Imagine being able to explore the entire planet — every coastline, mountain range, street, and skyline — in full 3D, right at your fingertips. That’s the power of Cesium. Originally developed for aerospace and defense, Cesium is now transforming the way industries like architecture, infrastructure, and urban planning visualise the built environment. By turning real-world terrain, satellite imagery, and elevation data into dynamic digital landscapes, Cesium gives designers a true-to-life canvas to build on.
The real magic happens when Cesium is integrated with Unreal Engine. Unreal brings cinematic visuals and real-time interactivity, while Cesium provides the entire Earth — streamed directly into your project. That means no more generic placeholders or grey voids. You can position your design exactly where it belongs — with real topography, accurate lighting, and contextual views. Whether it’s a coastal site in Hobart, a rooftop in Melbourne’s CBD, or a clifftop development in Queenstown, your project becomes part of the living world.
For architectural visualisation, this represents a massive leap forward. Traditional 3D models often float in isolation, disconnected from their intended surroundings. But if your project is deeply tied to its location — environmentally, culturally, or visually — that context matters. With Cesium, we’re able to place your design directly onto real-world terrain, simulate lighting and shadow based on actual site data, and fly viewers seamlessly from a global overview down to the front steps of your development. You’re not imagining the site anymore — you’re standing in it.
At South by Design, we use Cesium and Unreal to tell better stories. We can show how a hotel overlooks a lake, how a commercial building fits into a skyline, or how a masterplanned precinct interacts with roads and natural features. We combine satellite datasets with BIM models, drone scans, and planning overlays — delivering immersive, hyper-accurate environments that reflect the real world down to the meter. And because it’s scalable, we can zoom out to reveal the broader urban or natural landscape, then zoom all the way in to walk through a lobby or garden path — all in one seamless experience.
For infrastructure and urban planning, the benefits are even greater. Cesium lets us visualise entire systems — transport routes, terrain changes, access points — with real-time accuracy. It’s a tool that helps communicate complexity without overwhelming, giving councils, stakeholders, and communities a clear view of how everything connects. That clarity speeds up approvals, builds confidence, and grounds design decisions in reality, not speculation.
We use this tech because we believe every design deserves to be shown in context. Whether you’re proposing a remote eco-lodge or a high-density urban redevelopment, it’s not enough to just show what it looks like — you need to show where it belongs. With Cesium and Unreal Engine, we can place your project in the real world, at real scale, and let your audience experience it from every angle.
If you’re ready to take your project off the drawing board and place it firmly on the map, we’d love to help. Let us show you how Cesium can turn your vision into a fully realised, interactive experience — grounded in place, built for impact, and ready for the world.