USGS Topographic Maps stopped working

[bdschubert]

The USGS Topographic map layers have stopped working. I've tried all four config/Earth/USGSTopo...Layer.xml configuration files without success: no tiles are downloaded. They were working a few weeks ago. Any idea what has happened?

[tag]

Yup. We were drawing them from Microsoft but they stopped providing them. We're in the process of bringing them up on the WW servers. We're hoping to have them installed by the end of this week.

They'll be a bit different in that each of the three scales will be an independent dataset, and each will be visible from any altitude. Before, all three scales were merged into a single data set, and the data organization pre-determined which scale was sent to the client. Since they were effectively pre-tiled, they were only visible at relatively low altitudes.

[tag]

The USGS topographic maps are now working in the June 27, 2011 release. Unlike previously, they're now being served from World Wind servers directly. The imagery is also much improved.

There are now three separate layers for each original data set: 1:24K, 1:100K and 1:250K. These are all pre-configured in the WW config file, worldwind.layers.xml, and will show up in the layer manager of ApplicationTemplate and examples deriving from it.

Since they're now being served via WMS, there are not the restrictions there were when only pre-defined tiles were served. This means the imagery can be drawn efficiently over much broader ranges, so can be displayed when the view is at higher altitudes. There are still some gaps in coverage, but we're trying to find the imagery for those areas.

Please let us know if you encounter problems using these new layers.

[bdschubert]

What excellent timing! Thanks for the update. I can confirm a gap in the coverage in the USGS 24K maps around 34.25N, 119.25W (upper-right coordinate). I can also confirm that have been corrections in the georeferencing of some images in the same general area -- nice!