Lyon — Path-Traced 3D Orthophoto City Map · Framed Matte Poster

Every building in this map is real. The footprints and roof geometry come from the Métropole de Lyon's official CityGML model, the terrain from IGN's RGE ALTI survey — and then I lit the whole city with a physically based path tracer, the same technique film studios use. The shadows pooling in the street canyons aren't drawn; they're computed, ray by ray, from a sun standing 60° above the horizon.

Here the same computed light falls on the real city — IGN's 20 cm aerial survey draped over the 3D model, so the photographed quays and rooftops of the Presqu'île carry path-traced shadow.

Lyon is a city defined by two rivers, and this is the map that shows it: the Saône hooking around the slopes of Fourvière, the Rhône running broad and straight, and between them the Presqu'île — that improbable peninsula where the city's densest blocks stand shoulder to shoulder. From the silk-weavers' slopes of Croix-Rousse down to the confluence, every block casts the shadow its true height earns.

Printed on museum-quality matte paper in an Ayous wood frame, ready to hang.

Details

• 2 km radius around the centre · 45.7578° N, 4.8320° E
• Buildings: CityGML, Métropole de Lyon · Terrain: RGE ALTI, IGN · Base map © OpenStreetMap contributors
• Path-traced global illumination — real computed shadows, not hillshade
• Archival matte paper, water-based inks · wooden frame, three shades