Kugelblitz – Mac-Native Google Earth Alternative

2026-11-06T07:47:38+00:00

The Earth and its neighbors as a 3D globe and atlas for the Mac – maps and open geodata on real terrain.

Kugelblitz shows the Earth and its neighbors as a globe and as an atlas you fly over smoothly like a pilot, even on an M1. Imagery, road map and topographic map lie on real terrain, joined by thousands of open maps from the Library. Everything comes from freely available geodata, straight from its publishers, OpenStreetMap from the Kugelblitz tile server; you need no account.

Everything loaded stays in the cache, and Kugelblitz instances in the same network share it with each other if you wish. Status windows tell how far the view has loaded, where you are looking and where its data comes from, and every source is listed with its license in “Sources and Licenses”. Kugelblitz speaks German and English and uses the units of your choice.

Drawn maps on real terrain

The Earth on three kinds of map, as a globe and as an atlas: Imagery, road map and topographic map. The two drawn ones do not lie flat beside it but on the globe's terrain, with buildings in 3D. A scene brings back a ready-made view in one move.

More about Maps

Every body flat as a printed map

Beside the globe Kugelblitz shows every body as an atlas: the same data flat in five projections, from the whole sheet to the finest images. You switch in the title bar or with ⇧⌘A.

More about Atlas

Search, view and add the world's open geodata

The Library (⇧⌘B) opens directories and geoportals with map services from all over the world: aerial images, satellite images, elevation models, maps and buildings in 3D. “On the Globe” shows any service at once, and one click adds it to “My Places”.

More about Library

All of OpenStreetMap, without a download and without regions

OpenStreetMap comes from Kugelblitz's own tile server: the whole planet, prepared for Kugelblitz, in tiles only for the area you see, at the level the distance asks for. No regions, no large download, the same everywhere on Earth.

More about Tile server

Fly like a pilot with a SpaceMouse

The SpaceMouse from 3Dconnexion is Kugelblitz's control stick: all movements at once, as fine as you move the cap, without a driver. Keyboard, trackpad and mouse work as well, all at once too.

More about Flying

Smooth, even on an M1

Aerial image, terrain, buildings, roads and names at once, and the flight stays smooth. Kugelblitz is made and measured on a Mac mini with M1 and 16 GB.

More about Performance

The Mac streams the globe into the headset

The Mac draws, the headset shows: View → “Show on Vision Pro…” (⌥⌘V) brings the globe all around you, without an app on the headset, from an M1 too. Checked with Mac and headset on 27.2.

More about Apple Vision Pro

What happened, where and when

Eclipses over 5,000 years, computed rather than read from tables, as well as earthquakes, eruptions, tsunamis and fireballs at their place and time. Let the time shuttle run and you see them come and go.

More about Events

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