Amazing NASA imaging program: World Wind

NASA ^ | September 24, 2004 | Stoat (Me)

[Stoat]

	News & Updates
	September 24, 2004 Welcome Slashdot users. New mirrors to host World Wind have been posted. Due to the traffic load, some features of World Wind may appear sluggish. We are currently working to compensate for the increased demand.
	September 17, 2004 Update: USGS 1m photo, USGS topo map data, tool bar, placename update, & misc fixes. Please uninstall previous version.
	September 7, 2004 Update: MODIS fix & Patches
	September 1 , 2004 (Quick Patch): Internationalization bug and speed boost
	August 29, 2004 (Update): Political boundary fix
	August 20, 2004 Update: "White Box" bug with budget video cards fixed.
	August 10, 2004 World Wind website announced
	August 6, 2004 World Wind 1.2 released
	Presentation Kit: Preparing to demo World Wind? Here are some screenshots. download (here)

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     NASA Learning Technologies (LT) is a NASA R&D effort for the engineering of teaching tools that deliver NASA content in the most engaging and dynamic manner possible. LT builds the pipeline and the delivery point for unencumbered access to the best data NASA has to provide.

     World Wind allows any user to zoom from satellite altitude into any place on Earth, leveraging high resolution LandSat imagery and Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) elevation data to experience Earth terrain (or any planet with the data) in visually rich 3D, just as if they were really there. Virtually visit anyplace in the world. Look across the Andes, into the Grand Canyon, over the Alps or along the African Sahara.

     WorldWind is developed at NASA Ames Research Center by Chris Maxwell, Randy Kim and project manager Patrick Hogan.

	Curator: Randolph Kim Responsible NASA Official: Patrick Hogan Last Updated: 9/24/2004		.

[Stoat]

World Wind allows any user to zoom from satellite altitude into any place on Earth, leveraging high resolution LandSat imagery and Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) elevation data to experience Earth terrain (or any planet with the data) in visually rich 3D, just as if they were really there. Virtually visit anyplace in the world. Look across the Andes, into the Grand Canyon, over the Alps or along the African Sahara.

Are you interested in spectacular satellite imaging and related graphics and technologies? Do you have a modern, fast computer and a fast internet connection? Then you might want to test drive this puppy.

Recommended system specifications:

Windows 2000, XP Home, or XP Professional Intel Pentium 3 1 ghz or AMD Athlon or higher 256 MB of RAM 3D Graphics Card nVidia GeForce 2 Ultra ATI Radeon 7500 Intel Extreme Graphics 2 DSL / Cable connection or faster 2 GB of disk space

[Dead Corpse]

Cool. I'll check it out...

[arjay]

Mighty slow download, even with a cable modem. I am looking at 10 hours.

[Stoat]

"Mighty slow download, even with a cable modem. I am looking at 10 hours."

Have you tried using a download manager such as FlashGet

http://www.amazesoft.com/

or GetRight?

www.getright.com

It might help. Also, you may wish to bookmark the site and try to download in a couple of days. NASA just added mirrors and so there's a lot of renewed interest in the program.

"September 24: New mirrors to host World Wind have been posted. Due to the traffic load, some features of World Wind may appear sluggish. We are currently working to compensate for the increased demand. "

[Khurkris]

Thanks...this looks like a good tool. This puppy is a BIG DL. Bkmr'd for the wee hours.(and I'm on a very hi-speed line...lol)

[Pete'sWife]

I downloaded this the other day. It is absolutely FANTASTIC!!!

Type your hometown in the search box and wait a minute. Not only will it zero in on the location, it adds the names of all the surrounding towns.

One question: When I zoom in the image is very fuzzy. As I'm pretty impatient, does this ever get sharper?

I don't think the download took too long. I'm using DSL, and I think I had it in less than 45 minutes.

I highly recommend this one. I'm not very "technical," but World Wind provides some beautiful pictures.

Thanks!

[JoJo Gunn]

259.2 megs....

[boris]

Very nice. Very slow. My employer's firewall blocked most of the better stuff.

