Earth viewer

kinetic · Oct 25, 2002, 08:48 PM

For those of you who like to travel from the comfort of your swivel chair

EarthViewer3D

From: (Pro) http://www.earthviewer.com/download; (Personal) http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?IO=earthviewer

Price: About $150 for 12-month subscription

About twice a decade a piece of software comes along and knocks my socks off. Keyhole's EarthViewer is the latest program to render me barefoot.

EarthViewer pulls together high-resolution satellite and aerial imagery, global positioning system (GPS) data and business directories. On top of those mounds of data, it places a viewer that lets you jump from one place on the globe to another in a trice. Zoom in on Kathmandu, click the Terrain button and use the Tilt controls to view the Himalayas from Nepal's capital. Next, type Central Park, Manhattan, NY, into the Take Me To box and zoom across to the East Coast of the US. Want to get more specific? Ask EarthViewer to take you to 77 Sunset Boulevard, West Hollywood, CA. Wait a little while and the image becomes crisp - the details are being downloaded from the Internet.

The results are breathtaking. The only drawback - apart from the hefty hardware needed to use the program - is the decidedly US bias. Apart from Tokyo, Afghanistan's major cities and Midrand in South Africa, all the highest resolution images are of US locations. That's because the image database consists of government areas that have paid to have their cities mapped by Keyhole. You can still zoom in enough to see a double decker bus on a London bridge or get the general location of any suburb in Sydney.

There are two versions of the software. You can download a free 30-day trial of EarthViewer3D personal; or a 14-day trial of EarthViewer3D Pro, which adds mileage calculations, US reverse address look-ups and many other features. To use the personal version you must have a graphics card that uses an nVidia graphics processing unit. If you don't, give the Pro version a try - it works on any advanced graphics card.

~~JAV~~ · Oct 25, 2002, 10:48 PM

I agree, it is pretty nice. I think my 30-days is about up, tho'.

You're right about being hardware intensive. It hits my lil P3 650 to 100% all the time.

Little to rich $$$ for my cheap a$$, but a good proggie none the less. I went to view my old house of 25yrs ago > it's a freeway now!

Checked a friends 5yr old place out, it isn't there yet > still undeveloped land. Hmmm. Makes me wonder how up-to-date it really is.

JAV
GBA!

MikeDaMan · Oct 26, 2002, 06:24 AM

Any other programs like this that aren't that damn expensive? Or good sites of aerial photos?

Erroneus · Oct 26, 2002, 10:53 AM

http://www.terraserver.com/ is ok, maybe NASA...

greenze · Oct 27, 2002, 05:19 AM

thx all

Oct 25, 2002, 08:48 PM	#1
kinetic DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: Manchester England Posts: 2,559 Rep Power: 0	Earth viewer For those of you who like to travel from the comfort of your swivel chair EarthViewer3D From: (Pro) http://www.earthviewer.com/download; (Personal) http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?IO=earthviewer Price: About $150 for 12-month subscription About twice a decade a piece of software comes along and knocks my socks off. Keyhole's EarthViewer is the latest program to render me barefoot. EarthViewer pulls together high-resolution satellite and aerial imagery, global positioning system (GPS) data and business directories. On top of those mounds of data, it places a viewer that lets you jump from one place on the globe to another in a trice. Zoom in on Kathmandu, click the Terrain button and use the Tilt controls to view the Himalayas from Nepal's capital. Next, type Central Park, Manhattan, NY, into the Take Me To box and zoom across to the East Coast of the US. Want to get more specific? Ask EarthViewer to take you to 77 Sunset Boulevard, West Hollywood, CA. Wait a little while and the image becomes crisp - the details are being downloaded from the Internet. The results are breathtaking. The only drawback - apart from the hefty hardware needed to use the program - is the decidedly US bias. Apart from Tokyo, Afghanistan's major cities and Midrand in South Africa, all the highest resolution images are of US locations. That's because the image database consists of government areas that have paid to have their cities mapped by Keyhole. You can still zoom in enough to see a double decker bus on a London bridge or get the general location of any suburb in Sydney. There are two versions of the software. You can download a free 30-day trial of EarthViewer3D personal; or a 14-day trial of EarthViewer3D Pro, which adds mileage calculations, US reverse address look-ups and many other features. To use the personal version you must have a graphics card that uses an nVidia graphics processing unit. If you don't, give the Pro version a try - it works on any advanced graphics card.

Oct 26, 2002, 06:24 AM	#3
MikeDaMan DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 874 Rep Power: 0	Any other programs like this that aren't that damn expensive? Or good sites of aerial photos? __________________ DFI Lanpart UT 250GB motherboard. 1GB 2X512 Crucial Ballistix PC 3200. AMD Athlon 64 3400+. Retail ATI Radeon X850XT PE AGP

Oct 26, 2002, 10:53 AM	#4
Erroneus Get off my lawn! Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Denmark Posts: 13,417 Rep Power: 119 System Specs	TerraServer http://www.terraserver.com/ is ok, maybe NASA... __________________

Oct 25, 2002, 10:48 PM	#2
~~JAV~~ Banned Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: California, USA Posts: 283 Rep Power: 0	I agree, it is pretty nice. I think my 30-days is about up, tho'. You're right about being hardware intensive. It hits my lil P3 650 to 100% all the time. Little to rich $$$ for my cheap a$$, but a good proggie none the less. I went to view my old house of 25yrs ago > it's a freeway now! Checked a friends 5yr old place out, it isn't there yet > still undeveloped land. Hmmm. Makes me wonder how up-to-date it really is. JAV GBA!

Oct 27, 2002, 05:19 AM	#5
greenze DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 39 Rep Power: 0	thx all