Patrick Murris

World Wind Java SDK Web Site

2011-07-21T16:26:00.003-05:00

All you want to know about the World Wind Java SDK is here:
http://goworldwind.org/

World Wind Java SDK 1.2 Announcement

2011-07-15T06:42:00.001-05:00

From the WWJ SDK Developement team:

"On Tuesday July 19th, 2011 we are releasing World Wind 1.2. Please join us that day for the webinar, where we'll describe the release contents and the new resources available to help and guide World Wind developers. We'll also discuss World Wind's near-term road map. There are sessions for American and European time zones, There are only 100 spaces available per session, so sign up soon, but please don't sign up if you are unlikely to attend.

Register for a session now by clicking a date below:

Tue, Jul 19, 2011 4:00 PM - 4:45 PM CEST
Tue, Jul 19, 2011 10:00 AM - 10:45 AM PDT

Once registered you will receive an email confirming your registration with information you need to join the Webinar."

French Geoportal's layers published using NASA World Wind

2010-03-16T17:20:00.011-05:00

Nice surprise today, the French Geoportail is publishing it's layers content via a new World Wind Java application available online.

Some screenshots:

France map

Paris area

Topo maps over Mercantour National Park

Roads, shoreline and buildings over aerial imagery

Colored DTMs - French Riviera and the Alps

I was secretly hopping this to happen and i'm very pleased to see the move has taken place so soon. However, it is still unclear whether the actual Geoportail 3D client using Skyline TerraExplorer will be replaced with a Java version using WWJ...

Textured Wall for World Wind Java

2010-01-18T20:07:00.004-05:00

Following up on a WWJ Forum post regarding a 'vertical image' to display atmospheric data, i quickly put together a simple renderable that will draw an image on a plane perpendicular to the globe surface.

Download TexturedWall.java - remove the .txt extension and save in the SDK render package.

Nothing fancy, really, a texture rendered over a quad - it will not 'curve' around the globe on long distances. The quad is defined with two LatLon locations, a bottom and a top altitude. It is also an example of a simple renderable using OGL primitives that may serve as a base template for more sophisticated objects.

NASA Software Of The Year 2009 Plaque

2010-01-18T19:45:00.002-05:00

Happy 2010 to you all! - and plenty of virtual globes!

Sorry for posting so little lately... the World Wind Java SDK is keeping the team very busy. I also lost my father last summer.

I should certainly post a review of what has changed in the WWJ SDK since the nightly builds and 0.6 have been made available (was it last March?!) and i'm hopping to do that soon.

In the mean time i'm proud to show you the beautiful plaque i received from NASA, almost for Christmas. It is surprisingly heavy!

World Wind Java selected for the 2009 NASA Software Of The Year Award

2009-11-05T21:07:00.009-05:00

The NASA Software Advisory Panel has selected the World Wind Java SDK for the 2009 NASA Software Of The Year Award.

See this World Wind Forum post for the announcement by Project Manager Patrick Hogan at Ames Research Center.

This is great news for the free and open source project which will certainly receive increased attention from the other departments of the space agency - and beyond. World Wind was initiated by NASA Learning Technologies in 2002.

Sunlight package for WorldWind Java

2009-04-05T16:50:00.003-05:00

Here is the very first iteration of a sun light package for NASA WorldWind Java. It includes a custom tessellator for terrain shading, an atmospheric scattering based sky layer, a sun position calculator and a lens flare effect. Some of the code has been contributed by WWJ Forum member Michael de Hoog aka Omega.

Terrain shading

Download the sunlight package (Zip 33K). Unzip in the SDK examples package and run the sunlight.SunShading.java demo application.

Lens flare and atmospheric scattering

The demo application code will show you how to use the different components. Although this initial version works rather well, you may notice a couple issues. Dark or bright bands may show across the terrain in some places. The atmospheric scattering code is not optimal. It fails to produce a blue sky at ground level and the sky underlying geometry is too coarse to produce nice and smooth sunsets. The sun calculator reported position does not seem right either.

Sun occlusion

Enjoy!

WorldWind Java 0.6 Source available

2009-03-06T18:08:00.010-05:00

Access to the daily NASA WorldWind Java SDK 0.6 source code has been made public from the NASA WWJ build site. You will find the announcement and change list in this WWJ Forum post.

So much has been going into the SDK since the 0.5 release in May 2008 it is hard to sort out what the most notable changes and additions are. Here are a number of new features that come to mind.

Airspace volumes

Airspace builder

You will find a new render.airspace package you can see at work with the examples.Airspaces application. It includes a number of geometric volumes that can follow the terrain. It's main application is to visualize 'air spaces' but there is no doubt it will serve many other purposes. Be sure to have a look at the AirspaceBuilder that allows you to create and edit 3D polygons and spheres.

On-screen layer manager, status bar and view controls

There are a couple new on-screen layers that replace the status bar and layer manager SWING version and offer control over the view. All the 2D layers have now a 'location offset' property that let you fine tune their screen placement.

Contour lines

The default tessellator has been augmented with intersection code for line and elevation against the current terrain geometry. This allows to cast rays or compute contour lines that you can see at work in the examples.ContourLines.

Rubber sheet images

At a lot of work has been done on data import and image processing. There is code to import, manipulate, tile, stitch and transform imagery. You will find surface textures you can stretch and warp with the examples.RubberSheetImage application.

The icon layer and renderer can now use absolute elevations and will perform horizon and view frustum clipping if set to do so. This should help handle larger icon populations.

Work has been done to allow several elevation models and data sources to be compounded.

Length and area measure tools

Interactive length and area measure tools have been added - see examples.MeasureToolUsage and util.measure package.

Tiled image layers can now use mipmaps and produce a cleaner terrain rendering without 'shimmering' in the distance. Image blending has been fixed and should allow proper application of semi opaque layers without the 'black edges' we have seen before. However this change had the fog produce 'white edges' so it has been dropped for now - the fog layer.

The applet package has been updated to take advantage of the latest Sun Next Generation Java plugin - more stable and flexible.

Multimedia annotations

A new examples.util package contains a couple useful tools like a browser launcher, an image viewer, an audio player or a slide viewer.

The view sensitivity can now be set. The TerrainProfileLayer can now follow a path. Track markers have been reworked and have now extended and more flexible capabilities. The FlatWorld example has been updated with code to switch from round to flat globe. The place name layer has been enhanced. Web Service Catalog support has been implemented - see applications.gio. There is code to convert WW.net cache...

Many bugs have been fixed, often in response to comments from the World Wind Java Forum users. Thank you all.

More screenshots dating back to October 2008 can be found here.

For all migration related issues, questions and comments, please use this WWJ Forum thread.

Interview with Patrick Hogan WWJ Project Manager

2009-01-24T18:24:00.010-05:00

Patrick Hogan is NASA World Wind Project Manager. He was kind enough to answer and comment ten questions regarding NASA virtual globe project and open source initiative.

1. World Wind came out in 2004 before Google Earth and is arguably one of the (if not the) first virtual globe. What is the 'short' history of World Wind - how and when did it all start, what where the goals and the context?

World Wind began in the 2002/2003 timeframe under NASA Learning Technologies, a program to get 'NASA content' into the classroom. In January 2004 World Wind became one of the first NASA programs to be released as open source. World Wind existed approximately coincident with Keyhole, though neither knew of each other until later.

2. World Wind is a free and open source project delivering technologies to the community that some private companies have spent large amounts of money to acquire. Who is paying for this and how come it’s given away just like that?

Same answer as to your previous question, World Wind began as part of NASA Learning Technologies, a program to get 'NASA content' into the classroom. NASA has more planetary information than any other entity on Earth. NASA, more than any other entity on Earth, needs to have the tools necessary to work with planetary data that is part of the public domain. Today, more than ever, it is vital that research, academia and the public have useful access to this data. This is made most possible with technology that can readily adapt to service those various needs. This includes the need for a broad spectrum of private companies who are free to use this technology in proprietary ways. World Wind open source technology stimulates entrepreneurial enterprise by helping to standardize the geospatial information exchange medium. This establishes the infrastructure for greater participation by the widest possible range of business enterprise from small to large.

The World Wind project is supported by several agencies within the US federal government, including of course NASA.

By using open source technology and open standards for data exchange, the government has the ability to adapt to rapidly changing circumstances. Building increasingly more sophisticated functionalities to a core technology that is open source continually challenges entrepreneurs and the world community to greater appreciation for what is possible. NASA provides the kind of leadership that allows for this. World Wind technology also provides the government with absolute control over use of the technology, as well as absolute security due to code visibility, while also making industry and the world community more competitive in the area of solutions based on use of this open and standardized technology. These solutions can be proprietary, free, or open. Advances in intelligence come from a combination of information access and increasingly sophisticated processing of that information. World Wind, although a very smart mechanism, is not intelligence. World Wind technology is about standardized and optimized delivery of pixels, picking them up and moving them around. Information intelligence is applied by others using this technology as the medium for information exchange, a lingua franca, if you will.

3. A common reaction to the World Wind project is to wonder why bother redeveloping something that already exist for free, namely Google Earth or Microsoft’s Virtual Earth?

Google, who bought Keyhole in October of 2004, delivers data that is proprietary and restricts use of its technology essentially to the KML file format. World Wind provides that same ability without any limitation on how one might use the technology. This stimulates business opportunities for a much larger solution domain.

4. It is a bit disappointing that one cannot access imagery as good as in other virtual globes with NASA software. Why is it so?

When you open World Wind, out of the box so to speak, it arrives with the base set of data needed for a 3D world. Although higher quality imagery is available that World Wind can certainly deliver, and does so for those who have access to that data, the base set of data that World Wind comes with is necessarily in the public domain. We are looking forward to higher quality imagery becoming increasingly more available. We are already seeing this happen. The great State of New York and the great country of New Zealand, having made higher quality imagery publicly available, prove this is already happening.

5. There does not seem to be any 'road map' for the World Wind Java SDK. How are decisions made regarding the implemented capabilities?