It sure likes to spend time downloading databases...and seems not to want to show me what it has.

Hmm. I'm on a Cable modem and I grew impatient with it.

What is the magic trick or incantation to get it to work in general instead of one or two features?

[Stoat]

"One question: When I zoom in the image is very fuzzy. As I'm pretty impatient, does this ever get sharper?"

Hello, sorry for the delay in my reply. I'm happy that you're pleased with the program. As to the fuzziness that you refer to, it's probably because you don't have the correct mapset loaded. As an example, if you go to Layer Manager/Images/High Resolution terrain mapped imagery and checkbox the USGS Urban Area Ortho-Imagery box, you will get a mapset that allows you to view urban areas pretty sharply.

I'm still playing around with it and am by no means an expert, but there's a lot "under the surface" in the program that takes a bit of time and playing around with to find and use effectively. For more expert help, you might want to check the "Forum" link in the page above and scan the threads for tips from administrators and other users.

[Stoat]

"What is the magic trick or incantation to get it to work in general instead of one or two features?"

Hello, I'm sorry that you're unhappy with it. I've found that it takes some exploration within the controls and menus in order to get the hang of which mapsets you need to load up in order to get your desired effect.
It's true that it can spend a lot of time downloading, but I've found that if you avoid the hi-res animations and focus on specific things it can save a lot of time.
A couple of things that may be helpful are the Keychart which you will find under Help, and also the Forums which are available via the link in the page above.

Every time I play with the program I discover new things about it that I had missed before and things that enhance the usability of the program. I would recommend investigating all of the nooks and crannies before completely losing faith in it.....as it's a server-based system rather than an "all in one" like for example the Encarta Reference maps or other atlases that you install as a complete software package, it will be doing some downloading but I've found that after a while you will learn to work with it rather than against it, if that makes any sense (sorry it's late here) :-)

One particularly helpful thing I've found is to become familiar with the Layer Manager and it's subsections....that can help a lot in terms of getting you where you want to go.

[boris]

Good golly. I have a 3 GHz P4 with 1 gig RAM and 700 Gig HD on a cable modem.

Tried to download the "Galileo" sequence and the thing simply hung up on one of the frames. I watched it try to load the same frame about 50 times and get 30% done before I gave up.

I did get some of the other features to work...

[Stoat]

I'm sorry to hear that you're having troubles. Specifically regarding that Galileo animation, however, I was able to download it okay although it took about a half hour with my DSL connection. I'm wondering if possibly some firewall issues that you mentioned before may be causing you trouble? I was worried that my system requirements weren't sufficient, but my 2.4 ghz Pentium with 2 gigs of RAM doesn't miss a beat with it so far....it runs perfectly. The only situation with WorldWind and myself has been the learning curve, which is there, although far below that of something like Photoshop :-)
I've found that it's most helpful to set a goal or destination in mind and load the best mapset for that goal. It's a little more difficult to do full-scale touring thoroughout the entire program because some mapsets aren't necessarily very well suited for all geographic areas. If, however, you can get a feel of what sorts of maps give you the kind of information you're looking for, you will probably have a much more streamlined experience; assuming, of course, that your firewall isn't being obstinate :-)

Please also don't underestimate the value of the forums. From what I've seen, they actually have extremely knowledgeable people there who are pleased to give courteous help....an amazing thing in the software arena :-)

Good luck to you and I hope that the program will prove to be a worthwhile install for you.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

What is the magic trick or incantation to get it to work in general instead of one or two features?

Generally, I find that standing naked before my PC while intoning "Ikkity, ackkity...ook!" works the best.

I was able to get World Wind to download in 15 minutes using this method. Your results may vary.

[boris]

"Generally, I find that standing naked before my PC while intoning "Ikkity, ackkity...ook!" works the best."

I tried that too.

Actually the problem is not downloading the program; it is all of the huge databases it wants to download once you get it running.

[SunkenCiv]

Some simulations, movies (stills on other pages):

http://www.cosmographica.com/gallery/movies.html