
A Globemaker Navigates a Digital World - bryanrasmussen
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/globemaker-digital-cartography
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billfruit
I've kind of felt, that modern GIS software is very much still tied up to 2D
map sheets and projections and their distortions. Why not entirely move to 3D
globe based representations and processing?

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zokier
Unless you are talking about VR, the visuals are going to be viewed on a 2D
screen. And to get the 3D globe on 2D screen you need some sort of projection.

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billfruit
But that screen projection will not have effect on calculations performed on
the globe. Otherwise also I fail to see why this is a valid argument. The
viewpoint usually is manipulatable to view the globe from any desired point of
view.

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jacobolus
What you are proposing in practice is to always use some kind of perspective
or orthographic projection, but make it easy for viewers to change the
projection parameters (by rotating/zoomming).

But an orthographic projection is strictly inferior to other projections for
essentially every purpose by every criterion except “draw a picture of what
the earth might look like if viewed from space”.

* * *

As for "calculations": these should not be done in terms of latitude/longitude
if it can be avoided. Personally I think we should switch to using
stereographic projection as an internal data format. Here’s my draft writeup
[https://observablehq.com/d/5e75dd8e56fe255f](https://observablehq.com/d/5e75dd8e56fe255f)

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billfruit
I am not suggesting using an orthographic projection. What I was suggesting
was using a 3d earth model, which will be rendered on the screen using a
perspective projection.

Does not the earth viewed from space indicate true shapes, distances, and
areas?

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jacobolus
> _Does not the earth viewed from space indicate true shapes, distances, and
> areas?_

Of course not. A perspective projection distorts "true" shapes, sizes, and
distances more than any other common choice of map projection, and in addition
leaves more than half of the globe out of sight.

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billfruit
But in an interactive display that is not of concern. It allows us to rotate
and move vantage point to see different parts of the globe, as much as a real
globe would allow someone to peruse.