For those who can appreciate the degree of sophistication involved in developing an Application Programming Interface (API) -centric Software Development Kit (SDK), it’s easy to understand the unusual amount of *accommodation* required for how others will use the technology. Building an optimized and adaptable technology of this nature is a Herculean task. It is far more involved than simply building an application. World Wind technology must transparently 'plug-in' to other applications. The ability to do that well is as much art as engineering. Leonardo da Vinci was notorious for spending inordinate amounts of time working through ideas before ever putting paint to brush. World Wind is being crafted as an adaptable building block others construct with. Making it work requires accounting for many variables well beyond our control. Building for the future is an infinite challenge. We look forward to a time when much more of the world participates in the development. Although this is already happening informally, this will begin in earnest with release of v1.0.

6. How large is the development team?

I’ve heard it said that it’s not size that matters. So thankfully, we have a few of the best. At some point, after version 1.0, we’d like to see a collaboration of the world community to advance this core technology. We’re already seeing this technology applied by the European Space Agency, the Japan Space Agency, and a few Fortune 100 companies, as well as extensively within the US government.

7. A number of community users would be willing to contribute code to the project but there is no such established process to do so now. Are there any plans to allow contributions?

We welcome contributions and have already put some of those to good use. We want World Wind development in the hands of a well organized worldwide consortium. That takes a concerted effort by the world community. We look forward with great anticipation to that stage of this project. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know that the amount of energy required to effectively process the input from a worldwide community is enormous. 2009 should be 'the' year for version 1.0 of World Wind along with the hope for a world community that hosts the ongoing development of this technology.

8. The WWJ SDK is still in alpha stage after two years. When can we expect a stable 1.0 release and what will be in it?

In the spirit of ‘we will serve no wine before its time,' version 1.0 is expected during the second half of this year (2009). What will be in it? More and better stuff!

9. The WWJ SDK departed from the World Wind .NET version in the sense it is not a 'ready to use' client application one can download and use right away. Although there are clear advantages in providing a SDK, are there any plans to produce a WWJ client application similar to the .NET version so many have been using?

World Wind Java is component technology purposed to be used as a plug-in by others in support of their visualization needs. We like playing a strong supporting role rather than the lead. We believe this provides the maximum opportunity for information exchange technology to advance.

10. The unique aspect of World Wind technology is that it also provides the WMS server software to deliver geospatial data. How did that happen?

World Wind SDK technology is there to visualize geospatial data, manage the pixels so to speak. Having the technology to see 3D is cool, but that's only half the story, maybe even the smaller half. Making data accessible, the data delivery mechanism, is where the information experience begins. The World Wind Server delivers data according to the Open Geospatial Consortium international WMS standards.

Together, the World Wind SDK client and WMS server provide the infrastructure for government, research, and business communities, as well as education and public outreach, to both deliver and experience information, hopefully increasing our understanding. And it is also true that sometimes we do things just for fun! World Wind technology unlocks the power to make all this happen.

Patrick Hogan - interview by Patrick Murris, January 2009.
Photo from swissstartups.com.

> Another Patrick Hogan interview by Scott Swigart, and Sean Campbell for the How Software is Built blog - July 2007.
> World Wind presentation at the Geological Society of America, May 2007. How the Java SDK got started.

World Wind at the American Geophysical Union

2008-12-03T21:44:00.009-05:00

Patrick Hogan the NASA World Wind project manager will be presenting the World Wind Java SDK at the 2008 American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in San Francisco December 15-19.

Although Google Earth and KML have an overwhelming presence, the World Wind Java SDK is being used by an increasing number of professionals:

Patrick Hogan presentations:

World Wind Java Enabling Technology, Thu 18th Dec 08:00.
NASA World Wind: A New Mission, Thu 18th Dec 14:55.

During Patrick's presentation, VEGA will also show a new version of EOLI (Earthnet OnLine Interactive), a client developed for the European Space Agency for the Earth Observation, Multi-mission, Catalogue and Ordering Services, using the World Wind SDK.

World Wind Multitouch Wall in Public Underground

2008-11-20T12:43:00.011-05:00

Johannes Schöning from the University of Muenster Institute for Geoinformatics, Germany has posted a video showing their multitouch wall version of World Wind Java installed in a public place.

During a technology exhibit we installed a FTIR based large scale multi-touch screen in pedestrian underway in the city of Münster, Germany. In this video we show a few impressions of this project called: "Hightech Underground".

Build your own multi-touch screen - see link below

See this previous post about the same multitouch World Wind project - May 2008.

> YouTube video here.
> Some pictures of the event.
> Build your own multitouch screen with the MultiTouch Bootcamp.
> Improving interaction with virtual globes through spatial thinking: helping users ask "why?", a research paper from the same author.

CNES e-CORCE: Earth At One Meter Every Week

2008-11-18T09:42:00.003-05:00

The French Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) has come up with an innovative satellite remote-sensing system capable of generating a high-resolution picture of Earth on the Web, refreshed every week. Four patents have already been filed for the concept, called e-CORCE that could start broadcasting on the Internet by 2014.

Although still on paper, the plan is to use a constellation of thirteen low cost micro satellites capable of imaging the globe at a resolution of one meter. Each of these orbiting webcams would use a smart "spycho-visual" compression scheme to drastically reduce the amount of data to be transmitted in real time to a grid of fifty ground stations connected to the Internet.

Whether this particular project will become a reality or not, it shows what the current trends in micro satellites technologies, data compression and grid computing will allow in the near future. How privacy groups, military and security agencies around the world will react to it remains to be seen though.

World Wind Java 0.6 Screenshots

2008-10-07T18:06:00.005-05:00

While the next alpha 0.6 version of the NASA World Wind Java SDK is not ready yet, here are some screenshots showing some of the coming features.

Airspace shapes and volumes, terrain conforming or not.

Distance and area measure tools, terrain following or not.

View visual controls layer, provides a GUI to pan, tilt, zoom or look around.

Extended track markers shapes and attribute management.

Elevated Surface Image for World Wind Java

2008-09-12T13:34:00.010-05:00

A few WWJ forum members have asked whether it would be possible to have a surface image that could be rendered somewhat 'up in the air' instead of painted on the globe surface. The idea would be to show the global clouds image for instance at 10 km altitude. Although the feature is not part of the actual SDK, i happen to have created some time ago a sub class of SurfaceImage that does exactly that.

Download TexturedLayer.java (updated for WWJ 0.6 December 7, 2009), remove the .txt extension and add to the SDK render package.

The class is very similar to SurfaceImage and is instantiated the same way, but the texture will be painted on a 'flat layer' at a given altitude that must be set using the setElevation() method.

Note that the cloud image does not contain an alpha channel and will obscure the underlying imagery. In the .net version of World Wind, the "Global Clouds" plugin does some post processing after each new image is downloaded to create an alpha channel and save the resulting image as a .png. In that case the alpha is just a copy of the black and white cloud image.

However, i found you could get somewhat better results by replacing the cloud image with plain white - the alpha channel will then 'modulate' the white and produce a more realistic effect without the 'greyish' shades where the cloud coverage is less then one hundred percent.

The bottom line is that some additional work is to be done to get a decent global cloud image over the World Wind Java globe, even with this 'elevated' surface image class. The above screenshot is using a static post processed image - not the 'real time' online version.

Another usage of this textured layer could be to use a plain blue texture with some transparency and somewhat simulate the sea level as with the "Global Flood" WW.net plugin (see this forum thread).

Truncated Earth in World Wind Java

2008-09-01T19:36:00.004-05:00

I wanted to try this for a while and i'm pleased to see it works rather well considering how little code is involved. Here is a simple World Wind Java example application that will produce a truncated globe.

Download TruncatedEarth.java, remove the .txt extension and add to the SDK examples package.

Update Nov. 20: once again there appear to be a dependency on the not yet publish SDK 0.6. Please check this forum post for a workaround with version 0.5.

The code illustrates how to extend and override the globe elevation model to 'take out' a slice of the planet. Although rough coloring of the section interior is easilly done with some gradients and surface images, placing a texture on the section side would require a bit more then that.

Wii Remote and World Wind Java

2008-08-06T16:26:00.006-05:00

Fabrizio Giudici, a World Wind Java early adopter, reports yet again a Wii remote related demo involving the NASA SDK. The project called Montenav demonstrated by Gianpaolo Melis at the JUG Genova uses the Nintendo hardware to control the WW globe using gestures.

Interfaccia multimodale per WorldWind from Paolo Predonzani on Vimeo.

In the above video the red and green dots are the two hands being tracked simultaneously. Gianpaolo Melis used IR leds attached to his hands to communicate his gestures to a fixed Wii remote.

For more details see Fabrizio Giudici web log.

Last January i reported another project involving Wiimotes and World Wind - the .net version. Recently, j_c_maglio, a WWJ forum member mentioned working on a related project.

OneGeology World Layer for World Wind Java

2008-08-02T17:08:00.005-05:00

Did you ever wonder what the Earth would look like if you stripped it of water and vegetation, revealing the underlying rocks?

The OneGeology project aim is to create dynamic digital geological map data for the world. It is an international initiative of the geological surveys of the world who are working together to achieve this ambitious and exciting venture.

Here is a WMS layer for NASA World Wind Java showing the 1:25M Geologic Units for the entire planet, provided by the french BRGM. Download OneGeologyWorldLayer.java, remove the .txt extension and add to the SDK layers.Earth package. Note that this layer is only a coarse 'preview' of the underlying datasets and will not yield much details if you zoom closer.

The OneGeology web site features a 2D map browser - the OneGeology Portal, that allows you to explore in more details the different layers provided by the participating organizations.

The official launch of OneGeology will happen at the 33rd International Geological Congress (IGC) in Oslo, August 6th - 14th 2008.

See this Nature article for an overview of the project.

World Borders alternate layers for WWJ

2008-06-03T14:13:00.004-05:00

The 'broken' Country Boundaries layer has been an issue for some time in World Wind Java... After a quick search, here are three alternate layers to fill the gap until the NASA WMS server gets up and running again.

