Around the world at night, rendered in HD!

Mar 28, 2017 8:38 PM

Eastern Europe. Northern Mediterranean.

So I found this old post: https://imgur.com/gallery/3kDqX and started checking out this Anton Balazh guy.

Northwestern Europe. British Isles.
So his renders have increasingly developed in quality and detail over the course of years of work , using imagery provided by NASA, among other sources. Pretty bad ass, IMHO.

Nordic nations. Baltic sea. Skyrim, probly. I see Riften up there.
Oh, and when I say "imagery provided by NASA" I mean damn near terabytes of satellite imagery and some "other" material. Ocean floor scans and assorted whatnot? Beats me, but the guy did all his homework and most likely everyone else's, too.

AAAAAAAAAHHHMOTHERLAND!!!!!!!
Literally, all roads lead to Moscow. Like, they designed it that way.
So, in Anton's own words, “Rendering a single image takes … tens of hours on a multi-core computer with 32 GB of RAM,”. Each one of these originally had “20-30 million polygons”, and was 5000x5000 pixels.

Turkey, Georgia (not the one with peaches), Armenia, the Caspian, and Uzbek impostors.
I didn't look for the 5k res images, so you get the comparatively potato quality ones. I'm not gonna do everything for you. I'm OP, not your mother.

Persia and Arabia.
The displayed elevation is absurdly exaggerated, with like 60°+ inclines everywhere, and most of the worlds major mountain ranges extending to the ozone layer, if not beyond the stratosphere entirely.
I like it. It makes all the big things look really small. Conceptually manageable to my brain.

Arabian peninsula, Red Sea, and the horn of Africa.
I'm mostly out of funny or interesting things to write, at this point.
(WAIT, at which point was I EVER interesting OR funny?!? There, took care of that one for you.)

Madagascar.
Yeah, I know you already knew that. You're not an idiot. I have an obligation to at least write something uninteresting and humorless.

South Africa, Capetown, etc.
Where to go? India or Argentina? West, or East? Decisions, decisions...
It's not exactly a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Book, folks. I gotta make that call for EVERYONE.

India, Sri Lanka, and part of Pakistan.
You guys should look up the Hindu myth of Adam's Bridge. It's a really cool story.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam%27s_Bridge

Mynamar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia.

Papua New Guinea, and Cairns in the Northeast tip of Queensland, Australia.

Middle Earth.
Hobbits, elves, orcs, ents, ogres, and dwarves. Maybe humans. Excuse me; "Numenorians".
Or, New Zealand, if you're dull...

East Coast Rendered at night in HD

Australia.
Sorry, Perth; this is a Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane only party. You weren't invited.

China, Hong Kong, and the islands of Hainan and Taiwan.

Japan, South Korea, and that strange communist dark spot.
Ahh, another interesting fact! Apparently, the city light data was collected by the Suomi NPP satellite.

Alaska and Kamchatka. Thank you, Milton Bradley.
Pretty dark out there...
Is that Sig in the Northwestern?

British Columbia, Washington, California, Mexico, etc.

Southeastern Canukistan, and Midwestern America.

Gulf coast. Atlantic coast.

Caribbean.

A Man, A Plan, A Canal...
Also, Honduras, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Colombia, blah, blah, blah...

Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, and all that stuff.
Don't mess with Cusco's groove, Pacha. Wrong lever, Kronk.

Chile, Argentina. Damn near Antarctica, actually...

Also, INB4 crazy Flat Earthers try to disprove this post or something. Seriously, those guys can fuck right off and go watch some Expanding Earth Theory videos or something and make their cranial cavities implode.
For the rest of you who not only acknowledge, but indeed Celebrate a spherical earth, I hope you thoroughly enjoyed our little trip around it. This is only a small sample of Anton's fine work, and I'm sure there are much higher quality versions of all these renders out on the interteubs somewhere.

