Hill Shading

Hill shading adds an additional layer over the background map representing the shadow and highlights of the terrain.

Several elevation models are built in - Mapterhorn, Icon Map (tiled to zoom 9) and Icon Map version 2 (tiled to zoom 12) - and you can pick a high-resolution dataset from the Icon Map Catalog, such as the United Kingdom at 1 m or the Netherlands, Switzerland and Luxembourg at 0.5 m. Premium catalog datasets need your Icon Map licence key to be entered in the visual.

In addition you can provide your own height model as a Custom Raster DEM.

Two encoding types are supported for custom raster DEM layers, Mapbox Terrain RGB and Mapzen Terrarium, depending on the source format of your data. Set Tile Size to match your tileset, typically 256 or 512. A pmtiles:// archive can be used in place of a {z}/{x}/{y} tile template. As the visual has no server-side proxy, the host must allow cross-origin requests.

The ArcGIS elevation service and greyscale relief options available for 3D Terrain are not offered for hill shading.

Customizing the appearance

It is possible to customize how the hill shading is drawn

Direction

Controls the direction of the light source used to generate hillshading. It's measured in degrees, with 0 degrees representing north and increasing clockwise.

Illumination Anchor

Determines whether the illumination (shadows) for the hillshade effect is relative to the map's north direction or the viewport's top. When set to map, the hillshade is fixed to north, meaning the shadows will rotate with the map when the map is rotated. When set to viewport, the hillshade is fixed to the viewport, meaning the shadows will stay fixed in place even when the map is rotated.

Exaggeration

Determines how defined the hillshade effect is.

Colors

You can define specific colors for the shadows, highlights and accents.

Min and Max Zoom

Specify specific zooms levels at which to render the hill shading.

Z-Index

Determines the order in which the hill-shading is drawn in relation to other layers. For example you may wish to ensure your hill shading is rendered over a custom satellite overlay layer.