Metacarta country_02 layer - 12 levels, no coastline - WorldBordersMetacartaLayer.java

Freemap factbook layer - 12 levels, not so clean - WorldBordersFreemapLayer.java

Katrina OWS world layer - 5 levels only - WorldBordersKatrinaOWSLayer.java

JavaOne 2008 World Wind Java presentation slides

2008-05-09T12:25:00.003-05:00

The JavaOne 2008 Power Point presentation for World Wind Java is now available.

You will find some interesting bits about the new WMS server included in the SDK release 0.5.

World Wind Java On a Multi-Touch Wall

2008-05-08T23:36:00.003-05:00

Almost a year after the first World Wind Java SDK release in may 2007, a number of applications have emerged and have been gathered on the WWJ demo page. Whether it be for exploring the ocean depth, controlling cameras flying in the sky, tracking satellites or visualizing information clusters, WWJ is indeed showing up in a wide range of activities.

The University of Muenster Institute for Geoinformatics has now used WWJ for a multi-touch wall project. From Johannes Schöning IFGI:

"We developed a Multi-Touch version of Nasa World Wind on a 7.9 x 6.2 feet tall FTIR (frustrated total internal reflection) based Multi Touch wall. This implementation is based on a multi-touch tracking library developed within the Project: Multitouch at the Deutsche Telekom AG Laboratories, which is part of the TU Berlin."

Videos can be seen on YouTube or Google Video.de.

NASA World Wind Java SDK 0.5 released

2008-05-02T19:39:00.013-05:00

NASA World Wind Java SDK alpha 5 - 0.5.0, has been released today. It has been five month since the previous 0.4 last december and a lot has been done since. However, although a 1.0 was in the plans, a lot remains to be done for the first stable version and you may not find all the fixes you wished for yet. Download WWJ SDK 0.5 (Zip 14.4M).

Among the most notable changes, my favorite is the new view handling which allows you to navigate with much more precision over elevated terrains as well as underwater. What is really nice is that you can now get very close to the ground and the 'orbit center point' is always anchored where you would expect, on the surface, in the middle of the viewport.

Mount Rainier and Spirit Lake from inside Mount Saint Helens crater, WA, USA.

A lot of work has been done on the server side of the project. A free and open source WMS server is now included with the SDK, which itself has been deployed on a much faster network. Both Blue Marble Next Generation twelve month and I Cubed Landsat are now served via this new WMS infrastructure. Other datasets will be integrated, some 1m US NAIP among them.

Mount Olympus crater, Mars, THEMIS Color layer

As expected, you will find the Moon and Mars globes with their full layer sets from the NASA servers - Mars data seems slow to download these days though.

Last 7 days USGS earthquakes on Mercator world

Flat worlds with projection switching are now ready for prime time - or so we hope. You will find a new example application showing the latest USGS earthquakes over a Mercator world - or a modified sinusoidal if so you wish.

A 'Restorable' interface has been added and implemented in a number of classes. Think of it as a form of serialization, it allows to save an object state in an XML document and back. For instance, you can now easily save the view state - eye position, zoom, pitch angle, heading... in one step as a text string and restore it as easily.

Open Street Map layer over San Francisco, CA, USGS Urban Area layer

These are just a few of the many goodies you will discover inside this release. Tiled image layers have been fixed and will not wait anymore for lower res tiles to download before showing the needed ones. There is a 1 meter NAIP layer for California which is quite crisp, the Open Street Map layer, a rather complex MGRS graticule layer, new minimize/maximize buttons in the terrain profile layer graph... Surface images from a remote http source, faster polylines and more.

Be aware that some classes have been moved around. For instance, all non Earth specific layers have been moved from layers.Earth to layers - that involves FogLayer, ScalebarLayer, SkyColorLayer, SkyGradientLayer, StarsLayer, TerrainProfileLayer and WorldMapLayer.

Check this WWJ Forum post for a change list and discussion, see the new WWJ Demo page for webstart examples, applets and user applications, and go to World Wind Central for everything else. Enjoy!

Geosignal French maps in WWJ

2008-04-20T16:20:00.005-05:00

Toulouse based Geosignal has made freely available for more than a year a number of interesting layers on their WMS server. Here is a layer class for WorldWind Java that will bring together eight levels of details from the RASTER maps serie.

Download GeosignalRasterWMSLayer.java, remove the .txt extension and add to the SDK layers.Earth package.

The layer covers continental France and Corsica. The finest levels include street maps for most urban areas.

Ray Casting and Line of Sight for WWJ

2008-04-11T19:39:00.020-05:00

It is a common issue to be able to find out where in the world does a line intersect the terrain surface. The WorldWind Java SDK allows to resolve the intersection from the eye point of view using the pick process - based on drawing objects in unique colors, but that does not help much when you need to compute such intersections from another perspective, like for line of sight calculations.

Line of sight calculation from the top of Mount Jackson (3064m),
Glacier National Parc, Montana, USA.

Here is a helper class to answer such questions, along with an example application that will display areas from where you can see a central point.

Download RayCastingSupport.java and LineOfSight.java - remove the .txt extensions, save the first one in 'util' and the application in 'examples'. You may also need the crosshair layer.

Update april 18: there appears to be two dependencies on the not yet published SDK version: centerPosition calculation and PatternFactory.blur() - see this post comments. You can simply comment out the blur, or replace it with a ConvolveOp, and change the center position line with:

Position centerPosition =
     RayCastingSupport.intersectRayWithTerrain(globe,
           view.getEyePoint(), view.getForwardVector(), 30, 3);

Ray casting - figure 1

The ray casting code samples points at regular intervals along the 'ray' until it finds one which elevation is below ground - figure 1.1. It then recursively resamples the last segment every tenth of the previous sample length - fig 1.2, until that sampling step is smaller then or equal to the required precision.

The longer the initial sample length, the quicker an intersection will be found - 1, and the sub sampling process will start narrowing onto the terrain - 2. However, the larger the value the less accuracy you will get since the ray will be able to go through some surface features in just one step and completely miss them. The default values for sampling length and precision are 100 meters and 10 meters and can be overrided in the methods arguments.

Note that the example application also shows how to 'paint' both on the terrain and on the screen using BufferedImage, Java 2D, SurfaceImage and ScreenAnnotation classes.

WorldWind Java Splash Screen

2008-04-03T22:45:00.002-05:00

Nothing fancy, fast or optimized, just a frame with the NASA WorldWind splash bitmap that has been in the SDK since day one.

Download SplashScreen.java, remove the .txt extension and add to the SDK examples package.

To use it, create a no argument new instance of SplashScreen at the beginning of your application main() and dispose of it just after the main frame has been set visible.

Disclaimer: note that a 'good' splash screen that displays fast without slowing your application startup is somewhat a 'hacky' business for which you can find various kinds of tricks. This example doesn't implement any of them, and will likely make your program slower to start.

OpenStreetMap layer for WorldWind Java

2008-03-20T20:40:00.009-05:00

WWJ forum user linnuxxy asked whether OpenStreetMap data could be displayed in WWJ to which m_k provided quite a few useful pointers. This layer will access the 'osm-4326-hybrid' WMS layer from hypercube.telascience.org. Although it is not quite up to date, it renders nicely over the WorldWind terrain.

Download OpenStreetMapWMSLayer.java - remove the .txt extension and add to the SDK layers.Earth package.

You may want to try the 'osm-4326' too - same thing on a white background (with additional shading below):

The hybrid layer blends perfectly into the BRGM geology layer too - with shading:

See this WWJ Forum thread for more info and discussion.

GeoNames Layer for WorldWind Java

2008-03-20T02:35:00.007-05:00

This is the first iteration of a layer that displays city names for the current view, off the GeoNames web service.

Download GeoNamesLayer.java, remove the .txt extension and add to the SDK layers.Earth package. Note that you may have to refactor the removeAllRenderables() method call into clearRenderables() for 0.4.1 - see this post comments.

Right now the layer will start showing names below 1500km but doesn't cache anything. It just sends requests to the service and displays the latest results. Sometime, names disappear, then reappear... more work is to be done to smooth things out. The service doesn't let you know whether a location is a large city or a tiny village either.

Still it provides many more world city names then are now displayed in WWJ. GeoNames also offers many kinds of geographic features that could be combined here, including the locations for which there is a geo referenced article in Wikipedia.

Shaded Procedural Grand Canyon in WWJ

2008-03-02T20:50:00.003-05:00

Procedural Shading for WorldWind Java

2008-02-24T13:55:00.006-05:00

Following up on the experimental procedural layer scheme, here is a shading layer that will compute lighting from a fixed south-east light source (morning light in northern hemisphere).

Download ProceduralTiledImageLayer.java (updated Sept 2009) and ProceduralShadingLayer.java. Remove the .txt extension and add to your SDK layers package.

Be sure to read my previous post regarding usage and limitations of this process (availability of elevation data and caching).

Note that light on shaded printed maps usually comes from north because when seen from above, it does give the proper feeling for relief, although it is unnatural in the northern hemisphere where the sun never shines from the north.

This is because our brain is used to understand shadows produced by a light source coming from above - in real life, light almost never comes from below. This is why craters on the Moon or other planets often look like bumps instead of holes - you need to turn the image upside down for your brain to properly understand the lighting.

3D Models in WWJ

2008-02-23T23:22:00.004-05:00

WWJ forum member toolshed has recently posted some basic code to load .obj and .3ds models into the SDK:

Check this thread for code and discussion.

Procedural Image Layers for WorldWind Java

2008-02-18T17:55:00.010-05:00

Here are some experimental classes to produce procedural (computed) tiled image layers. The test layer will create elevation colored tiles on the fly:

Download ProceduralTiledImageLayer.java (updated Sept 2009) and ProceduralTestLayer.java (updated feb. 24). Remove the .txt extension and add to your SDK layers package.

To use the test layer, add an instance to your layer list and set its wwd reference - setWwd(), otherwise it wont be able to produce the tiles (it needs to query the globe elevations).

