How Do I Make a Flat World Map a Globe?

[Ascension]

I'm sure that one of the real pros who do that sort of real world mapping can answer this best but here's some facts. The earth is a sphere, with a slight bulge around the equator. That bulge is usually disregarded for our purposes. The circumference around the equator is 24,901 miles and going through the poles it is 24,860 miles. Diameter at the equator is 7,926 and at the poles is 7,900. 3d programs can do a sphere like that but why bother? This isn't a thesis for an astronomy Ph.D. - the difference is 41 miles out of 7,900...or about .005 percent.

Long answer short...3d programs will wrap anything just fine in that the seams will line up but you will get distortions as you get closer to the poles. Most of us use a 1 x 2 scale for flat map skinning to a globe. For reference, here's a map. Notice the dimensions...317 x 635. That's a 1 x 2.