3D Viewing Modes
The 3D page includes two distinct viewing modes:
- Orbit – the view looks at the primary map pin from outside, rather like an old-fashioned armillary sphere or orrery
- First-Person View – this is the view from the camera, providing a field-of-view-aware virtual viewfinder (PRO/MAX)
Move between the two modes using the switch control at the top right of the page:
Orbit Mode
Purpose: to give you an overview of the surrounding terrain and how celestial targets, sunlight, moonlight, and shadows interact with it.
Orbit mode is available to all users. It displays an area of terrain around the primary map pin. You can control the distance displayed using the Viewing Distance control at the lower right of the main page. The greater the viewing distance, the lower the resolution of the displayed data. You should choose the smallest distance that includes relevant geographic features, usually mountains, in the scene. If in doubt, start wide and narrow it down.
You can rotate the 3D scene by clicking and dragging. A two-finger drag or mouse wheel will adjust the camera position, moving it closer to or farther from the scene. Remember, the closer you fly to the ground, the blurrier the maps will appear, so manage the distance appropriately to maintain reasonable detail.
You can also pan the camera relative to the scene using a Command + drag gesture.
Be sure to adjust the time to see how the light changes across day and night. The 3D view shows the effect of both sunlight and moonlight.
Note: Free/Supporter plans show hill-shading (the effect of changing light direction). PRO/MAX plans also include true shadows for both the Sun and Moon.
FPV Mode
Purpose: FPV mode gives you a virtual viewfinder to help compose shots against the expected landscape and sky.
In FPV mode, the scene camera is placed at the primary map pin at the specified height above ground level. You can drag to look around in any direction.
If you have field-of-view enabled in the FOV panel on the right-hand side, the presented view will match that of your specified focal length, lens, and camera. This is extremely useful for planning compositions that include notable landscape features or celestial bodies.
Note: FPV mode requires a PRO/MAX subscription.
3D Controls and Settings
- Body Size: at the top right, choose from ×1, ×2, ×4, and ×8. This setting affects the displayed size of the Sun and Moon and also the thickness of the azimuth lines; it is generally more useful in Orbit mode, where the Sun and Moon can appear small on the screen
- Worklight: the worklight button (top right) toggles full daylight conditions on/off. Useful when the time of your shot is at night and the map is ordinarily dark
- Settings: the settings button (bottom left) displays a pop-up panel with the following options:
- 3D Terrain Quality (low, medium, high): this controls how many unique points are displayed in the 3D terrain model. Higher is better, but the effect is subtle. The high setting is more demanding on your computer’s graphics hardware
- Milky Way Resolution: the higher the setting, the better the resolution of the Milky Way and stars. This is particularly impactful for FPV mode at longer focal lengths. Using high-res tiles will show sharp stars even at 600 mm
- Milky Way Markers: when the Milky Way is one of the selected Bodies/Targets, this setting determines whether the band of the Milky Way is marked with symbolic spheres. This is generally more useful in Orbit mode, where it makes the orientation of the Milky Way easily visible
- Viewing Distance: this controls how much terrain the scene loads, based on distance from the primary pin. Adjust as needed to bring the required area into view. If you are unfamiliar with the area, start wide, then narrow in. The key consideration is to avoid loading too little terrain, such that mountains which might occlude your celestial target are not shown.
Sunlight and Moonlight
The sunlight and moonlight simulations account for distant terrain (even if that terrain is not visible in the scene), for curvature of the Earth, and for the effects of atmospheric refraction.
For prominent peaks, you can expect to see light on a summit AFTER the time of local sunset. If you were an observer standing on the summit, the local horizon would be below 0° – the “ dip of the horizon ” – and so sunset occurs up to a few minutes later, for example as seen at Mount Shasta.
