Oilslick – an elevation map showing fine detail in terrain
I think there's a misunderstanding of the data here. It appears that the underlying data used for this map is DEM data (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_elevation_model" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_elevation_model</a>), which encodes values in the red, green, and blue channels of an image representation of a geographic area. You're not supposed to visualize this data directly -- instead, you combine those values in a simple formula to obtain a height value, then you use <i>that value</i> to create visual maps. This map just restyles what is geographically analogous to the binary representation of "hello, world" instead of the output itself.<p>You can search google for "terrain map" or "elevation map" and find many beautiful examples of accurate elevation data.<p>Edit: This is a good tutorial on how to derive the correct values: <a href="https://github.com/syncpoint/terrain-rgb" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/syncpoint/terrain-rgb</a><p>Edit 2: Looks like I was wrong about this. Apologies to the author and thanks to everyone who helped me understand GIS a bit better! I'll keep this up as a reminder that just because my voice is loud doesn't mean I'm right.