Sharp in the US
USDA NAIP aerial photography at around 0.6–1 m per pixel — streets, fields and tree lines clearly visible.
Satellite imagery on terrain
Real terrain, real photos, and a licence you can use.
Import any area and choose a photographic ground: high-resolution aerial photography across the US, and cloud-free Sentinel-2 satellite imagery everywhere else, draped precisely over the real terrain. Both sources allow commercial use with credit.
MaterialsAerial imagery
Covered worldwide
Everywhere else, the cloud-free Sentinel-2 mosaic at about 10 m per pixel gives a convincing landscape from mountains to coastlines.
Lined up to the metre
Imagery is fetched for exactly your box and projected into the same frame as the terrain, so rivers sit in their valleys.
No licence trap
No imagery from map services whose terms forbid using their photos in 3D models — only sources that allow commercial use with credit.
Photographic ground, with a licence that holds
Sharp aerial photos in the US
NAIP aerial photography at about 0.6–1 m per pixel, draped over the real terrain.
Cloud-free satellite imagery elsewhere
The 2016 Sentinel-2 cloudless mosaic at about 10 m per pixel, licensed CC BY 4.0.
Switch back to clean materials
Photographic or library-material ground is one choice, and buildings and roads keep their own materials either way.
Drape your own georeferenced image
A PNG, JPEG or WebP with its world file, or an RGB GeoTIFF, is cut from the terrain's own triangles so it hugs the ground.
Why Mixos
The part most terrain tools gloss over
Draping a satellite photo over terrain is easy. Using one you are allowed to use is not. The popular web map services' terms generally forbid extracting their imagery into other products, and some satellite mosaics are free only for non-commercial work. A render made from those can be fine on your desktop and a problem the moment it is in a client video or on a product page.
Mixos only drapes imagery whose licence allows commercial use. In the United States that is NAIP, aerial photography flown for the US Department of Agriculture and published as public-domain data with attribution, at about 0.6–1 m per pixel. Elsewhere it is the 2016 edition of EOX's Sentinel-2 cloudless mosaic, built from European Copernicus satellite data and licensed CC BY 4.0, at about 10 m per pixel. Later editions of that mosaic are non-commercial, so they are not used.
The imagery is fetched for exactly the area you imported, projected into the same metre-based frame as the terrain, and applied as the ground texture. The credit for whichever source was used is stored with the scene next to the OpenStreetMap and elevation credits.
Photographic ground is not always what you want. Shadows are baked into aerial photos, colour varies between flights, and 10 m satellite pixels blur up close. For a clean designed look, the material-based ground — grass, paving and water from the library — is still one click away.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use the imagery in commercial work?
Yes. NAIP is public domain with attribution, and the 2016 Sentinel-2 cloudless mosaic is CC BY 4.0. Keep the credit that mixos stores with the scene in your published work.
Can I drape my own map or photo?
Yes. Import a PNG, JPEG or WebP with its world file, or an RGB GeoTIFF, and it is cut to the terrain's own triangles so it hugs the ground. Geographic, Web Mercator and UTM coordinates are read.
Why not Google or Bing imagery?
Their terms generally do not allow extracting imagery into 3D models and other products. Mixos only uses sources that do.
How sharp is it?
About 0.6–1 m per pixel in the US with NAIP, and about 10 m per pixel elsewhere with Sentinel-2. Fine for landscapes and aerial views; soft for street-level close-ups.
Can I switch back to clean materials?
Yes. The ground can use photographic imagery, library materials, the OpenFreeMap street map or a topographic map, switched after the import from the Real place panel, and buildings and roads keep their own materials either way.
Read next
GLB, OBJ, FBX and STL compared
Which format keeps materials and which throws them away.
Inspect the GLB
Open the file in the browser — meshes, materials, triangle count.
How to make an STL file
Watertight remesh, thickened walls, and the checks that stop a bad print.
How to animate a 3D model
Key, retime and ease a move, step by step.
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