A couple things to note: once a tile has been created it will be cached and wont be recomputed. That means that if you change the 'formula' that produced those tiles, you must either direct them to a different cache folder, or clear the previous one.

There are many potential applications for procedural tiles. Just with the elevation data, you can produce a great variety of 'elevation colored' maps, you can compute shading, cast shadows or even draw 'line of sight' areas. However, when querying elevations from the globe, you get the 'best available' elevations, meaning that if elevation data has not yet been loaded, the tiles will be produced out of less precise data and would need to be recomputed once better data is available - which it is not doing right now.

Edit feb. 28: to get the best results, i recommend to keep the layer off until you have zoomed onto the area of interest and elevation data has been properly downloaded and then loaded into memory. Tilt the view and look around to force loading on a wider range, then turn on the procedural layer.

Other potential applications include multi resolution rasterized vector data (country borders, roads...). I have to see how this could alleviate some limitations of the actual surface shapes. But that would only work well with static data - not the kind that changes all the time.

See this related WWJ Forum thread.

WorldWind Java flat worlds screenshots

2008-02-05T02:25:00.000-05:00

Flat worlds are coming together for the next release of the WorldWind Java SDK:

Annotations over a Plate Carrée projection

Terrain profile tool

AWT1Up demo application

GlobalGridAboveSurface example on Plate Carrée

Global cloud image from a remote surface image

Modified sinusoidal projection

I3 Landsat new WMS layer on Mercator projection

Crosshair Layer for WorldWind Java

2008-01-20T12:23:00.000-05:00

It was kind of missing to the SDK... here is a simple crosshair layer and a couple associated bitmaps.

Download WWJ_CrosshairLayer.zip (9k) and add the three files to your SDK source tree.

Control WorldWind by moving your head around

2008-01-07T12:20:00.000-05:00

Following in the steps of Johnny Chung Lee from Carnegie Mellon University, WorldWind developer Nigel Tzeng from the John Hopkins Applied Physics Lab, made a very nice demo of a 'desktop virtual reality display' for WorldWind .Net - using a Wii remote:

See this WorldWind forum thread for discussion, and Johnny Lee Wiimote Desktop VR faq on his blog.

Blue Marble Twelve Month for WWJ

2007-12-15T02:58:00.000-05:00

The imagery is already there for WorldWind .Net, so it is just a matter of configuring a layer for each of the twelve Blue Marble Next Generation datasets for the year 2004.

Download BMNG2004Layer and BMNGTwelveMonth example application. The layer goes in worldwind.layers.Earth, and the example in ...examples.

None of the twelve layers have a 'base' image yet (except may 2004), so you will have to wait for the level zero tiles to download the first time you switch month.

A WMS version of those datasets should be available a some point.

Full Mars And Moon Globes for WWJ

2007-12-13T21:29:00.000-05:00

Here they are, the Moon and Mars with elevations and the full layer sets from the .Net version.

Mars THEMIS Color layer

Moon Clementine 30

Download WWJ_Moon_And_Mars.zip (15k) and add to your WorldWind Java SDK source tree.

The package includes two example applications that put together the two globes with the appropriate layers.

Be patient at first run: these globes do not have a 'base' image layer that ensures you see something even with an empty cache. So the first time you will have to wait for the level zero tiles to get through before you have a planet to spin.

The elevation data comes from the same servers as the .Net version but in zipped files. This service has never been used and has an empty cache right now, so the first users will have to wait a bit longer to see some alien mountains.

WWJ Look Around View Example

2007-12-11T09:46:00.000-05:00

Here is a view control panel example that simulates a 'first person' view with the default orbit view.

Download the ViewLookAround.java example - remove the .txt extension and add it to the worldwind.examples package.

Although this is far from a first person view implementation that would let you walk or fly around, this simple example allows you to 'look around', as if you where suspended in the air at a fixed position.

WWJ Layers That Shall Not Be Named

2007-12-09T01:23:00.000-05:00

Vladimir Silva who brought us the World Wind Eclipse RCP Geobrowser just posted a new contribution on the WWJ forum. Something that many where hoping for - without saying it too loud... someone said applet?

Check this forum thread, and the reference material.

WorldWind Java SDK 0.4.1 offline mode fix

2007-12-05T22:30:00.000-05:00

A bug fix release has been posted late today. Here are links to the WWJ SDK 0.4.1 (Zip 6.5M) and the Java Web Start demo 0.4.1.

From the forum post:

"Fixed NetworkStatus bug causing freeze for some, added an off-line attribute to the WorldWind class to elect not to use the network, added a show-network-status attribute to StatusBar".

And from a post related to offline mode issues:

"I've also added an off-line mode attribute to WorldWind for apps that never want to contact the net. Just invoke WorldWind.setOfflineMode(true)."

I updated my previous post about 0.4 - was it yesterday?

WorldWind Java SDK 0.4 is out

2007-12-04T20:30:00.000-05:00

As previously hinted a new code update has been posted today by the WWJ team. Here are links to the WWJ SDK 0.4.1 (Zip 6.5M) and the Java Web Start demo 0.4.1.

What has changed since 0.3 - October 10, 2007:

Annotations are the main new feature - you have already seen a couple screenshots here. I will come back to them in future posts.

As usual, many bug fixes and corrections have taken place - some in response to the forum comments and requests: the shutdown process has been revisited, the input handler now allows the application to use and consume mouse events before they get to it, layer opacity support has been improved - although it is not yet what you would expect. WMS capability parsing has been made faster too and network operations should generally behave better when offline.

Flat worlds have been moved to the main source folder so you can have a glimpse of it - however it is not yet ready for prime time as you will quickly find out.

The image tiles processing order has been revisited and will now load lower resolution levels before loading the needed one. This behavior ensures that a layer stays 'consistent' when zooming out - tiles are not missing.

New level set constructors allow to create custom tiled image layers - see BMNGLandsatCombined example.

You will notice the overall WorldWind SDK package is lighter - 6.5M vs 13M. The Blue Marble level zero tiles have been removed and replaced with the BMNGOneImage 'base' layer. Worldwind.jar is now 1.6M vs 5M in the previous version.

December 5 update: version 0.4.1 has been posted in response to problems with offline operations: "fixed NetworkStatus bug causing freeze for some, added an off-line attribute to the WorldWind class to elect not to use the network, added a show-network-status attribute to StatusBar". Above links have been updated.

Check this post on the WWJ forum for details of the version readme.txt and follow up comments. Also check WorldWind Java SDK home pages at NASA Learning Technologies and WorldWind Central.

WorldWind Java Annotations Preview

2007-11-30T23:53:00.000-05:00

Annotations are ready to roll and will be in the next WWJ SDK update 0.3.x or 0.4 - which should be ready 'soon'... Here are a couple screenshots showing different variants from the included example application.

Annotations are essentially text labels with a lot of style attributes. They will come in two flavors: globe annotations which are associated with a position on the planet, and screen annotations which are at a fixed position in the viewport.

In the above view all you see are annotations - from the simple 'Egypt', 'Libya' or arabic for 'Sahara desert' labels to the full blown 'billboards' or 'bubbles' with textured backgrounds and moderately wealthy text.

As you can see annotations come with a multi line text renderer and 'wrapper' with minimal html support, text picking and hyperlinks. The text about the Tibesti mountains is a cut-and-paste of a paragraph straight from a Wikipedia page source.

The example application will offer you no less than 39 controls to experiment with all the annotation attributes combinations. Text font, size, style and alignment, insets 'margin', background color and texture repeat options, dimensions, scaling, opacity, offset from position... Overall it should cover quite a range of applications from simple labels to moderately sophisticated 'popup balloons'.

In any case, if the SDK basic implementation is not enough, it is very easy to subclass annotations and override the drawing process to add your own code in place or on top of it. The example does also contain several override code bits - you'll have to read the source to find them.

This is just an 'avant goût' to get you salivating a bit. I will come back on the subject for more detailed explorations of this new feature of the SDK - like shared attribute sets and cascading defaults...

Mars and Moon layers for WWJ

2007-11-26T02:45:00.000-05:00

Someone just asked about Mars in the WorldWind Java forum and this reminded me the imagery is out there for the .Net version of WW, begging to be streamed into WWJ.

Mars MOC Colorized 256 layer

Moon Clementine 40xx color layer

Here are Mars MOCColorizedLayer.java and Moon Clementine40Layer.java - they are supposed to go in worldwind.layers.Mars and Moon respectively. December 13 update: get the two full globes here.

This of course is just a preview of the two bodies - over the Earth surface. The elevation data is out there too, but needs to be compressed differently for WWJ, and that is not ready yet, i believe. Eventually the Moon and Mars will have their own globes, elevation models and layer sets.

WWJ Bug Exhibition

2007-11-24T00:41:00.001-05:00

Sometime things go wrong. In most occurrence it doesn't produce anything more than irritation, but on rare occasions it can also lead to quite unexpected or intriguing results. Here are a few screenshots captured in such moments:

The 'globe back flip' made a fugitive appearance recently. New Zealand was on top of the world at last.

What came to be known as the Butterfly World emerged spontaneously from a wrong modification of the sinusoidal projection in flat worlds... i was expecting more of an oval shape, and there it came out. I took the screenshot and corrected the code. We will never know what was the formula. Chaos and butterflies, what a cliché.

The bold garbled text bubble briefly showed up during annotations development, while challenging JOGL text renderer with lots of larger fonts. What powerful message is hidden in this unknown dialect?

I cant help but feel there is something far reaching in the symbol. At a private showing in New York, someone fainted and a guest got so agitated he had to be helped out. "The big void in the middle of the first line is very unsettling i admit" declared the embarrassed host.

WMS Layers on iPod Touch

2007-11-11T13:27:00.000-05:00

Almost two weeks since i got the IPT and so little time to hack into it... I still havent managed to install the iPhone applications but i got it 'jailbreaked' and have a Finder now with a couple additional icons. However it will probably not last long with the coming firmware updates...

It is quite exciting to see that the little tablet is a 400Mz OS X platform. There are already many sites dedicated to using the touch or the phone as an 'open', mobile, computing device and many applications are coming.

