Maybe someone here can help me. I am trying to find some software that shows the surface of the Earth in 3D. I am especially interested in the mountain ranges and the hills. It would be very nice to be able to look at mountains from various angles, see what the topography looks like, and which sides of the mountain are steeper.

Surely there is a piece of software that does a pretty good job of this, these days? I don't mind if its Free or it costs Money ... it just has to work properly.

I've got Google Earth and I use it quite a lot. But when you are looking down (from the sky towards the Earth) on Google Earth, you can't really get a good idea about the topography. Maybe there's a better way to use Google Earth that I don't know about.

Any ideas out there?

thanks,
Pete

Which OS?

What is the purpose of that research? I'm myself often searching for rural locations where I can find a spot with the open horizon on the South side from a road somewhere high in the hills/mountains, and where I can park and setup my telescope not far from the car overnight. I'm using just Google Maps features - the Terrain overlay (topo map), the Aerial view, and finaly the Street View where available.

However, in the past I've been using the Delorme Topo USA (still have it) for the similar task as well as for hiking trips planning. It has a very nice 3D visualizing dual screen feature, where you can have your topo map on one side of the screen in sync with the 3D view of it on the other side. Then, you can draw your path on either of them and see it unfolded as a profile of slopes with angles and distances. Perhaps, that's exactly what you need.

By the way, in Google Earth you can draw a path over the terrain and then right-mouse-click it on the left side bar. In the drop down menu you will see the "Show Elevation Profile" option, which you can manually navigate in sync with the map.

Upd: just discovered this overlay for Google Earth: http://ge-map-overlays.appspot.com/google-maps/terrain it resembles the Terrain feature of Google Maps, should be more suitable for terrain research than aerial imagery.

I use Memory Map European Edition but it only really useful for me in the UK.

I have the OS 1:50,000 maps on a notebook PC which can generate 3D views (and walk through videos) to visualise the Ordnance Survey maps overlaid on the terrain. I have the whole of the UK on a Landrover A8 smartphone, which I use as a mapping GPS.

that picture above is the kind of thing that I am looking for.

I use Windows OS.

I will check again to see if there is any way that Google Earth can do this. They could easily make the software show this kind of display - if that's what they choose to do.

My own problem is that I need this software to work for Central America and South America. So I will check the sources that have already been mentioned. It seems like someone must have a 3D Earth mapping tool ... it must exist.

My own application is that I am looking at the mountains (and large hills) and matching them up with the ecosystems (biology). For example, which mountains are dry? Which mountains have rainforest? etc.

Pete

Google Earth is also still a pretty good resource for visualization.



The embedded Photo links in Google Earth can be quite useful as well i.e.

Am Fear Liath Mor

am I missing some button or setting on Google Earth? How are you getting that 3D display?

thanks,
Pete

Not sure if this what the OP is looking for.

GE has the ability to view in 3D. With some settings adjustments the results are not too bad.

Settings


While holding down the mouse wheel, scroll with it and the terrain will zoom in / out accordingly. Also if you hold down the mouse wheel and drag the mouse left/right and up/down, the terrain will rotate and also change from overhead view down to level to get the 3D effect.

I just use a combination of the Zoom in, Zoom Out, Rotate Left, Rotate Right, Backward, Forward, pitch up, pitch down controls in the top right hand screen on Google earth.
The 'little man' in between the movement controls can be dropped on the landscape to get a ground view.

An this is the screenshot with the terrain overlay and a random path profile:

OK big thanks everyone.
Believe it or not - I have always been using Google Earth in Sky View or Street View. I didn't realize there was a way to toggle the controls so you can also get an angled view of the terrain.

For those learning to do this (like me) play around with the mouse buttons, and not just the buttons on the GE screen. It appears that the right mouse button helps with the angle view of the topography.

Pete

You are welcome.
Another fantastic 3D option, often overlooked, is the tool for casting the sunlight over the terrain at any moment in time. That way you can figure if a sunset or sunrise on a particular date is visible on location (the Sun's disk position is real). Or figure the best time to photograph a landscape (e.g. Once, I've been calculating when to photograph the Golden Gate silhouette over the Sun's disk from my balcony). Or just visually aid in that 3D scene perception.

Also keep in mind that there are plenty of static and online layers available for free for the GE. E.g. I'm using the light pollution overlay often to find a really dark location for my night trips (hunting for them is a part of the astronomy fun).

Alex

you are miles ahead of me with this stuff.
Today I noticed that good old fashioned Google Maps actually allows you to tilt the view. BUT it didn't work on my home computer. After checking it out, I figured out that I hadn't updated the Chrome Browser on my home PC. when you do that, Google maps adds more capabilities. automatically.

I'm leaning ... it's slow. Hahahahha!

Pete