[OSM-talk] Large OSM "globe" style images

[Frederik Ramm]

Hi,

    this is probably a niche application but I have just played around a 
bit with the aim to create large (as in 5000x5000 pixel or bigger) 
globe-shaped images with tiles at home tiles.

On a whole-world level, tiles at home tiles give a better impression of 
"where we have something" than the Mapnik ones. But Marble, which 
creates nice "globe" pictures, uses Mapnik, so I modified Marble's tile 
source and after that tricked Marble into running on a virtual 5000x5000 
desktop so I could grab a nice image off of it.

Here is an example:

http://www.remote.org/frederik/tmp/marble.jpg

And here is how to do it (needs Linux):

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/User:Frederik_Ramm/Creating_Very_Large_Marble_Images

I would be interested in hearing other techniques for creating similar 
images with other tools. I'm sure it must be possible with Mapnik but 
you will have to import the whole planet and it will take ages to render 
that level of detail, and you would not have the interactivity that 
comes with Marble.

Bye
Frederik

-- 
Frederik Ramm  ##  eMail frederik at remote.org  ##  N49°00'09" E008°23'33"