LandCraft Realtime 3D GIS Features Download Gallery Community Get the alpha
Public alpha First-person · Realtime · Open terrain

Walk into your map.

LandCraft is a realtime 3D map and simulation that plays like a first-person game. Drop into real terrain, move through it on foot or in a rover or jet, and survey, measure, and make sense of the land.

Numbers can describe a landscape. Being there is how you come to understand it.

Download the alpha See it in action
44.3517° N · 68.2228° W Elev 466 m Heading 117° Layers: terrain · imagery
landcraft · live demo
What you can do

A precise engine, built for exploring.

Real elevation and imagery underneath, a first-person world on top. Three things LandCraft is good at today:

See & experience

Data layers
  • Real elevation data
  • Satellite & aerial imagery
  • In progress: land use & land cover
  • In progress: ecological sim, wind, weather, 3D buildings

Move

Ways to travel
  • Walk, float, and fly as a person
  • Drive a 4WD rover
  • Fly a jet
  • Fly a VTOL hoverjet

Survey & measure

Make features
  • Point, polyline & polygon features
  • Place rocks, trees, benches & 3D shapes
  • Read latitude / longitude coordinates
  • Measure lengths, 2D / 3D & cross-sectional areas
On the workbench
Multi-user mapsLive, shared worlds where you explore and collaborate together.
Bring your own dataPoint clouds, high-res elevation models, imagery, and custom layers.
Live simulationsPlan for wildfires, windstorms, hurricanes, and floods near home or work.
Free alpha build

Download LandCraft.

Pick the build for your machine. It’s an early alpha — rough edges included — and it’s free.

macOS Universal · Apple Silicon + Intel Download .zip → macOS Apple Silicon (M-series) Download .zip → macOS Intel (x86-64) Download .zip → Linux x86-64 · .zip Download .zip →

Heads up macOS may warn about an unidentified developer — right-click the app and choose Open the first time. Trouble running it? Ask in the Discord.

Come build the map with us

LandCraft is made in the open. Share what you find, report the rough edges, and help decide what gets built next.

Research project

Mapping meaning, not just measurement

LandCraft began as a question: if a landscape is more than its coordinates, can a map let you feel the place — its slopes, its scale, its sightlines — while the quantitative engine runs underneath? It’s a working tool and an ongoing experiment.

Developed at Southern Illinois University.
Supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, McIntire‑Stennis program · project 1020043.