Actually, the easiest way to make an application for these device is to use html and javascript with Mobile Safari. These are so called 'web applications'.

So back to Notepad and some good old school javascript, i put together a very simple mobile WMS browser (updated november 16).

This is not World Wind but at least you can browse a couple WMS layers i grabbed from the WMSLayerManager example in the WW Java SDK: Blue Marble Next Generation (june 2004), Blue Marble 'classic', Landsat7 I3, Global mosaic 15m visual, Terra/Aqua daily shots and a few others (including France BRGM geology and USGS layers).

Have a look at the source - its all contained in one page and it is very easy to add more layers. Feel free to copy, edit, reuse and abuse ;)

Tapping (or clicking) on the edges or corners of the tile will have you move sideways or in diagonal. Tapping inside the image will zoom on the corresponding latitude and longitude.

Some controls at the bottom let you zoom out, goto a specified latitude and longitude and select different layers. Still a bit crude, but usable... and you can put (and share) bookmarks anytime.

The page has to be hosted somewhere though. I wonder if it could simply be transfered in the IPT and opened locally with Mobile Safari. Probably easy to do if you know a bit OS X or Linux...

Stereo anaglyph WorldWind Java applet online

2007-11-01T22:42:00.000-05:00

Andrea Caporin from GIS Solution, Italy, upgraded his WWJ applet demo to 0.3 and had the good idea to include the new anaglyph scene controller and controls. The italian Alps are gorgeous in stereo...

As far as i know this is the only stereo virtual globe you can find online...

WWJ on iPod Touch: when will it be ?

2007-10-30T23:27:00.000-05:00

OK, i admit, i bought one this afternoon, and i cannot resist to show off a mock up of WorldWind Java on the iPod Touch beautiful screen:

It seems inevitable that Java will run one day on this device, considering the constant efforts from Sun to provide virtual machines and API for the increasingly powerful mobile gadgets we have these days. Now to get Open GL and JOGL decently running will be another challenge...

A couple tricks to speed up WWJ

2007-10-25T21:21:00.004-05:00

There are many applications where you only need the globe without elevation details - think satellite tracking or global imagery viewing, and others where you are ready to give up a bit of relief geometry details for a faster interaction.

If that is the case, there are two ways you can help yourself.

Using a full sphere SurfaceImage

One feature that has been incorporated a few month ago allows you to use a single image and paint it over the globe inside a sector or over the full sphere. This allows you to trade the BMNG tiled image layer for a single image BMNG layer - that is also included in the worldwind.jar, which results in a faster startup time and 'lighter' globe to interact with.

// From examples.applet.WWJApplet
// Add a BMNG base layer to the model layer
// list, before the Blue Marble
insertBeforeLayerName(this.wwd,
        new BMNGOneImage(), "Blue Marble");

Of course, if you zoom onto that layer, you will not get better details as with the tiled version... unless you also have it on top. The wwj applet example uses that one-image layer.

Hacking the tesselator

If you have a look at the actual default configuration EllipsoidRectangularTessellator in globe, you will notice right at the start a static constant named DEFAULT_DENSITY with the value 24. This class is responsible for building the terrain geometry using regular lat/lon aligned (rectangular) tiles each segmented like a check board in rows and columns. With the default density, there are 24 rows and columns per tiles.

// From EllipsoidRectangularTessellator
private static final int DEFAULT_DENSITY = 3; // 24;

The density determines how fine - and accurate, the terrain relief will look. However, you would be surprised to see that with a density value as low as 3 the terrain still displays very decent mountains and relief... and WWJ gets much more responsive.

Update march 22, 2008: After further scrutiny, it appears i was wrong about what i though the density value would control. When decreasing this value, it does indeed reduce the number of rows and columns per tile, but then the tiles are smaller - and there are more of them, which results in many more 'skirts' or tile sides to render, and doesn't change the geometry level of detail...

What does matter is another value named DEFAULT_LOG10_RESOLUTION_TARGET and located in the upper portion (but not the beginning) of the globe.RectangularTesselator.

// From globes.RectangularTesselator.java
private static final double 
      DEFAULT_LOG10_RESOLUTION_TARGET = 1.3;

This one will indeed control the mesh 'density' - see screenshot below.

Log10 resolution: 1.0 (left), default 1.3 (center) and 2.0 (right)

There is no public interface yet to access and change the tessellator density (or log10 resolution) setting(s) - i'll push for one to be implemented at some point. So all you can do for now is either edit the SDK source or clone the tessellator in your own package, change the setting and refer to it in the WWJ config file worldwind.properties.

Flat worlds and annotations coming to WWJ

2007-10-21T12:36:00.000-05:00

Here is a preview of coming features for WWJ 0.3.x...

Dragging shapes example on 'plate carrée' world

Flat worlds are still in the experimental stage but should ultimately allow to have both a 'cartographic' flat global view of the globe and 3D terrain. Various projections of the world should also become available. Quite fun and interesting.

Annotation tests

Comic books bubble annotations are on their way too. They will come with a simple general purpose multi-line text renderer and wrapper some have been asking for ;)

World Wind Eclipse RCP Geobrowser

2007-10-18T00:55:00.000-05:00

WorldWind Java SDK applications are getting more and more interesting. Using the Eclipse platform, Vladimir Silva created worldwindrcp a 'geoweb browser' with full support for WMS 1.1.x and 1.3.x, KML ground overlays, screen overlays, and placemarks. It also supports animated ground overlays to visualize events over time. Nice work!

This is starting to look like the WorldWind .Net version...

The source code includes two eclipse projects: the World Wind RCP itself: org.eclipse.plugin.WorldWind/ and a set of WW contribution layers (Animated time loops, KML/WMS support etc): WWContrib-025/

See this WWJ forum thread about worldwindrcp.

World Wind Java 0.3 is out

2007-10-10T20:07:00.000-05:00

It has been five month since WWJ 0.2 was released at the Java One conference last may. A lot of work has been done since by Tom Gaskins's team. Several code updates have been posted on the forum, so you may already have a good idea of what to expect.... so here comes the new and enhanced World Wind Java SDK 0.3 (.zip 13M) and Java Web Start Demo.

Example application template - globe

San Francisco - USGS Urban Ortho layer

Here is an unsorted list of changes i can think of:

Since 0.2.5

Polylines have had a major update. They can now gently follow the underlying terrain, avoiding intersections, and should become a viable alternative to SurfacePolylines. Some optimization is still needed though.
Stereo anaglyph capability has been added with a new AnaglyphSceneController and a corresponding example application.
The SkyGradientLayer has been incorporated and nicely teams up with the FogLayer to provide some atmospheric effects to the globe.
An interactive terrain profile tool has been added with a corresponding example.

Before 0.2.5

There was a Point class in 0.2.0 which has been replaced with Vec4. Most Point methods are available in Vec4, but with a '3' at the end of the name - eg: getLength3().
Some major reorganization has taken place in the packages structure with the addition of many - more categorized, sub-folders.
An example package has been added. It contains an application template with some basic components and a growing list of simple applications, each showing a particular feature of the SDK.
Applet templates, one using javascript interactions, have been added with appropriate deployment notes in the examples.
SurfaceShapes quality and diversity have been improved - see Shapes example.
Mouse dragging support of objects has been added - see DraggingShapes example.
There has been major enhancements to the OrbitView with, among other things, the addition of ViewStateIterators, Animators and Interpolators. Click on the world map to see it in action or have a look at the WWJApplet javascript API.
Memory management and garbage collection have been greatly improved, reducing significantly the memory footprint.
Tools to access WMS servers have been added - see WMSLayerManager example.
Single image layers have been incorporated - useful for applets faster load-and-start. See StartupImage example and BMNGOneImage layer.
Stars, world map, scale bar, fog and sky color layers have been incorporated.
Support for runtime statistics has been added - see RuntimeStatistics example.
A Worldwind.shutdown method has been added
Support of tabbed panes and other potentially tricky UI configurations has been improved - see UsageInTabbedPane example.
Ground and air tracks support and rendering has been added - see PipeTracks example.
New USGS and Earth Observatory layers have been added.
Spherical and ellipsoidal triangle methods have been added to LatLon and Position classes.

There are surely many other improvements and bug fixes i'm forgetting here...

Check this World Wind Java forum thread for the release readme.txt and follow up comments. Also: WorldWind Java home page at NASA Learning Technologies and World Wind Central.

More screenshots:

Tracks and pipes example

Polylines following terrain - Shapes example

Tracks example

WMS Layer Manager example

Terrain profiler example

Anaglyph stereo example

Atmosphere entry over New Zeland

French geology layer for WWJ

2007-10-04T10:22:00.000-05:00

Here is a WMS layer to get access to the french BRGM geology maps in WWJ.

Download BRGMGeologyLayer.java and add it to the worldwind.layers.earth package, after removing the .txt extension. In BasicDemo add the layer on top of I3 Landsat, like the USGS layers. It will start to show tiles under 100km altitude.

This layer was already accessible through the WWXMLLayer code i posted last may, but some major refactoring have occured inside the SDK since then and i havent migrated the code yet.

Real time terrain cross section in WWJ

2007-10-02T02:54:00.000-05:00

What does Antarctica looks like if you slice it in two?

Here is a fun visualization tool prototype layer for WWJ. It displays a real time terrain profile in a screen corner. The section plane itself will either follow the view position or the mouse cursor, allowing you to 'scan' entire continents, oceans and mountain ranges at any scale in a single hand gesture.

Download TerrainProfileLayer.java (updated oct. 30) and add it to worldwind.layers.earth, after removing the .txt extension. In BasicDemo, add the layer before or after the compass. Important: this layer implements a PositionListener and needs to have its event source set before it will operate:


new BasicDemo.LayerAction(new TerrainProfileLayer(), true),
new BasicDemo.LayerAction(new CompassLayer(), true)
...
for (BasicDemo.LayerAction action : layers) {
   ...
   if (action.layer instanceof TerrainProfileLayer)
      ((TerrainProfileLayer)action.layer).setEventSource(this.wwd);
}

You can set the profile graph to maintain the distance/elevation proportion to have exact slopes (not the case in the above screenshot though), but it is a lot less fun for wide range sections.

