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...
[...] is the so-called “Highest definition picture ever taken of Cape Town” – click here to view. It really is a mind-blowing photographic achievement. Since this photo (the word [...]
Awesome. Why not do something similar for ALL FiFA World Cup Cities. Show the rest of world what’s in store for them….
Any chance of providing this as a screen saver?
Feels like im home again looking outside the window.
This is fantastic for home sick south africans!!
Please do more!
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Been to Sydney a few times, but I have now made up my mind in that we are living in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. What a manificent bit of technology
you have come out with. Wow , that is all I can say. you have taken my breath away.
Type your comment here…too good to be true- just got back from a lovely holiday in C Town. feels like I’m back there. thank you
Have you all found the topless babe tanning on top of a block of flats yet?
Awsome! What camera was used? A canon SX1 ?
Unbelievable…what talented guys you are…We are blessed to be living in this City called Cape Town !! I will most definitely be sharing this with my friends….especially the ones across the oceans !!
Bak Gat.
Been in Canada 33 years.
you can take me out of Africa but never take Africa out of me.
well done.
That really is awesome.
Born in the Mother City…. left her in1976 ,aged 18….still in love with her!!
This is something that Google Earth should integrate in to their already successful market. Virtual Africa should sell an extended package of the 3D city tour, of all major cities, to Google.
But you guys should also do things like “The Great Wall Of China”, Mount Everest, 7 Wonders of the World & later even things like the Moon. Anything is possible & you have the upper hand.
People can take a virtual 3D tour of the Earth, sort of like a Quantum Leap.
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FANTASTIC…The photographic splendour of a great city. This magnificent masterpiece will outrun the Amalfi Coast in Italy! Well now lets get going to
treat our visitors to our beautiful country South Africa.
Thats the mother city!!
What an awesome city. Will put many of the more established cities to shame.
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I am living and working in Doha, Qatar… and will be here for quite a long time still. Being able to zoom into the window of my apartment in Vredehoek was an enormous treat for me… WHAT a magnificent city I was born and raised in.
Thank you so much… a BRILLIANT visual accolade for our city.
Type your comment here… stunning and an absolute marvel – thank you for sharing this with us
I lived here in this elegant city sixty years ago.. How it has grown and changed. Lived out at Mowbray. Bless you for the pictures. What a treat…
Type your comment here…The greatest and most beautifull city on earth and i have been to many.
Type your comment here…Brilliant piece of photography showcasing Cape Town and it’s surrounds. I live in Sydney (Australia) which, unlike South Africa,has similar natural beauty . Excellent work hope to see more of the same….
[...] This is a pretty cool feature: High Res Picture of Cape Town. [...]
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Indrukwekkend! Baie geluk met pragtige werk
it’s a special place on earth. it has a bit of everything.
Wow. This is amazing
Fantastic!! Saw the high school that I attended, also the church where we got married……What a trip down memory lane!! I now reside in Sydney which is also beautiful. It would be nice to see all the great cities of the world, in this way.
This is sooooooo Fabulous I am so thankful for folk like yourselves who are so gifted and make Cape Town come alive. this is so special for people who are bed bound or just can’t move from where they are. Bless and thank you.
[...] everyone who posted, shared or emailed our Biggest Picture of Cape Town post to friends and family, a big thank you from all of us here at Virtual [...]
start a site which hosts these terrific images and call it – “Image-X-plode”
for each city: Cape-X-Plode, Joburg-X-plode, etc.
great work!
Type your comment here…incredible…. well done you guys!!!!Come to umhlanga rocks and do the same for us!!!!
Hi ma’am where is umhlanga rocks is it in south africa,what a
beautiful place is cape town i think kuala lumpur is a ugly
place i called it kandang lembu (K L).. i long to see cape
town almighty has created cape town what a beautiful place in the world map.
This left me Breathless! Truly Amazing
I’d like to see far more places like this projected on large billboards around the world. As a constant reminder of What a precious world we have!
Exploring Cape Town has intrigued me.
WHY??? would we aid our Magnificent worlds destruction?
Seeing is Believing
Believe that you can make a difference
THIS IS A BREATH TAKING PHOTIE!! KEEP
GOIING!!
hi ma’am are you a african i mean south african i long to go to go there
what a beautiful place god has created cape town
No place on earth like Cape Town — the fairest Cape in all the world.
awesome,Joburg next?
South Africa’s hope!
A terrific job ,well done. Thank you for the front row seat to a ” VIRTUAL MOMENTS IN AFRICA ” TOUR OF central Cape town ,as I would call it. Photography is my hobby and I concentrate on Landscapes and I am well aware of the time and effort involved in attempting to take such photographs let alone stich them together as you have done. Good luck and great success in the future.
Type your comment here…This is very heartsore as I use to live in Cape town and now reside in Ballito nothing close to the beauty of Cape Town at all really would love to go back home. This moving photo is absolutely beautiful and makes the heart grow fonder definitely the most beautifula and friendly city in the world.
This is stunning. Beauuuuutiful! I could actually see my workplace among other.
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WOW! Its fantastic
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Mindblowing !!
Fantastic !!
The re-visit.to Robbenisland were nice -work there 1984/5
Excellent pic, spent ages browsing all the details of town. This image allows you to explore the city in a manner that is just not possible any other way. Also allows you to take in many more details than if you are just standing on a high building. Suggestion: take another high def image from top of one of the large buildings that block the view of the rest of the city and somehow integrate this into the current image so as you zoom into the picture you can “travel through” the building to see more detail behind it.
Wow this is wonderful…I miss CPT:(
Type your comment here…absolutely beautiful, Cape Town is surely one of the most stunning cities on the planet, this site has brought back so many memories
Yoh!Yoh!Yoh!Yoh!Yoh!Yoh!
Brilliant
… WOW – what a feat!
Well I literally sat there with my mouth hanging open…….unbelievable and totally amazing!!!
Type your comment here…Absolutely stunning, I used to live and work there and was able to pick the places out…………………………………..
Congratulations! Amazing. As a born and bred Capetonian living abroad, I have just spent hours going over the picture looking at roads, buildings and a skyline all of which are so familiar. It surely is the fairest Cape, and this technology has and will continue to capture that. I look forward to many more – how about one of the Rondebosch – UCT side of the mountain?
Beautifulll! Congratulations on this wonderful technology!I am so proud to be a South African living in beautiful Cape Town! Extensive travelling has proved that Cape Town is indeed the most beautiful city in the world! Imagine what the same virtual tour of our beautiful Atlantic Seaboard would look like….!!
… I can see my office at the Waterfront! … very cool ..
What a wonderful way of promoting our beautiful City – a panoramic view of Clifton on a hot summers day – would really be a great advert to the rest of the world – all that beautiful people of this great rainbow nation