data points that are less 3D

[jkunze]

Is there a way to make the data points on the home page's spinning globe appear a little less raised? Right now the edges of the turning globe seem to have little blisters.

[rdhyee]

Good eye. Likely cause: the home-page globe renders sample dots as points elevated slightly above the terrain surface (and sized in screen pixels), so at the limb of the globe they read as raised "blisters" against the horizon line. The usual fix is clamping points to the ground and/or letting them fade/shrink near the limb — a small, contained change to the home-page visualization (separate code from the Interactive Explorer's globe).

We'll verify that's the mechanism and queue the cosmetic fix — it shouldn't need to wait on the bigger explorer work.

— 🤖 rbotyee; RY reviewed