Text and messages translation in WWJ

2007-09-28T07:05:00.000-05:00

In the WWJ SDK you may have noticed a file named MessageStrings.properties and several others named the same but with an extra two characters country code like de, ja,or zh. These are simple text files that contain all the constant character strings for one language. WWJ will use the one that has the same country code as your computer settings.

To have WWJ 'speak' your tongue, just make a copy of the default english file - the only one that contains all the messages, and name it MessageStrings_xx.properties, xx being your country code. Then translate the messages you want and delete all the others. You dont need to have all the messages translated in your file, the missing ones will fall back to english.

Note that special characters must be specified as Unicode hexadecimal numbers (eg. \u00c9 for 'É').

Here is a portion of a french property file with translated layer names. Get MessageStrings_fr.properties, and after removing the .txt extension, place it with the other MessageStrings files. Run one of the demo or example applications.

Also note that this doesnt translate the placenames...

3D stereo anaglyph view in WWJ

2007-09-25T12:00:00.000-05:00

3D graphics are great, but stereo 3D is even better. Here is a quickly put together AnaglyphSceneController for WWJ. Is is to be used in place of the BasicSceneController from the SDK and will produce real time red/cyan anaglyphs whenever the view is pitched more than twenty degrees.

Download AnaglyphSceneController.java (updated sept 27) and add it to src.gov.nasa.worldwind - after removing the .txt extension. To use it, edit src.config.worldwind.properties and change the class name for the gov.nasa.worldwind.avkey.SceneControllerClassName entry:

gov.nasa.worldwind.avkey.SceneControllerClassName
                =gov.nasa.worldwind.AnaglyphSceneController

Overall it works reasonably well considering the amount of code - its quite simple. However, the stereo effect tends to shift when the view is being moved or rotated, but it eventually settles down to the proper settings when you stop moving around.

You need red and cyan glasses (with the red filter on the left eye) to view those anaglyphs. Caution, you may quickly feel sick... reduce the focusAngle to 1.5 or 1 degree if the stereo separation is too sharp.

Enjoy the world in real 3D ;)

World Wind Java forum tread.

Sky gradient and atmosphere for WWJ

2007-09-24T02:58:00.000-05:00

Here is a preview of the SkyGradientLayer for WWJ. It works very well with the fog and stars layers, and makes for some nice screenshots. Still needs some tuning and cleanup though.

Download SkyGradientLayer.java (updated sept 27) and add it to the layers.earth package of the SDK - after removing the .txt extension.

The layer should be placed between the stars and the fog like : stars, sky gradient, fog, blue marble, I3 Landsat...

World Wind Java forum tread.

Saving a WWJ layer tiles composite

2007-09-22T23:16:00.000-05:00

Many have asked on the WW forum how to 'extract' a portion of a layer imagery and save it for further use with other applications. It happens that WWJ has a built in public method in TiledImageLayer that does exactly that - at least the hard part of it, the tiles retrieval and composition. All what's left to do is save the composited BufferedImage.

Here is some test code:

// Save a composite of a layer's tiles into a file
private void saveImageForSector(TiledImageLayer layer)
{
   int imageSize = 1024;  // Saved image max dimension
   int level = 0;         // level number (-1 = best)
   Sector sector = new Sector(
      Angle.fromDegrees(43.4), Angle.fromDegrees(44.4),
      Angle.fromDegrees(6), Angle.fromDegrees(8));
   java.awt.image.BufferedImage image =
      layer.composeImageForSector(sector, imageSize, level);
   try
   {
      javax.imageio.ImageIO.write(image, "png",
        new java.io.File("SavedImageSector.png"));
   }
   catch (IOException e) {}
}

The above method needs a TiledImageLayer reference - the like of BMNGSurfaceLayer or LandsatI3. The level number must take into account the layer empty levels: if it has 10 levels with 4 empty ones then the first real level is 4, the second 5 and so on until 9. Chosing level zero will always give you the first non empty level anyway.

The composeImageForSector() method does quite a tedious work of tracking down all the tiles needed and will trigger download requests if necessary. It will then scale and paste each of them into the final image.

It works but would probably need some tuning, as you seem to quickly run out of memory when dealing with larger numbers of tiles or larger output dimensions. The final composited image quality may vary a lot too, depending on how much scaling has been applied to the original tiles... so dont expect too much ;)

Community maintained geotags in a WWJ applet

2007-09-17T23:24:00.000-05:00

And again a new World Wind Java applet is online. GeoFlexy is a web site that lets you add community shared geographic tags and view them over a 2D Google Map or a 3D WWJ applet.

The 'spots' can be added by navigating a map and filling a form with description, address, Zip code and other informations, including one picture and a link to a web site.

Developed by turman a forum contributor, the site as of now is more an experiment than a fully operational community portal, but it is the most interesting WWJ applet usage i've seen so far.

Italian Alps at 1m in a WWJ applet

2007-08-30T07:21:00.000-05:00

Andrea Caporin from GIS Solution recently posted a link to a WWJ applet showing a 1m resolution image set near Bressanone in the italian Alps - just north of Venice. It is nice to see WWJ with some higher resolution imagery in such mountainous areas.

I wouldnt think this particular image set is public domain though...

WWJ forum thread...

Picking at objects in WWJ

2007-07-28T20:38:00.000-05:00

I recently added 'picking' support to the WorldMapLayer - so you can 'click-and-fly' to any place, and had a bit of head scratching and code reading to figure out the picking process. I thought it would be usefull to write it down, so here are my notes on picking in WWJ.

WWJ is using a 'unique color' rendering scheme - where the world is rendered with unique colors for each object, but we never get to see it. So i also thought it would be nice to have a quick look, and there it is : the frame buffer at the end of the pick process on terrain.

And here we see picking at the globe in the AWT1Up demo. The rectangle at top left is the world map selection area.

Note that only the terrain geometry sector under the mouse cursor is rendered with unique colors for each of its faces.

The above images have been processed to bring out the uniqueness of the colors. The real frame buffer is less explicit, with continuous shades of blue most of the time.

To see it for yourself, in BasicSceneController, comment out the last two steps of the doRepaint() method - clearFrame and draw, run, take a screenshot, convert it to 256 indexed colors with an adaptive palette, then change the palette to Mac or Windows system.

The world map layer with pick support is to come with the next release of the SDK. Some major refactoring have taken place and posting the code here would probably be confusing with the current version. Sorry for the delay.

Adding a touch of fog to WWJ

2007-07-22T20:56:00.000-05:00

Here is a simple fog effect layer for WWJ. It will adjust the fog near and far distance according to the current view altitude. The screenshot shows the Segara Anak caldera and Mount Rinjani (3726m), Indonesia, looking east.

Download FogLayer.java and add it to the worldwinddemo package - after removing the .txt extension. In BasicDemo, insert the layer just before the blue marble, and after the stars and the sky if you have them.

The default fog settings also produces a light atmospheric 'inside' halo around the planet.

Adding a blue sky background to WWJ

2007-07-04T17:02:00.000-05:00

Here is a very simple sky background color layer for WWJ. It paints a blue background when the 'camera' goes inside the atmosphere, with a smooth fading effect between the stars and the sky.

Download SkyColorLayer.java and add it to the layers.Earth package of the SDK - after removing the .txt extension. In the layer list, add the new layer before blue marble and after the stars if you have them.

This layer along with better versions of the stars, scalebar and worldmap will be included in the next version 0.3 of the SDK - that should be out very soon. Hopefully, i will come up with a more sophisticated sky/atmosphere before long - update sept 27: see the SkyGradientLayer.

First World Wind Java Applet and integration

2007-06-27T23:47:00.000-05:00

While i was deep into details of the WWJ code, some very interesting things happened from several european users : the first WWJ applet from Toulouse, France and a very nice integration into blueMarine, an open source photo workflow application from Milano, Italy (not very far apart...).

First World Wind Java Applet

Stéphane Maldini (aka pred) and Nicolas Castel (aka vash), two WWJ forum contributors, have made steady progress at bringing WWJ into a browser and recently posted a link to this WWJ applet page.

Beware that it can take a little while to load (probably 5 to 10 MB) and it may ask you some unexpected questions about your Java configuration. I'm not sure it flowlessly works across platforms yet.

This demo includes a GeoRSS stream reader that displays recent earthquakes icons with actives links to the appropriate web pages. According to pred, this applet is part of an online GeoRSS editor project... More screenshots on Chad's The Earth Is Square blog.

WWJ integration into blueMarine

Since the may release of WWJ, Fabrizio Giudici, one of the author of blueMarine, has been very active at embedding it into his application to offer a 3D perspective on geo-referenced photo sessions.

The result is quite beautiful. Well done Fabrizio!

Fête de la Saint-Jean 2007 sur Waverly

2007-06-27T19:07:00.000-05:00

Encore une magnifique journée - et soirée, de la Saint-Jean cette année. Le 'comité' de la rue Waverly (entre Fairmount et Saint-Viateur) a encore une fois obtenu de la ville de Montréal l'usage exclusivement piéton de notre bout de rue pendant douze heures (faut pas exagerer non plus).

Tables à picnique, sofas et mobilier de salon ont ainsi pris possession de l'asphalte dimanche dernier pour le plus grand bonheur des riverains et de leurs enfants.

La journée s'est terminée sur les rythmes latins du 'band' invité pour l'occasion, ainsi que des percussions brésiliennes de notre fanfare locale.

Désolé, les photos ne font pas justice à l'ambiance de la fin de journée ou beaucoups de monde dansait au milieu de la rue ;)

Réflexions sur le Lac Castor

2007-06-17T22:28:00.000-05:00

Un magnifique camping 'à la canadienne' avec un superbe lac entourés de collines et de forêts. Tente ou petit bungalow, baignade, canoë et feu de camp le soir...

