We put the whole Earth on screen and make it navigable. Terrain, imagery, elevation, and live GIS data, rendered in 3D and fast enough to fly through. Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash "Earth" tool inspired what became Google Earth. Some of those seminal engineers ended up developing open source toolkits like OpenSceneGraph, which later enabled osgGIS and then osgEarth. We have worked with osgEarth since its early days, ported it to platforms its authors never targeted, and built the terrain pipelines behind flight simulators, avionics displays, and autonomous-vehicle map systems. We have driven that same terrain into head-mounted displays too, part of our VR, AR, and xR work.
Our typical stack is osgEarth and OpenSceneGraph, or VulkanSceneGraph and Pelican Mapping's Rocky as the world moves to Vulkan. We also use Cesium and CesiumJS on the web, and GDAL/OGR underneath for the format and projection work nobody enjoys but everything depends on. We generate terrain and imagery/cartography tile sets, bring in LIDAR and elevation data, handle coordinate systems and datums, and draw MIL-STD-2525 symbology on top. We've done whole-world and CONUS databases for offline navigation systems and airborne synthetic vision databases, and have experience with vast data management and processing.
We even known about non-Earth planets and their unique geodesy requirements -- what datum does The Moon use, and what geodesy parameters are commonly used on Mars? Our work and expertise literally is not bounded even by planet Earth, but extends into the planets and the stars. We are extremely familiar with geoids, ellipsoids, datums, ECEF, reprojection and unprojection, in 2D and 3D. We were pioneering computer geospatial 3D in the early 1990s. Our own first commercial product, 3D Nature, debuted on the Amiga as World Construction Set, rendering whole-world terrain from real elevation and GIS data at high precision before consumer 3D GPUs existed.
Some of our work includes: porting osgEarth and OSG to iOS and GLES for an avionics maker; VirtualPlanetBuilder terrain for airborne simulation; countless map widgets, convoy tracking, and tile-set generation for an autonomous Army ground vehicle; subsurface geology visualization for an energy program under a DOE grant; LIDAR and UAV derived geospatial asset production, and format and paging work on GDAL itself. We even helped make a giant continental-scale map literally carved into stone.
Terrain breaks in specific and insidious ways. A horizontal datum mismatch puts the target a hundred meters off, a faulty tile pyramid stalls the frame rate. A vertical datum mismatch can mean the difference between crashing into an obstacle, and not. This is the part we are good at, because we've been in the trenches of geospatial/3D for decades. And we are very good at it.
Who works on it
AlphaPixel is a US-owned small business, founded in 2004, with seven senior developers who each have 25-plus years in 3D. DLA DD2345 / ITAR registered. We contribute to the open-source geospatial stack and extend it under NDA, and we do not resell a mapping platform, so the recommendation you get is the one that fits your problem.
Frequently asked questions
What geospatial and terrain work does AlphaPixel do?
We put the whole Earth on screen and make it navigable: terrain, imagery, elevation, and live GIS data rendered in 3D and fast enough to fly through. We build the terrain pipelines behind flight simulators, avionics displays, and autonomous-vehicle map systems, from tile-set generation and LIDAR ingestion to coordinate systems, datums, and symbology on top.
Which geospatial toolkits do you use?
Our typical stack is osgEarth and OpenSceneGraph, moving to VulkanSceneGraph and Pelican Mapping's Rocky as the field goes to Vulkan. We use Cesium and CesiumJS on the web, and GDAL/OGR underneath for the format and projection work everything depends on. We have contributed to GDAL and worked with osgEarth since its early days.
Can you generate offline, whole-world, or CONUS terrain databases?
Yes. We have built whole-world and continental-United-States databases for offline navigation systems and airborne synthetic-vision databases, including VirtualPlanetBuilder terrain for airborne simulation. We handle very large data management and processing, not just small local tiles.
Do you handle coordinate systems, datums, and projections correctly?
This is the part we are good at, because terrain breaks in specific and insidious ways. A horizontal datum mismatch puts the target a hundred meters off, a vertical datum mismatch can be the difference between clearing an obstacle and hitting it, and a faulty tile pyramid stalls the frame rate. We work fluently in geoids, ellipsoids, datums, ECEF, and reprojection in 2D and 3D.
Can you do terrain for the Moon, Mars, or other non-Earth bodies?
Yes. Our expertise is not bounded by planet Earth. We handle the geodesy of the Moon and Mars, including their datums and parameters, and build whole-body terrain from real elevation and imagery.
Do you work with LIDAR, elevation data, and UAV-derived assets?
Yes. We do LIDAR and UAV-derived geospatial asset production, elevation ingestion, and tile-set generation, and we have done convoy tracking and map widgets on correlated terrain for an autonomous ground vehicle.
Can you get terrain and osgEarth running on embedded or mobile hardware?
Yes. We have ported osgEarth and OpenSceneGraph to iOS and GLES for an avionics maker, and to other platforms their authors never targeted. Getting a heavy terrain engine onto constrained hardware is routine work for us.
How do we engage AlphaPixel for a geospatial project?
As a subcontractor, a team-augmentation partner, or the hired specialists for the terrain or data piece. We contribute to the open-source geospatial stack and extend it under NDA, and we do not resell a mapping platform, so the recommendation you get is the one that fits your problem. Start at our contact page.
Talk to us
Tell us what you’re building and where it’s stuck. We’ll tell you straight whether it’s something we can help with, and how we’d approach it.
Or see how we run consulting and software development engagements.
