Plugin to import IGN Géoportail data in WorldWind

[guilhem]

Hello everyone,

This is to announce my first plugin for WW. It imports the data of the IGN Géoportail into WorldWind, so one can make use of the high resolution imagery on the whole French territory. It is the first version so there are still quite a few problems:
- It is a bit slow
- The correspondance between the scale and the level (in the Geoportail sense) is not perfect: Some high-detail-level tiles are loaded too soon, and the horizon of view is not deep enough.
- Tiles at the East and South limits are not taken care of: in this case, the Geoportail service does not send the whole 384x384 tiles but a tile smaller than that. It concerns only Corsica, so it is not that bad.
- Some tiles are downloaded only after multiple tries, but I am still not sure if it comes from the Geoportail service (the dreaded Unavailable Service) or from some other problem. It sometimes happens with the Geoportail website itself, but seemingly not as often as with the plugin.
- The only data currently is from metropolitan France but adding other territories should not be very difficult (although finding the right projection parameters can be sometimes challenging)

Anyway, apart from that, it seems to work ok :-) and I hope to solve at least some of these deficiencies this week. Note that I started programming the plugin by modifying the VE Plugin, so any resemblance with the latter is not accidental.

You can download the code for the plugin there. It has been tested with WW 1.3.5 only and it should be considered highly experimental at this point... To install it, you just have to unzip it in the WW root directory: It will create a GeoportailPlugin directory inside the Plugin directory and copy the sources of the plugin there, as well as copy the proj.dll file at the WW root. Then the plugin should be compiled and initialized automatically when launching World Wind. However, you will have to load it explicitly (with Plug-Ins > Load/Unload...) from the interface in order to use it.

The screenshot above is somewhere near Annecy, using the Aerial view layer. Below, is a place nearby, with the Scan layer:



guilhem

[withak]

Very nice.

I can't get it to work, but I'm using a development build of WW and the VE plugin doesn't work either.

You should grab a daily build and check it in that.

[RedRick]

Là, je dois dire chers compatriotes que c'est un must...

S'il y a effectivement comme tu le dis de légers défauts d'affichage, je trouve ce truc aussi réussi que le plugin de Gaby avant le Géoportail...

Pour les PB rencontrés,
au niveau de l'install aucun, je néglige le fait d'avoir eu à le loader à la main...

pour l'affichage, je l'ai essayé depuis le col des montets, entre Chamonix et Vallorcine, la ressemblance est frappante...
on distingue même les dru par rapport à l'aiguille verte ce qui signifie que le modèle alti est pas mal...
Un difficulté c'est que les Jorasses qui devraient être cachées passent devant les Drus

pour mieux comprendre :
la case à cocher terrain on c'est que tu applique aussi la donnée Alti d'IGN ??
par contre je ne comprend pas le trim cache...

Je suis en attende de la prochaine version, mais c'est trop toooooooooooooop

[guilhem]

Thanks for your comments!

Actually the Trim Cache is to delete all the cached tiles and the Terrain On is to remove the display of all the Geoportail data (currently only metr france but later all the overseas territories too). But as you have noticed, these functionalities do not work currently... This has been corrected in my dev version though.

The altitude is taken from WorldWind directly.

The background tiles which sometimes appear in front of the foreground tiles is a problem I have also noticed on the VE plugin, but I have not been able to resolve it yet. I agree it is pretty displeasing and correcting it should be top priority.

guilhem

[hermetica]

Là, je dois dire chers compatriotes que c'est un must...

S'il y a effectivement comme tu le dis de légers défauts d'affichage, je trouve ce truc aussi réussi que le plugin de Gaby avant le Géoportail...

En effet ce Plugin est tres cool... Mais il est dommage que l'IGN ne
mette pas ses donnees en acces libre comme l'a fait le BRGM pour
les cartes geologiques de la France grace a un WMS... ca viendra
peut-etre un jour...

Thank you Sir Guilhem...

[RedRick]

Oh, i've notice a problem in viewing places high in altitude,
the best defined picture does not appair, it's only when i reduce the vertical exageration to 0 that it works...
take à look at Chamonix town, near Annecy..

Oh, je me suis aperçu d'un problème quand l'on visualise des sites d'altitude, les images en meilleure définition n'apparaissent pas, c'est suelement lorsqu'on positionne l'exagération verticale sur 0 que ça marche...
Jettez un coup d'oeil sur la ville de Chamonix, près d'Annecy...

[5of0]

Originally Posted by RedRick

Oh, i've notice a problem in viewing places high in altitude,
the best defined picture does not appair, it's only when i reduce the vertical exageration to 0 that it works...
take à look at Chamonix town, near Annecy..

If anyone wants to translate, feel free:
This is not a problem with the plugin, it's a problem with WW itself. WW tries to download higher images once you're past a certain altitude, and that altitude for the highest resolution is lower than some mountains/high altitude places. And you can't go underground in WW, so you're stopped. Switching to a vertical exaggeration of 0 is the workaround right now.

[hermetica]

Originally Posted by 5of0 :
This is not a problem with the plugin, it's a problem with WW itself. WW tries to download higher images once you're past a certain altitude, and that altitude for the highest resolution is lower than some mountains/high altitude places. And you can't go underground in WW, so you're stopped. Switching to a vertical exaggeration of 0 is the workaround right now.

French Translation of informations from 5of0:

Ce n'est pas un problème avec le plugin, c'est un problème avec WW lui-même. WW essaye de télécharger des images plus élevées une fois que vous êtes a une certaine altitude, et a cette altitude la résolution est inférieure pour quelques montagnes et lieus d'altitude élevée. et vous ne pouvez les telecharger dans Cache de WW, et vous êtes bloque . Le changement à une exagération verticale de 0 est la seule solution pour le moment....

Thank you dear 5of0 for this info.

[5of0]

Thanks/Merci, Hermetica!

To clarify, here's the question in french:
Pour clarifier, le question en Français:

Oh, je me suis aperçu d'un problème quand l'on visualise des sites d'altitude, les images en meilleure définition n'apparaissent pas, c'est suelement lorsqu'on positionne l'exagération verticale sur 0 que ça marche...
Jettez un coup d'oeil sur la ville de Chamonix, près d'Annecy...

[RedRick]

Me serai je exprimé sans traduire la question en frangaulois ??

Diantre, que cela est laid...

Dobiamo le fare la proxima volta...
I should do it next time
^_^ Ich muB mach es an andere zeit

ceci étant posé, je ne cesse de m'extasier devant la beauté du paysage de notre dolce France... le décors étant de l'IGN et la mise en Scène de notre généreux Plugingueur....

personne n'a encore réussi à coller ces paysages sous Flight Sim ?
parce que ça devrait Swinguer fort ...