Nerd mode
Nerd facts
My graphic card built this post
A little machinery behind this page: point cloud, map, height view, 3D scan and photo.
What loaded
Open a view to see what actually loaded.
Point clouds
A point cloud is the scene as many colored points instead of a solid mesh. It is good for seeing what the reconstruction actually measured.
Public clouds use streamable tiles when available, so the browser loads the part you are looking at instead of one huge source file.
PLY file format · Point Cloud Library
Maps
Map views are stitched top-down images. Large ones are served as tiles so zooming in asks for detail only where you are looking.
That is why a map can open quickly and still have sharper pieces waiting deeper in the zoom.
Tiled web maps · Tile Map Service
Height maps
Terrain views use height data to show shape: slopes, bumps, gaps, and the places where reconstruction gets suspicious.
When a richer terrain package exists, it streams in smaller pieces. Useful for looking closer. Not a survey claim.
Quantized mesh terrain · 3D Tiles
3D scans
Most 3D views come from photogrammetry: photos turned into a textured mesh. The page starts from a saved camera angle so the object opens in a readable pose.
The first look, normal model, and heavier files are separate. Texture labels only appear when that format is actually published.
glTF and GLB · KTX2 textures
Photos
Small first. Sharper AVIF, WebP, or JPEG when the browser and screen can use them.
The fallback is just an image. That is the point.
AVIF · WebP · JPEG
Why choices exist
One file does not fit every screen and connection. Browse stays light; inspect spends more when you ask.
