Life & fun · alternatives · 2026
24 alternatives to Lithosphere- How Earth Works
Interactive 3D planet engine for earth science.
Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes.
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- 2G3
I made a web app to generate 3D models of real places on earth from land cover and elevation data. Click anywhere on the map to get a polygon, and then click "generate". It should work at most scales, but if your watershed or region selection is too large, the result can be less exciting because it's so flat. As a warning, the 3D models can sometimes be too much for my phone. It's nicer on desktop. I'm still working better on mobile support. The land cover data I'm using gives a cool effect, but at some point I'd like to add in global imagery and clouds. The backend is a Python thread…
2025 · topography.jessekv.com · its alternatives →
- 3
Google released an API in May to get fetch 3D Tiles of anywhere on Earth. Using this in standard 3D engines like Blender is tricky because (1) the tiles are in a geographic coordinate system (2) you get a lot of little tiles at varying quality levels I wanted to simplify this so all you need to do is get an API key, select a map region and a zoom level, and get one combined glTF file that you can throw into any engine. Especially if you're just prototyping and want to see how this data looks in your engine before investing in figuring out all the nuances of the API & coordinate system. (Note…
2023 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 4
It's free to play on steam, but you'll need a computer with a dedicated graphics card. I just released a new version after first releasing it 18 months ago. It's been a hard slog to scrounge time as it's not my day job but that's life. There's a ton of obvious improvements in the future (weather systems, temperature, varying rainfall, ice/snow, more biomes, more plate tectonics, lava, etc) but all suggestions/feedback is welcome.
2023 · store.steampowered.com · its alternatives →
- 5
- 6IE
2017 · mjmdavis.com · its alternatives →
- 7
EarthGuessr▲192I built it as a way to practice programming. There are probably much better alternatives out there.
2025 · earthguessr.com · its alternatives →
- 8
Features include: - Several preset periodic orbits: the classic Figure-8, plus newly discovered 3D solutions from Li and Liao's recent database of 10,000+ orbits (https://arxiv.org/html/2508.08568v1) - Full 3D camera controls (rotate/pan/zoom) with body-following mode - Force and velocity vector visualization - Timeline scrubbing to explore the full orbital period The 3D presets are particularly interesting. Try "O₂(1.2)" or "Piano O₆(0.6)" from the Load Presets menu to see configurations where bodies weave in and out of the orbital plane. Most browser…
Nov 2025 · trisolarchaos.com · its alternatives →
- 9
3D visualization of NASA meteor shower data. Scientifically accurate and fully interactive.
2015 · ianww.com · its alternatives →
- 10
This is a service I've built to provide equirectangular cloud maps of the whole Earth, updated every 3 hours, for free. It's based on infrared and visible light data from EUMETSAT, processed to enhance the clouds and try to reduce the impact of surface temperatures on the final image. I built it because it's surprisingly hard to find these kinds of images in a format that's useful to developers and hobbyists. I was building a 3D ISS tracker and wanted to include live clouds but couldn't find anything good, so I got sidetracked, and here we are.
2023 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 11IM
I made this site using R3F (https://github.com/pmndrs/react-three-fiber), a React renderer for 3JS (https://threejs.org/). The celestial bodies are Three.JS meshes. I used loaders (namely 'useLoader' from R3F and 'GLTFLoader' from 3JS) to import 3D models, such as International Space Station. More on loading models in R3F: https://docs.pmnd.rs/react-three-fiber/tutorials/loading-mod... I've future plans for this side project. It would be great to hear from the HN community before diving into them. Enjoy! P.S: Getting an empty…
2022 · spaceinbrowser.com · its alternatives →
- 12
Globe wireframe visualizations in Golang. Contribute to mmcloughlin/globe development by creating an account on GitHub.
2017 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 13
- 14
An interactive data visualisation about Exoplanets by TK Vishal
2019 · exoplanetexplore.now.sh · its alternatives →
- 15
A multiplayer geography game using Websockets. Contribute to abrenaut/posio development by creating an account on GitHub.
2016 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 16
This is a little hobby project that I hope you enjoy. You can see where the International Space Station is now, with live HD video from NASA, on a realistic 3D globe. The positions of the sun and moon are also accurate, though distances aren't to scale. The clouds are also near-realtime; I span that out into a separate project at https://clouds.matteason.co.uk, where the cloud images I create from EUMETSAT data are freely available. I've got more features almost ready to go, like the ability to turn off all UI, toggleable clouds and turning off the day/night cycle I'd love for…
2024 · iss.matteason.co.uk · its alternatives →
- 17
Gravity WebGL experiment in the Solar System
2016 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 18
A "virtual satellite" to map Earth in unprecedented detail
2025 · deepmind.google · its alternatives →
- 19
Globe 3D▲151Convert your design into an interactive 3D globe
2021 · globe-3d.vercel.app · its alternatives →
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- 21
Gio.js▲773D globe info visualization library built with Three.js
2018 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 22
ReactGlobe▲75Build interactive globe visualizations with ease 🌎
2019 · react-globe.netlify.com · its alternatives →
- 23WP
2012 · boydgreenfield.com · its alternatives →
- 24
A free, real-time 3D globe streaming global live signals.
Jul 2026 · overwatch.earth · its alternatives →
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Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →