New PeakNav 1.2.0 · real sky, GPX tours, orbit mode, Python API

PeakNav

Every mountain on Earth, in 3D — with its name, its height and the paths that lead there.

Fly over the terrain, point your phone at the horizon to name the peaks in front of you, or drop a photo in and see it tagged with the summits it shows. Free, open source, and works offline.

Whole planetGlobal elevation & OpenStreetMap data
4 platformsAndroid · Windows · macOS · Linux
Open sourceGPL v3 — fork it, build it, script it
PeakNav in action
Features

A 3D map that knows the names of things

PeakNav drapes satellite imagery, trails and place names over a real elevation model of the whole planet, then lets you look at it the way you look at a mountain — from the valley floor, from the summit, or from the air.

Peaks, named and measured

Every summit is labelled with its name and elevation as you move through the terrain. Mountain ranges, islands, lakes, glaciers and alpine huts are labelled too.

Trails and roads on the slopes

Footpaths, roads and rivers from OpenStreetMap are projected onto the 3D shape of the mountains, so you can see where a path actually goes before you walk it.

A real skyNew

The sun, the moon with its current phase, and the stars are drawn where they really are for your location and time. Compass points sit on the horizon, and a full sky map can be overlaid.

GPX toursNew

Load a GPX track and follow its path through the terrain — a hike you have planned or one you have already done, replayed in 3D.

Fly there, or orbit itNew

Tap any point to fly to it in a smooth animation, or choose "orbit around" to circle a summit and see it from every side.

Point your phone at the horizon

On Android, the gyroscope and compass turn the view with you: hold the phone up and the peaks in front of you are named on screen.

Tag your photos with the summits

Take a photo in the app, or open one from your gallery — its position is read from the EXIF data — and PeakNav overlays the names of the mountains in the picture. Share it as JPEG or PNG.

Search any place or peak

Find towns and summits by name in any language — "Venezia" and "Venice" both work — with elevations shown for peaks. Or type in coordinates directly.

Works offline

Terrain and map data download per area and stay on the device, so the app keeps working on the ridge where there is no signal.

Videos

Flights and orbits

Fly-throughs and orbits rendered by PeakNav's headless renderer, at 720p. They stream from Wikimedia Commons and only load when you press play.

Orbiting the Matterhorn
Orbit mode · peak labels · 0:36 · Wikimedia Commons ↗
Flight through the Western Alps
Flight · peak labels · 1:20 · Wikimedia Commons ↗
Flight over the Dolomites
Flight · peak labels · 1:20 · Wikimedia Commons ↗
Orbiting Mount Rainier
Orbit mode · peak labels · 0:36 · Wikimedia Commons ↗
Orbiting Yosemite Valley
Orbit mode · area labels · 0:36 · Wikimedia Commons ↗
Flight over the Cyclades
Flight · island labels · night sky · 1:36 · Wikimedia Commons ↗

All videos by Upabjojr on Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 — free to reuse with attribution.

On the phone

Short screen recordings of the Android app, version 1.2.0, showing how the controls work.

Search and fly to a peakType a name, pick it, Go To — then climb with the altitude slider. · 0:31
Orbit around the MatterhornTap the peak, choose orbit, and circle it from 6500 m. · 1:02
Switch the layersSatellite, roads, sun shading and peak names, from the options menu. · 0:33
Fly along a GPX trackLoad the route to Capanna Margherita (4554 m) and follow it up, seek bar included. · 1:09
The night skyNight mode from Zermatt: the ridge hides part of the starry sky. · 0:34
Download

PeakNav 1.2.0 for every desk and pocket

Released 5 August 2026. Each desktop download is self-contained — the app, its native libraries and a Java 17 runtime — so nothing else needs installing. All releases on GitHub →

Android

Google Play keeps it updated automatically. The same signed build is also available as a direct APK.

Get it on Google Play peaknav-1.2.0.apk for direct install

Windows

Windows 10 / 11, 64-bit. Installs per user, no administrator rights needed.

Download installer peaknav-1.2.0-windows-x64-setup.exe

macOS

Disk images for Apple silicon and for Intel Macs.

Apple silicon (.dmg) Intel Mac (.dmg)

Linux

A Debian package for Debian and Ubuntu, or an AppImage that runs on any distribution.

Debian / Ubuntu (.deb) AppImage for other distributions

Anything else

Already have Java 17+, or on ARM or a 32-bit machine? The plain jar runs everywhere: java -jar peaknav-1.2.0.jar

Download .jar Smallest download · Linux arm64, Windows on ARM, 32-bit
First launch on Windows and macOS. The builds are not code-signed yet. On Windows, SmartScreen shows "Windows protected your PC" — click More info, then Run anyway. On macOS, right-click the app and choose Open instead of double-clicking. Downloaded maps and settings are kept outside the install folder, so upgrading never loses your data.
For developers & researchers

Drive the renderer from Python. Or from anything that speaks HTTP.

PeakNav's engine is available beyond the app: a Python package on PyPI, a headless renderer that draws off-screen, and the global datasets it runs on.

# pip install peaknav

from peaknav.terrain import elevation_at
elevation_at(45.9417, 7.7480)   # the Breithorn → 4160

from peaknav.headless import PeakNavHeadless
with PeakNavHeadless(45.9763, 7.6586) as nav:
    nav.look(bearing_deg=230, pitch_deg=-4)
    nav.set_altitude_asl(3200)
    nav.save_frame("matterhorn.png")

peaknav.terrain gives the elevation of any coordinate on Earth in pure Python, from the same compressed ASTER dataset the app renders. peaknav.headless runs the real renderer off-screen for scripted snapshots, panoramas and videos — it exposes a REST API described at /openapi.json. peaknav.jupyter (experimental) puts an interactive view inside a notebook.

What's new

Recent releases

The full notes for every version are on the releases page.

1.2.0 — 5 August 2026

  • The sky is now real — sun, moon (with phase) and stars at their true positions, compass points on the horizon, optional sky map with an astronomical grid.
  • GPX tours — load a track and follow it through the terrain.
  • Orbit mode — circle a point instead of flying to it.
  • Headless renderer with a Python API, and the peaknav package on PyPI.
  • Sharing on desktop saves a JPEG or PNG; town labels scale with population; lakes and regions labelled as areas; non-Latin names transliterated.
  • Sharper map tiles, better search, new icons; peaks easier to tap; labels no longer overlap; much steadier gyroscope on Android.

1.1.0 — 28 July 2026

  • Installers for Windows, macOS and Linux, each bundling its own Java runtime.
  • New app icon across every platform.
  • A photo's coordinates are read from its EXIF data, so opening a picture sets your position.
  • Redesigned in-app tutorial.
  • Android: targets Android 16, ~4 MB smaller, startup crash after background kill fixed.

1.0.0 — 21 October 2025

  • First desktop release, as a runnable jar for Windows, macOS and Linux.
  • The Android app, previously Play-Store-only, joined by the same code base on the desktop.