Aux berges du Lac Castor, à une heure et demi de Montréal.

Adding a simple world map overlay to WWJ

2007-06-15T01:20:00.000-05:00

Here is a simple 'You are here' world map overlay layer for WWJ. It displays a crosshair over the current view location and behaves like the Compass layer.

Download Earth_Map.png in your SDK bin/images (where the compass bitmap is), then add WorldMapLayer.java to the worldwinddemo package or your application - remove the .txt extension first.

Once done, add this layer to WWJ in the same way as the compass layer.

Nice vue depuis la navette spatiale

2007-06-14T22:01:00.000-05:00

Le Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth a deux nouvelles photographies de Nice et de la Baie des Anges, prises le 26 février 2007 à 341 Km d'altitude.

> Nice et la Baie de Anges
> Nice et le Cap Ferrat

Growing box like structures inside WWJ

2007-06-14T21:15:00.000-05:00

As i was working on some aspects of SurfaceShape(s) and Polyline(s) in the WWJ SDK, i came to try out the 'filled' option for polylines - which could allow to make non textured 3D models. Here is a simple method to draw boxes on the globe.

Cut and paste this code into the AWT1Up demo application to reproduce the above example.

This is probably not the right way to build entire cities... but it can certainly help to be able to build some simple 3D structures with a handfull of filled polylines.

See this WWJ forum thread for discussion.

Adding a simple scalebar to WWJ

2007-06-08T13:35:00.000-05:00

Here is a simple scalebar layer for WWJ. It can display metric and imperial units and behaves like the Compass layer.

Download ScalebarLayer.java (9k). Remove the .txt extension and add it to the worldwinddemo package or your own project.

See this WWJ forum thread for discussion.

Loading WW layersets structure into WWJ

2007-06-07T02:43:00.000-05:00

Following on my previous steps at loading World Wind existing layersets into WWJ, i moved one step further with more generic WWConfigLoader and LayerSet classes. Together they can read whole layersets hierarchy from WW XML config files and produce the appropriate objects to feed a JTree.

Download WWJ_WWConfigLoader_01.zip (50k) and follow instructions in the readme.txt.

In addition, the new LayerSet object can compute the list of 'active' layers to set the current Model LayerList each time a layer state changes in the tree.

Selection and deselection of layers in the JTree is not done yet. Some checkboxes are needed here... this is a work in progress and some part of this code may become obsolete with future release of the WWJ SDK.

See this thread in the WWJ forum for discussion.

Adding single image layers to WWJ

2007-06-04T01:28:00.000-05:00

One thing that is missing in the actual WWJ early release 0.2 is an easy mean to apply a single image over the globe. Here is a first atempt at a renderable SurfaceImage class. The screenshot shows the Geo RSS icon pasted over part of Europe.

Download WWJ_SurfaceImage_01.zip (3k) and follow instructions in the readme.txt to reproduce the above.

One image can be applied to the whole globe too. Here is an example of the code to make a RenderableLayer with one full sphere SurfaceImage :

private RenderableLayer makeImageLayer() {
  RenderableLayer layer = new RenderableLayer();
  layer.setName("Night Lights SurfaceImage layer");
  layer.setPickEnabled(false);
  layer.addRenderable(new SurfaceImage("earthlights1k.jpg",
     Sector.FULL_SPHERE));
  return layer;
}

However, this version - and OGL, does only handle images with size being a power of two (16, 32, 64... 1024, 2048...). Images with other sizes will show a black padding - up to the next power of two. And only the lat/lon projection is supported.

See this WWJ forum thread for discussion.

The Earth Lights image comes from James Hastings-Trew Planetary Pixel Emporium. There are also some nice global earth maps at the original Blue Marble page.

Loading WW Pathlists into WWJ

2007-05-28T00:42:00.000-05:00

Again a first try at loading vector pathlists from WW as WWJ polylines. The screenshot shows the Paris Dakar 2007 rally path across the western Sahara desert (icons are loaded with another layer).

Download WWJ_WWXMLPathListLayer.zip (109K) and follow instructions in the readme.txt to add the included "Lewis and Clark trail" to the BasicDemo application.

This first version doesnt work very well except for short and local pathlists. It seems that SurfacePolyline in the current WWJ 0.2 release does not handle very well large or extended sets of path. Also the lines are rendered as bitmaps drapped over the terrain with a fixed line width that is either barely visible from far away or too coarse when close.

Or maybe i should use Polyline instead of SurfacePolyline...

See this WWJ forum thread for discussion.

Loading icon based WW add-ons in WWJ

2007-05-26T00:38:00.000-05:00

Here is a first shot at a WW icon add-ons loader for WWJ. It creates icon layers from a WW add-on XML config file. The screenshot shows the Flags of the World, the 'classic' Landmark Catalog and the Highest Mountains add-ons.

Download WWJ_WWXMLIconLayer_01.zip (10k) and follow instructions in the readme.txt to add the included "Highest Mountains" add-on from Martin Zoepfl aka mazop, in the BasicDemo application.

This version handles icon 'rollover' and displays a short name or description as a 'tooltip' hint. If a 'clickable url' was associated with an icon, clicking on it will (should) launch your web browser to that address. And if the config file contains a 'ChildLayerSet's hierarchy it will be flatten into one linear list.

Note that you have to 'shake' the mouse cursor over an icon before its name pops up... to be continued.

See this WWJ forum thread for discussion.

Loading WMS image layers in WWJ

2007-05-23T21:05:00.000-05:00

Following on my previous post about a 'WW XML layer loader', here is a second version with support for WMS layers. The screenshot shows the french "BRGM Carte Géologique de France" around the town of Nice.

Download WWJ_WWXMLLayer_02.zip (10k) and follow instructions in the readme.txt to add new layers to the BasicDemo application.

This version suffers from several issues, the main one being that layers start loading even when they are still far away. I have to figure out the number of 'empty levels'...

Thanks to sophiap and vash for their hint about a wms url builder on the WWJ forum.

Loading WW image layers in WWJ

2007-05-23T00:49:00.000-05:00

Here is a very first shot at a WW 'layer loader' for WWJ. It can create tiled image layers from a World Wind XML layer definition. No WMS yet. The screenshot shows a portion of the USGS Topo Maps layer - some shading would help though...

Download WWJ_WWXMLLayer_01.zip (5k) and follow instructions in the readme.txt to add new layers to the BasicDemo application. The layer definition will look like that :

private BasicDemo.LayerAction[] layers = new BasicDemo.LayerAction[] {
 new BasicDemo.LayerAction(new BMNGSurfaceLayer(), true),
 new BasicDemo.LayerAction(new LandsatI3(), true),
 new BasicDemo.LayerAction(new USGSDigitalOrtho(), false),
 new BasicDemo.LayerAction(new USGSUrbanAreaOrtho(), true),
  new BasicDemo.LayerAction(new WWXMLLayer("WW_Images.xml",
   "USGS Topo Maps"), false),
  new BasicDemo.LayerAction(new WWXMLLayer("WW_Images.xml",
   "Geocover 1990"), false),
  new BasicDemo.LayerAction(new WWXMLLayer("WW_Images.xml",
   "Geocover 2000"), false),
 new BasicDemo.LayerAction(new EarthNASAPlaceNameLayer(), true),
 new BasicDemo.LayerAction(new CompassLayer(), true),
};

I'm not sure WWJ likes it too much... it works but downloading seems chaotic. Maybe the servers are slow...

Adding Stars to World Wind Java

2007-05-20T16:24:00.000-05:00

Here is my first attempt at a renderable layer for WWJ. It renders a star background based on a subset of ESA Hipparcos catalog of stars.

Download WWJ_Stars_01.zip (104K) and follow instructions in the readme.txt to add the layer to one of the demo application (one line of code).

In the BasicDemo, the layer list should read like that :

private BasicDemo.LayerAction[] layers = new BasicDemo.LayerAction[] {
  new BasicDemo.LayerAction(new StarsLayer(), true),
  new BasicDemo.LayerAction(new BMNGSurfaceLayer(), true),
  new BasicDemo.LayerAction(new LandsatI3(), true),
  new BasicDemo.LayerAction(new USGSDigitalOrtho(), false),
  new BasicDemo.LayerAction(new USGSUrbanAreaOrtho(), true),
  new BasicDemo.LayerAction(new EarthNASAPlaceNameLayer(), true),
  new BasicDemo.LayerAction(new CompassLayer(), true),
};

Note that it is inserted first in the layer list - so that it renders first too. The code also shows how to create a renderable layer and a renderable object to add to it. It boils down to :

public class StarsLayer extends RenderableLayer {

  // The layer
  public StarsLayer() {
    this.setName("Stars");
    this.addRenderable(new Stars());
  }

  // The renderable
  private static class Stars implements Renderable, Disposable {

    public void render(DrawContext dc) {
      GL gl = dc.getGL();
      // Draw here
    }

    public void dispose() {
      // Cleanup here
    }
  }
}

See discussion in the WWJ forum.

Most of the star background code comes from my 'old' WW plugin Stars3D and its implementation in Java for WW2DPlusOne.

World Wind Java terrain code goodies

2007-05-17T19:54:00.002-05:00

I've had a look at the WWJ SDK terrain source and found some very refreshing code - especialy after strugling for two years with the C# version we know.

Terrain / images separation

One of the nice feature of this terrain engine is the separation between the terrain geometry and the images layers. It solves a lot of problems we have with WW.

ZBuffer and blurry islands

Each image layer in WW has its own multi-level terrain geometry that is rendered one on top of the other. But they dont have all the same level of detail, so part of one layer would pop out of an other layer... and the depth buffer (ZBuffer) had to be cleared between layers to avoid blur islands.

Then big triangles appear on the horizon when close to the ground. Other rendered objects could not trust the ZBuffer. Things where overlaping in some situations... a lot of problems really. Not long ago i was thinking of porting some of the terrain viewer shadow casting code (to make a shadow plugin), but i wouldnt have been able to apply it properly on the terrain.