EDIT: Thanks, my Imgur fam. I appreciate all the love.
Check out the original digital artist, Anton Balazh. He has all kinds of these renders, and probably at least one of the specific area of the globe you're looking for (Including Perth, you adorable Aussies; I love ya).

Fake! You can tell by the way the horizon is curved. I'm not falling for that!

9 years ago | Likes 6 Dislikes 1

This is like an imgur community photo :D

9 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

Global Warming: North Korea's doing its part! Are you?

9 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

Fuckin' Madagascar, can't infect it to save my life. Finally start my game in Madagascar and America immediately shuts down. WTF!?

9 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

They don't call my city 'Perth' the furthest capital city to another in the world for nothing. I'm not even on the map! Nothing to see here

9 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

5k version of India, if anybody wants. http://imgur.com/fckvej8

9 years ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

Where's North Africa? :(

9 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

You'll have to ask Anton, or use Google-fu. This is by no means a comprehensive collection. I found what I could.

9 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

"Sorry, Perth; this is a Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane only party. You weren't invited" - every band to ever tour Australia :(

9 years ago | Likes 6 Dislikes 0

It makes this Perthling sad. We get no love. Could be worse though. At least we aren't Tasmania...

9 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

It looks so nice, almost peaceful.

9 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

I can see my house

9 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Interesting fact: Suomi NPP is named after Verner Edward "Vern" Suomi who is Finnish-American and incidentally Suomi is Finland in Finnish

9 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Suomi mainittu! The satellite was named after the Finnish-American scientist Verner E. Suomi, the father of satellite meteorology

9 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

I was preparing the downvote until you corrected with "Numenorians"

9 years ago | Likes 19 Dislikes 2

Imgurians can be fickle at times. Thread lightly.

9 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

+1 for Canuckistan

9 years ago | Likes 7 Dislikes 0

Hey i can see my house here!

9 years ago | Likes 10 Dislikes 0

Me too!

8 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Lol

8 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Awesome!

9 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 1

HD you say?

9 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

Dat zoom, tho... I knew these were out there.

9 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Ok, as someone born in Sao Paulo, Brazil who lives in Perth, I feel like you have just become my archenemy @OP

9 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

#19 Hey! I can see my house!

9 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

I forgot to turn on my porch light that night :(

9 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Yes. This is what we want. Good job!

9 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

+1 for "End Of Ze World" reference

9 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

WTF, mate?

9 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Shit shit who the fuck is shooting us?!?!

9 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

There is only 4 houses in QLD Australia, I am one of them, I counted five lights, I'm calling photo shop for sure.

9 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Would love to see the iberian peninsula photograph -_-

9 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

I did a little extra digging, just for you, my fellow Imgurian! http://gzhaixier.com/data/out/73/44882198-earth-pictures.jpg

9 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Perfect!

9 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

these are amazing @op

9 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

This is fascinating. Thank you @op

9 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

9 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

If you zoom in, it looks like I-5 is a regular street, and you could drive from Seattle to LA an hour

9 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

+1 for Canukistan.

9 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

- 1 from a Canadian. Major dis. Where can I go to see the rest of Canada? Love the light show aspect.

9 years ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

Sorry... meant no harm. I live in Michigan, so almost Canada, but with failing infrastructure and racism... so I guess I'm just jealous

9 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Not meant as a dis, just a huge fan of YouTuber AvE. I looked, but couldn't find a good pic made by the artist.

9 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Thanks

9 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Fixed Austrailia http://imgur.com/WnM9GBN

9 years ago | Likes 91 Dislikes 8

Why does it look like it's flipping me off?

9 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

Australia is upside down. So hot right now.

9 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Clicked on it...knowing what it was...was not disappointed

9 years ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 1

I like you. You can stay.

9 years ago | Likes 28 Dislikes 0

Unfortunately he died in season two. Tragic.

9 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

I thought there'd be snakes. Was disappointed.

9 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

There are snakes, they're just very small.

9 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

And far away

9 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

That's a good thing tho.

9 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0