K2 Photo Comparisons.See also the Animations Page.These pictures are all rollovers which show the CG composite, and with the mouse over you get the original photo. The renderings were done with World Construction Set 6. The terrain is derived from 90 meter DEM's which have been overlaid with Landsat photos. These photos have an on the ground resolution of about 14 meters so foregrounds have been broken up a bit with WCS bumpmaps. The only way I could get these bumps to show through the overlay was to make a bumpy ecosystem and use the "tint foliage" option on the colour map. This is set to fade out with distance from the camera. Matching the camera positions and focal length of the lense with the rendering points is only approximate. 90 meter Dem's are notorious for having large holes in mountainous areas, which is a blow as these are the areas I am interested in. The holes can be patched with 900m DEM's but this results in a very inaccurate smoothing out of the terrain as you can see on the K2 stuff. (I will be updating this later) . The solution to this is to use Jonathan de Ferranti's DEM's. He has painstakingly patched the holes in all the worlds areas over 7000m and they look just like the real thing as you can see from the pictures below. Visit his site for a full account of his work and to download the data at www.viewfinderpanoramas.org |
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| This was taken at the foot of the Biafo Glacier where it meets the Braldu River. The two peaks align quite well. | This is Masherbrum 7821m. taken from the Baltoro Glacier. The photo was taken in the late afternoon after a period of rain when the cloud cleared for a short while. It is not very clear but the general shape can be seen. | ||||
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| Here is Mustagh Tower 7273m. The position of the photo is a bit unclear but the angle is approximately right as can be seen by the small peak on the right hand flank. | Gasherbrum 4, 7925m, stands here. the spikey bit on the right is not resolved by the 90m spacing of the data but the peak behind the right sholder shows well. I think this is Gasherbrum 2 at 8035m. | ||||
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| This shows our camp site at Concordia. G4 on the right and broad peak on the left showing clearly. The small peak in the centre extends too far to the right, | The mighty K2. Note Angel Peak (6858m) to the left; this did not show at all on the unpatched data. | ||||
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| This is Crystal Peak 6252m. This has been updated by Jonathan giving a much more accurate view. The old rendering is very rounded and can be seen by clicking on the image. It was taken from Concordia. | Broad Peak 8047m. with the three major ridges showing clearly. | ||||
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| K2 , 8611m, and Broad Peak looking up the Godwin-Austin Glacier from Concordia. | |||||
