Biosphere3D is an open-source project that targets interactive landscape scenery rendering based on a virtual globe. The software system supports multiple scales but focuses primarily on the creation of realistic views from eye-level (First Person View) or near ground level. The software is released under the MPL license and developed by Zuse Institute Berlin, Lenné3D and the open-source community for use on personal computers. Overview Biosphere3D was initially developed in the Visualization and Data Analysis department at the Zuse Institute Berlin as part of a research project and it was first released in 2007. Applications are in Landscape planning, Landscape architecture, visual impact assessment, e.g. of Wind farms, Power stations, Land use planning, Archaeology, Urban planning, and forestry enabling to wander through landscape scenarios or virtually reconstructed historical landscape and gardens. Biosphere3D, initially funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Germany) within the R&D project ‘SILVISIO’, has been designed as a pure landscape visualization system. Modeling of landscape features occurs in external applications such as Geographic information systems (GIS), simulation models with GIS data output, and 3D CAD tools such as SketchUp. Users can interact with the globe by rotating it, tilting the view, and zooming in and out. 3D scenes are composed based on the import of digital elevation model (DEM) data, image raster files, ESRI shapefiles, Collada and kml/kmz files, e.g. from SketchUp or Trimble 3D Warehouse. The data structures used by Biosphere3D require no or short pre-processing steps; so all data can be modified on the fly with minimal turn around times. This facilitates quick 3D scene generation and a semi-interactive workflow. See the Biosphere3D Help on how to get started with the software. Features any raster file format is supported, which can be read by the open source library GDAL models can be read from Collada, a Wavefront .obj file, Flora3D or kml/kmz files use ESRI shapefiles to distribute models and vegetation with OIX plant distribution files or with points or multi points; polygons are for water surfaces, simple extruded buildings and to draw textures on the ground reads and visualizes ENVI-met microclimate simulations exports Portable Network Graphics (PNG) and high dynamic range OpenEXR images in virtual resolutions as stills or videos from camera paths animate models on a path or with skeletal animation different camera modes to walk or fly through the scene, optional collision detection simple non-photorealistic rendering for models adjustable physics-based