In WWJ there is only one terrain geometry segmented into tiles - not necessarily square (more on that later), which are rendered multiple times with the different textures they individualy intersect. Texture transforms does the trick. All images are 'painted' on one terrain model. Much cleaner. Shadows could just be easily painted over - no ZBuffer issues or blurry islands (at least inter-layers islands).

Fine terrain with low res images

Another benefit of the separation is that he terrain level of detail is not dependant on the images resolution so that even low res imagery (like BMNG) can be rendered over detailed relief.

In WW, the terrain only gets better when higher res images have loaded, even if the elevation data is available. And it doesnt get better past the best images level, even if there is better elevation data.

Icosahedron globe

The terrain geometry being disconnected from the images, it can be anything - not necessarly the regular lat/lon grid that is very inefficient at the higher latitudes and awful at the poles. As a matter of fact there is an 'icosahedron tesselator' in the works in WWJ.

The icosahedron 20 faces can be recursively split to approximate a sphere with no 'polar' preference - every latitude has the same vertice density. That will make for a much more efficient model for planets - and asteroids... and clean poles too. However, the move may be challenging with the triangle tesselation introducing a lot of discontinuities (seams) into the terrain mesh. This may be a problem at some point. (Image from www.organicvectory.com)

I still have to discover most of the WWJ SDK code, but so far it is promising...

World Wind Java is finally out

2007-05-14T23:37:00.000-05:00

Its not a girl, its not a boy... it is a SDK, a pre-alpha version named 'Early Access 0.2'.

The long awaited - and a bit mysterious, World Wind Java from Nasa Learning Technologies has finally been unveiled (some demo video) at the Java One Conference 2007, last week in San Francisco.

Although it comes with several limited demo, it is not intended to become a full featured application like the actual World Wind, but a tool kit for developers to build "100s of World Winds" - as Tom Gaskins, WWJ Technical Manager states it on the WWJ FAQ.

One of the unique features of WWJ is that it will be able to run on any computer supporting Java - with a bit of muscles though, from a local install or right off the Web, using Sun's Java Web Start technology. Words of applets embedded in a web page have been floating around... but i have not seen any so far.

This geospatial, 3D interplanetary exploration tool, giving access to global, detailed, images and informations about our planet and beyond... can run on most computers on Earth in a way or an other, and probably just now if connected to the Internet. Whether it could be uploaded to the Mars rovers or onboard future missions as not been said yet.

However, as of today, the SDK is still a work in progress and wil continue to evolve until a stable version emerge - "No date for a stable release has been established yet" says WWJ Technical Manager - after a year in development and Sun Microsystem involvement.

The release has drown a fresh crowd of enthusiastic World Wind users on the newly started WWJ forum. Over last weekend some have already posted startup instructions and tips for developers using Eclipse or Netbean IDE. All useful information is gathered by the active WW community on the World Wind Central Wiki - in a constant effort to balance the chronic lack of documentation from NLT.

The full potential and impact of this new and promising NASA software is yet to be discovered as many start to try out ways to use it in their own projects and visions.

OLPC - XO-1 La petite machine verte

2007-04-24T19:06:00.000-05:00

Recement, j'ai eu la chance d'avoir entre les mains un des premiers modèles de test de l'OLPC (One Laptop Per Child).

Issu d'un projet à but non lucratif, le X0-1 est une curieuse petite machine verte destinée à l'éducation des 'enfants du monde' et dont le coût de production ne devrait pas dépasser $100 US. Elles seront produites en grandes quantités et seront distribuées uniquement par l'intermédiaires de gouvernements ou d'organismes. Les premières pourrait êtres livrées à la fin 2007.

Cet ordinateur conçu pour des enfants a la forme et les dimensions d'un jouet - bien qu'un peu plus lourd (env. 1,5 Kg). L'écran s'ouvre comme celui d'un portable pour révéler le clavier miniature et souple ainsi qu'un pavé tactile de pointage. Il peut aussi pivoter puis se rabatre pour former une 'tablette' ou un livre électronique.

Pensé avec un souci d'économie d'énergie et de coût réduit, il est doté d'une puissance modeste mais trés honorable lorsqu'on ne la gaspille pas. Il ne comporte aucune piéce mobile (disque, disquette, CD...), mais plusieurs ports USB, une caméra numérique et un micro. Il est surtout équipé d'une interface pour réseaux sans fil qui lui permet de se connecter spontanement avec les autres OLPC à proximité pour former un réseau 'maillé' reliant tout les enfants.

La netteté de l'affichage couleur est particulièrement étonnante avec ses 200 points par pouces - presque autant qu'une revue imprimée. Il peut aussi fonctionner en noir et blanc à la lumière du jour en minimisant la consommation d'énergie.

Le logiciel basé sur Linux est libre et les formats de fichiers utilisés par les programmes sont ouverts. Pas de restrictions donc quant à leur éventuelles modifications et améliorations qui seront alors partagées et profiteront à tous sans coûts supplementaires.

Bien qu'ayant beaucoup des attributs d'un ordinateur portable 'pour adulte' il ne faut pas se méprendre sur sa nature. Sa vocation est d'être un outils d'éducation permetant des activités simples comme lire, écrire, communiquer ou jouer toujours dans un esprit de collaboration et d'échange et non pas d'utiliser des logiciels de bureau complexes, des bases de données ou le dernier jeux en 3D.

Le prototype que j'ai pu utiliser ne disposait que d'une partie des composants logiciels qui sont en cours de développement et je n'ai fait qu'effleurer la surface. L'interface originale Sugar est un concept assez déroutant au premier contact - pour un adulte utilisant des ordinateurs depuis des années.

Les notions de bureau, de programmes, de dossiers et de fichiers laissent la place à celles d'activités, de participants et de journal. Toutes les activitées sont conçues pour tirer profit de la communication spontanée entre les machines et permettent la collaboration de plusieurs participants. Ce qui est fait ou produit au cours d'une activités peut être 'sauvé' ou enregistré dans un journal auquel l'enfant peut revenir à tout moment pour retrouver ce qu'il a fait et avec qui.

Parmis les activités prévues : lecture de documents (texte ou autres), navigation internet (basé sur le code utilisé par Mozilla Firefox), prise de photos (avec la caméra intégrée), composition de musique, écriture, dessin, communication instantanée texte, audio et vidéo...

En somme, une machine extraordinaire issue d'un projet extraordinaire initié par Nicholas Negroponte fondateur du Media Lab au MIT.

Géoportail en 3D avec ombrage

2007-04-22T01:44:00.000-05:00

J'ai ajouté le support de l'ombrage dans le Plugin Géoportail pour NASA World Wind 1.4 :

Le rendu de certaines couches topographiques (Scan) s'en trouve nettement amélioré.

Pour en savoir plus, voir la discussion sur le forum World Wind.

Lunettes Proview de Rainbow Symphony

2007-04-19T23:23:00.000-05:00

M'étant réapprovisionné en lunettes 'rouge et cyan' en carton de chez Rainbow Symphony, je me suis aussi laissé tenter par une paire 'en dur' : le modèle Proview à US$ 6.95 (min. 2 paires).

Malgrés la photo qui laisse penser que le filtre droit est bleu, il sagit bien de lunettes rouge et cyan adaptées aux écrans d'ordinateurs ou autres systèmes de projection.

Les filtres semblent de bonne qualité et donnent une séparation gauche/droite satisfaisante. Ils sont clairs et couvrent bien le champs de vision - ce qui évite les lumières parrasites sur les côtés. La vision est nette et détaillées. Toutefois il se produit une atténuaton marquée de la luminosité qui peut être génante si la source de l'image n'est pas trés lumineuse.

La déception vient surtout de la monture - tout en plastique, qui fait plutôt penser à des lunettes de soleil pour enfant. Elle n'est pas trés confortable à porter et se plie mal - ce qui rend l'ensemble relativement encombrant (surtout par rapport à une paire en carton).

En résumer, je ne peux pas dire que ce soit un mauvais achat, mais je suis un peu déçu. Si vous avez aussi envie d'une 'vraie' paire de lunette stéréo, mettez-y un peu plus d'argent que moi.

La Lune et Vénus

2007-04-19T21:00:00.000-05:00

On ne voit pas grand chose du ciel en ville... mais lorsque la Lune et Vénus dominent l'ouest aprés le coucher du soleil, ça se remarque.

Lever de soleil sur le Mont Vinaigrier

2007-04-16T23:37:00.000-05:00

Depuis ce matin de janvier à Nice, je me dis que ce lever de soleil ferait un beau fond d'écran... c'est chose faite dans la galerie photo de So... Nice, avec des versions pour écrans 4/3 et 16/10 (larges).

Encore de la neige sur Montréal

2007-04-12T15:28:00.000-05:00

Même mi-avril on peut encore trouver un certain charme à la ville enneigée...

Ou est donc le rechauffement climatique quand on a besoin de lui ?

World Wind Plugins update

2007-04-09T11:37:00.000-05:00

It has been a while since i last updated my WW plugins page.

I spent part of the Easter week end fine tuning Stephan Mantler Lens Flare plugin. Settings are now saved, i extended the number of sprites and added a couple original flare 'colored' textures. The effect looks more realistic now.

I also added the 3D Cross Section plugin and updated a couple of my 'old' plugins for WW 1.4.

Montréal sous la neige en avril

2007-04-05T16:36:00.000-05:00

Quatre ou cinq centimetres de neige molle et collante sont tombés la nuit dernière... c'est normal au Québec. Bientôt le mois de mai. On verra enfin les premières feuilles.

Alpes Maritimes Aérien en stéréo anaglyphe

2007-04-04T15:48:00.000-05:00

Au mois de janvier dernier, j'ai eue la chance de survoler les Alpes Maritimes lors d'un trajet Nice-Londres, par temps clair... avec le bon hublo, du bon côté de l'avion et un appareil numérique.

Grace au déplacement de l'avion, des images prises à deux ou trois secondes d'interval produisent naturellement des paires stéréoscopiques.

Voici une dizaine de vues commentées des Alpes montées en anaglyphes.