WorldMapper · demonstration
How WorldMapper works, on a synthetic site
Twelve steps from a place to a dated, measured record of it. Everything on this page is live from a demonstration site seeded with generated data, so you can see each output as it really appears before flying your own capture.
1. Create a site
A site is the place itself: a name, a boundary drawn or pasted from a parcel file, and who may see it. Sites are private by default.
The dashed outline on the map below is this site's boundary.
2. Create a mission
A mission is one dated capture: the aircraft, the camera, the purpose, the weather, the coordinate frame and the control method are written down before anything is uploaded, because the report quotes them later.
Two missions here: June, and September after a stockpile was raised.
3. Upload photographs or data
Photographs from any drone, camera or phone, or an existing map, cloud or model. Large files travel in resumable parts; every file is hashed, its EXIF and headers read, and it is inventoried with its provenance.
Each capture has twelve geotagged frames plus a ground-control table and a checkpoint table.
4. Automated checks
Before anything is processed the mission is checked: image count, corrupt files, missing EXIF, camera consistency, duplicates, footprint, control-file format and coordinate systems. Resource figures are labelled as estimates.
These frames are small, so the checks warned about a coarse result; the warning rides on the run.
5. Submit to the processing engine
The run is frozen: every input hash, every parameter, the engine and its version. Processing happens on a worker node, never on this web server, and reprocessing always makes a new run beside the old one.
The demonstration uses WorldMapper's synthetic engine instead of OpenDroneMap, so nothing was actually flown.
6. Track the job
Queued, preparing, processing, post-processing, validating, complete, complete with warnings, failed or cancelled, with a progress note and a redacted log excerpt. A silent worker loses its claim and the job is retried.
Both demonstration runs finished 'complete with warnings' because the synthetic note is itself a warning.
7. Import the outputs
Orthomosaic, surface and terrain models, hillshade, contours, the classified point cloud, the textured model, the footprint and the engine's own report, each hashed and recorded against the run.
The published layers table further down lists what a visitor may see and what may be downloaded.
8. See it in 2D
The orthophoto over a basemap, with hillshade, contours, the run footprint, ground control and checkpoint markers, sensors and measurements as toggles. Toggle layers in the legend.
9. See it in 3D
The textured model and a decimated point cloud, loaded progressively so a large cloud never arrives all at once.
10. Accuracy and limitations
The class is earned from evidence, never chosen: visual, mapping, or controlled when there are enough ground control points and independent checkpoints with computed error. A user may label a result lower, never higher, and the limitations statement is printed on every deliverable.
Ground control and independent checkpoints with calculated error.
| Ground control | 4 points |
|---|---|
| Independent checkpoints | 3 (3 measured) |
| Horizontal RMSE | 0.028 m (max 0.047) |
| Vertical RMSE | 0.042 m (max 0.07) |
| Engine | synthetic demonstration engine 0.1.0-synthetic-demo |
| Inputs | 12 files · manifest bafdecf8e839… |
Known limitations (3)
- Not a boundary survey or certified engineering deliverable. Accuracy depends on capture conditions, control data, processing parameters and independent verification.
- Synthetic demonstration: the photographs, terrain and model were generated by WorldMapper's test engine. No real place, aircraft, camera or survey is involved.
- no vertical datum was declared; elevations are relative to whatever the inputs carried
Ground control and independent checkpoints with calculated error.
| Ground control | 4 points |
|---|---|
| Independent checkpoints | 3 (3 measured) |
| Horizontal RMSE | 0.028 m (max 0.047) |
| Vertical RMSE | 0.042 m (max 0.07) |
| Engine | synthetic demonstration engine 0.1.0-synthetic-demo |
| Inputs | 12 files · manifest 62ad878f12e0… |
Known limitations (3)
- Not a boundary survey or certified engineering deliverable. Accuracy depends on capture conditions, control data, processing parameters and independent verification.
- Synthetic demonstration: the photographs, terrain and model were generated by WorldMapper's test engine. No real place, aircraft, camera or survey is involved.
- no vertical datum was declared; elevations are relative to whatever the inputs carried
11. Downloads and publishing
Individual outputs, or one package with every output, a manifest of hashes and the accuracy report as JSON, HTML and PDF. Raw photographs and unpublished outputs never become public; a moderator publishes layer by layer.
| Layer | Kind | Size | SHA-256 | Visitor access |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| orthomosaic — Demonstration flight one (synthetic) | orthomosaic · geotiff | 144 KB | 0a30f62f0dbe… | download |
| ortho preview — Demonstration flight one (synthetic) | ortho_preview · png | 6 KB | 1c4aa4e12716… | view only |
| dsm — Demonstration flight one (synthetic) | dsm · geotiff | 96 KB | ba002144e8de… | download |
| dtm — Demonstration flight one (synthetic) | dtm · geotiff | 96 KB | f9d5a6bdabd8… | download |
| hillshade — Demonstration flight one (synthetic) | hillshade · png | 5 KB | 7c7b47f3279b… | view only |
| contours — Demonstration flight one (synthetic) | contours · geojson | 7 KB | 205e38cc0ee8… | view only |
| pointcloud preview — Demonstration flight one (synthetic) | pointcloud_preview · ply | 59 KB | b5920aea1f00… | view only |
| model glb — Demonstration flight one (synthetic) | model_glb · glb | 7 KB | dd74adebe661… | view only |
| footprint — Demonstration flight one (synthetic) | footprint · geojson | 316 B | 9f97aa32610a… | view only |
| camera positions — Demonstration flight one (synthetic) | camera_positions · geojson | 2 KB | 0c5422d5f306… | view only |
| Layer | Kind | Size | SHA-256 | Visitor access |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| orthomosaic — Demonstration flight two (synthetic) | orthomosaic · geotiff | 144 KB | 0a30f62f0dbe… | download |
| ortho preview — Demonstration flight two (synthetic) | ortho_preview · png | 6 KB | 1c4aa4e12716… | view only |
| dsm — Demonstration flight two (synthetic) | dsm · geotiff | 96 KB | 935dff002834… | download |
| dtm — Demonstration flight two (synthetic) | dtm · geotiff | 96 KB | f9d5a6bdabd8… | download |
| hillshade — Demonstration flight two (synthetic) | hillshade · png | 5 KB | 3dea7c5448cd… | view only |
| contours — Demonstration flight two (synthetic) | contours · geojson | 7 KB | 205e38cc0ee8… | view only |
| pointcloud preview — Demonstration flight two (synthetic) | pointcloud_preview · ply | 59 KB | 83e470f2855f… | view only |
| model glb — Demonstration flight two (synthetic) | model_glb · glb | 7 KB | dd74adebe661… | view only |
| footprint — Demonstration flight two (synthetic) | footprint · geojson | 316 B | 9f97aa32610a… | view only |
| camera positions — Demonstration flight two (synthetic) | camera_positions · geojson | 2 KB | 0c5422d5f306… | view only |
12. Return and compare
Every mission stays on the site's dated timeline. Two captures compare with a swipe, and the elevation difference is only called change where it exceeds what the two runs' own checkpoints say they could be wrong by.
Combined checkpoint error of the two runs: ±0.059 m. Anything smaller than that is not called change.
The public record of this site, as any visitor sees it: /modules/world-mapper/public/demo-fixture-arroyo
Try it with your own photographs
Sign in, create a site, add a mission and drop your photographs in. Processing runs on a worker node — no worker is online at this moment, so a run would wait in the queue. Missions are private until a moderator publishes a layer.