building a 3d world globe

[waldronate]

You can do a globe with many different kinds of projections. The idea is to get small enough pieces to cover the globe without too much distortion when you paste them down. For example, sinusoidal gores (optionally with azimuthal equidistant endcaps) work well.

I have used Fractal Terrains ( http://www.profantasy.com/products/ft.asp and Wilbur ( http://www.ridgenet.net/~jslayton/software.html ) to generate images for such projects in the past, but there are more modern programs out there such as G.Projector ( http://www.giss.nasa.gov/tools/gprojector/ ) or FlexProjector ( http://www.flexprojector.com/ ) that might be better suited for the task. G.Projector wants input in the equirectagular projection but that's doable (I have successfully used my elderly ReprojectImage program at http://www.ridgenet.net/~jslayton/ReprojectImage.zip for this task). I haven't done much more than just barely play with FlexProjector so I can't say how useful it would be in this context.

There were a few discussions here about making globes here a while back ( http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=2109 is one) so there is probably additional information drifting around.

Attached is an example of the old Forgotten Realms Interactive Atlas map reworked for cutout and paste to a globe. It was reprojected from its original Equirectangular projection to the one shown in one step in Fractal Terrains.

[jumpjack]

Y
I have successfully used my elderly ReprojectImage program at http://www.ridgenet.net/~jslayton/ReprojectImage.zip for this task).

I played a bit with it, but I can't figure out how to produce a Lambert Azimutal Equal Area projection centered on north pole, can you please help?

There were a few discussions here about making globes here a while back ( http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=2109 is one) so there is probably additional information drifting around.

Thanks, I searched the forum a bit, but didn't find that thread.


@Roba:
yes, it's the same subject, I posted in different forums because I didn't know which one was the more suitable (i.e. which section usually is read by users knowing solution to my problem )