When you work in the virtual tour business, you have the privilege to witness technological advances almost daily.
But every once in a while these changes combine to create an effect that can only be described as a Game Changer.
Today we are proud to share such an culmination of technological advances.
For a lack of a better word: we’ll call it a Hyper Definition Virtual Tour , but before we get to the technical details, have a look at it:
Virtual Africa presents: The highest definition picture ever taken of Cape Town.
It might not look like much on first glance, but try the following and be ready to be blown away: click on the full screen button (bottom right) and then ZOOM !!
Some details as to the size of this image:
- It was created by stitching 1850,fully zoomed (x 20 optical zoom), 10 MegaPixel images together.
- The time it took from the first shot (top left) and last shot (lower right) being taken, was about 3 hours.
- It’s 205 000 pixels wide.
- The end result was a 25 GigaBytes RAW file which takes about an hour to open on my Macbook Pro.
Despite the size of the image, you can view it here because of a method called ’tiling’.
It works exactly the same way as mapping platforms such as Google Maps.
for example: When you view the whole of South Africa in Google Maps, the image obviously does not contain the high detail imagery of every rooftop in the country. It’s only when you start zooming in, that Google Maps loads the relevant information.
The same happens here. We’ve taken our very big picture and created hundreds of thousand lower definition pictures (or tiles) from it. As you zoom into the picture, only the appropriate tiles are loaded.
This allows you to explore a very large image on a relatively slow internet connection. Simple, but smart.
In the coming months we hope to use images like these to organize data, visually.
Once again, similar to Google Maps, we can overlay information on top of this image to further enhance your exploration of Cape Town and the good news is that we are currently working on a few projects which will allow us to do just that.
In the mean time, we would love to hear your suggestions as to what we should call this kind of image/virtual tour…..
Related posts:
- Another Hyper Definition Image of Cape Town We have been overwhelmed by the response to our recent Hyper Definition Image of Cape Town and appreciate so many people taking the time to...
- Coolest Picture of Cape Town – EVER! We recently took and compiled the biggest (highest definition) picture ever taken of Cape Town. For those curious as to how we did it, I...
- Our 1st Hyper Definition Image This Hyper Definition Image was taken in June 2009 and was at the time, the highest resolution picture ever taken of Cape Town. It is...
- Cape Town Stadium in High Definition 360º With all the hard work in the running up to the World Cup Soccer, I almost forgot that we created a very cool interactive virtual...
- Sneak Peak at the next set of Hyper Definition Pictures 2010 has started with a BOOM here at Virtual Africa. We’re literally flooded with requests to create virtual tours of guest houses, hotels and restaurants...
This is so cool! I can actually almost see the house (or the new buildings on the property) where I grew up. This is AWESOME! It’s almost as good as being there in person
One of the most super beautiful 3D I have ever seen !!!
Excellent ! Amazing – this is what the world has to see – where is the Waterfront and one taken by night will be awsome especially with the new lights up in Adderley street with World cup festivities. I am sending mine overseas and to the DA – this is South Africa – PROUDLY SOUTH AFRICAN – WE LIVE IN THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PART OF THE WORLD. I hope many people see it and brings more tourists and investors into the country.
Congratulations on your magnificent talent – keep it up
Vallerie
I can sit here in Nova Scotia and really feel like I am there … Love it !!
Absolutely amazing … whenever I want to I can sit here in Nova Scotia and visit Cape Town and REALLY
This is awesome!!
[...] Check out this awesome website that shows high definition pictures of Cape Town and other African [...]
It is stunning, but waited for the 360degree view, and never got it……………..how about a 360degree angle……… it would just complete the picture..!!
Thanks Janet – the rest of the view is just the roof of the building I stood on.
No wonder every other sport’s world cup is being now organized in South Africa…….
Cricket World Cup, IPL 2 and now Soccer World Cup……..South Africa truly deserves it
If I ever needed anything to make me home-sick, this is it! AWESOME!
classic HD images – who’d want to live anywhere but CT??
I can see an awesome “Where’s Wally” game originating from this.
Awesome pic.
Next step, HDR panorama of Cape Town at night???
HDR of Cape town at night…. now that would be cool!
Wow, wonderful work. It is truly amazing!
Fantastic work!!! Well done. Have you printed this as a large format in hi-res? Would you be interested in that…. I’m sure it would look amazing.
Cape Town – The place to stay..
Type your comment here…unbelievable — great work of a great city !
Type your comment here… hi , ejaz here its really wonderfull i do add on my mail and facebook . amazing
Amazing job ..keep it up!!
Type your comment here…i have sent this to family ,friends and business associates worldwide.
they just cannot believe that the ‘republic of CAPE TOWN’ is that awesome.
I moved from JOBURG just for this beauty and quality of life . Truly unequalled and absolutely free to enjoy.
IF YOU HAVENT BEEN TO CAPE TOWN– YOU HAVENT SEEN THE WORLD
Truly awesome! Bravo guys!
Type your comment here… Really cant beleive it !! Fantastic!!!
What camera did you use? What panoramic head and drive mechanism did you use? How did you manage to ‘freeze’ the motion of the cars? You say the image took three hours to photograph. How did you cope with changing light conditions during filming? Is each frame captured with the same aperture, shutter speed, ISO, white balance and focal length?
Rob
PS I have only just started building my website.
BEAUTIFUL CAPE FOR EVER AND EVER I MISS IT…
Hey Man.. I remember watching a video of you shooting this.. do you know where I can find the link?
What hardware/camera mount did you use?
Absolutely amazing – well done!
I think it is extremely impressive, but could you tell the couple in the lobby of the NEDBANK building that a shower is not enough for safe sex, they should use a condom!
Thanks
Type your comment here…
It is simply incredible picture, to say the least
Your picture of Cape Town is awesome. I have set it on facebook for all to see. Thanks.
..it is very beautiful