NASA World Wind 1.4 RC2

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World Wind, an open source 3D interactive world viewer, was created by NASA's Learning Technologies project, and released in mid-2004. It is now developed by NASA staff and open source community developers.World Wind allows any user to zoom from outer space into any place on Earth. World Wind uses satellite imagery and elevation data to allow users to experience Earth terrain 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.

World Wind offers the following built-in features:

* Earth - The planet we live on.
* Moon - Usually the brightest object in the night sky.
* Venus and Mars - Our inner and outer neighbours in solar system - the "morning/evening star" and the "red planet".
* Jupiter - The king of solar system planets.
* SDSS - Nothing less than the universe - the sky with stars and galaxies.

NOTE: World Wind 1.4 requires .NET 2.0 and DirectX December 2006

Download: NASA World Wind 1.4 RC2

Download: NASA World Wind 1.3.5 (stable)

Link: NASA World Wind Home Page

View: World Wind Wiki

#1 Beastage on 24 Dec 2006 - 13:33

apps from NASA are always welcomed on my PC

(6 replies) #2 Croquant on 24 Dec 2006 - 14:36

Tried it, it seems to suck a lot. Never connects to the server, never downloads any images. Takes for freaking ever to initialize. Your tax dollars at work.

Last edited by Croquant on 24 Dec 2006 - 14:50

#2.1 ncc50446 on 24 Dec 2006 - 16:45

Google Earth is better than?

#2.2 Avi on 24 Dec 2006 - 19:33

Quote - Croquant said @ #1

Tried it, it seems to suck a lot. Never connects to the server, never downloads any images. Takes for freaking ever to initialize. Your tax dollars at work.

Did you ever consider it's your own connection problems? Maybe firewall? Maybe it needs some ports opened (on a NAT)? Or maybe you are right and their servers were down at the time you tried it? I guess I'll have to try it here to see if it acts the same...

#2.3 bfoos on 24 Dec 2006 - 19:57

Quote - Croquant said @ #2

From the World Wind Wiki:

Quote -

Apparently the primary NASA server is down, symptoms are extremely slow World Wind startup and no images loading.

It is currently unknown when the issue will be resolved.

#2.4 Copernic on 24 Dec 2006 - 20:08

Quote - ncc50446 said @ #2.1

Try this:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_quer...p;search=Search

#2.5 Aahz on 24 Dec 2006 - 20:17

So it's more like NASA World Slight Breeze then

#2.6 Jugalator on 25 Dec 2006 - 01:17

I'd say they aren't even competing for the same kind of users.

Use GE if you want it for Earth discovery of geography, streets, buildings (not just visuals but also as for e.g. "closest hotel" discovery), addresses, etc.

Use WW if you want it for scientific layers; snow coverage, temperature shifts and other general MODIS satellite coverage, etc.

I guess *you* can use WW for just browsing the Earth, but I think in that case, GE will do you better, if not only due to its superior international coverage at a high resolution and faster servers. Similarly, the integrated GE features for current and historical scientific layers is basically non-existant.

#3 DarkGashX on 24 Dec 2006 - 19:51

Going to give this a try, thanks.

(1 reply) #4 billyea on 24 Dec 2006 - 22:05

Google Earth is intended as a 'touring' app.
World Wind is intended as a 'scientific' app.

As such a comparison is a bit difficult.

#4.1 mrmckeb on 25 Dec 2006 - 07:11

However, World Wind is the better application

#5 +littleneutrino on 25 Dec 2006 - 02:08

are they ever going to make one of these programs that does not take up all of your RAM.

#6 DKAngel on 26 Dec 2006 - 02:43

ram is there to be used , jesus, when will people realise this :/
i got 1 gig of ram i expect it to be used and not just sit their idle

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