibilities rendered a very detailed view of western North America into an image sized 96000×54000 = 5 Gigapixel. A reduced size version of this image can be seen below:
By clicking on the above image you can zoom into the image and view parts of it in larger size. Parts of the image can be seen in full resolution but due to limited web server resources this is restricted to some selected regions.
Feel lost in so many pixels? I have prepared a list of detail views from the image showing well known sites.
This image has been rendered in 100 tiles starting in May 2006. Calculation was completed on 21 October 2006 and to my knowledge this is the most detailed image generated using 3d rendering techniques until now. To learn more about the background and technical aspects of rendering this image see the technical background information i wrote.
Visitor comments:
I want to buy the entire rendering on a CD(s) / DVD(s). You should make a place for people to order copies, or a "pay-for-FTP" method. My screensaver does pan & scan over large images, and the tiles here would be an awesome addition to my library of high-res images. Several people I know have High Def DVD players, and High Def TVs, and they are constantly talking about the lack of high def disks on the market today. Having a "pan & scan" recording on HD DVD of this and / or other extreme high resolution images with several different accompanying audio tracks (ie, the different language tracks on the DVDs) would be great as well. With the simple lack of good content, you could fair well name your price.
A screensaver would also be a good idea for you to sell / give for donation.
Amazing work sir.
You've read it totally wrong!
480×540 (=259200 pixel) is size of one DEMO picture. The real size rendered is 4800×5400 (and that's 25.92 Megapixel). You can't see that for free.
And total size of all 200 pictures is 5.184 Gigapixel.
optic
First, let me congratulate you on a very high quality site.
Secondly, I do notice some errors in the information presented in the "5 Gigapixel Image" pages. As I understand it, the full picture can be considered at three scales: the scale of the main page; the scale of the pages one level down from the main page; and the scale of the pages two levels down from the main page.
At the second scale, the full picture is made of 20x10=200 smaller pictures, each 480x540=259,200 pixels in size, a total of 200x259,200 or 9600x5400=51,840,000 pixels, or 51 Megapixel.
However, the pages relative to the second scale state "The complete image consists of 200 of these tiles each with a full size of 4800×5400 = 25 Megapixel". I think that should read: "The complete image consists of 200 of these tiles each with a full size of 480×540 = 51 Megapixel".
Once again, congratulations on an interesting, intelligent and well done site.
Best wishes.
Filipe Alves
This looks like a good candidate for a multi-machine
collaboration.
I cannot wait to see the end of this story! The biggest CG
image ever made in the known universe! Guinness time!
richarre
showing 5 of 8 comments. Show all.
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