Newbies guide to worldwind

[Llynix]

Edit: This post is a bit old and outdated, as such I'm gonna close it and unpin it. Some of the information isn't relevent and I really don't have time to keep it updated.

The newbies guide to worldwind

The intent of this guide is to get the most bang for the buck out of worldwind.

First answer these questions.

Are you running windows 2000 or windows XP?

Worldwind was designed to work with windows 2000 and xp. It does not work out of the box for windows 95,98 or ME. Some people have made it work. You might try looking here if you don't have 2000 or XP.

Do you have a 3d video card with 64MB or more ram?

Worldwind is a graphic intesive application, as such it requires a 3d accelerated video card. Older cards like voodoo 3's do not work.

Do you have some sort of broadband internet connection such as DSL/Cable?

Worldwind is a huge download (~250mb) and in addition connects to various servers around the world and downloads large pictures and animations as well as additional data. As such it requires a fast internet connection.

Is your language setting set to English?

Worldwind has some international problems which hopefully will be fixed soon. Until then it is recommended that you switch your language to English.

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If you've answered yes to all these questions then your set.

Download and install worldwind from here.

Problems installing? Try this forum.

Load up worldwind and immediatly hit the button on top that says USGS 1m. Then find North America and zoom into the middle of it.

You should see black and white satelite photos loading up. If for some reason you do not their may be a problem with your internet connection with proxies etc. Worldwind has limited support for proxies. I believe it grabs the settings from Internet Explorer so if it works correctly Worldwind should as well. Future versions will have a more robust proxy support.

If you aren't getting photos you might try something else, like clicking on the WMS button. Do you see anything load up there? If so some interesting one to click on are:

The Globe -> Rainfall -> Rainfall (transparent) -> Color Map. Click Still image.

You should see a image of where the rainfall was. If you look in the drop down box above still image it has which image it's downloading. This image name contains the data. The data is almost real time.

Still not getting anything? Well you could download the cache files and view them, however it appears you have a problem with your network or internet connection that worldwind can't get around. Future versions should have a more robust proxy support.

If you are getting photos, rainfall data and other yummy stuff then you are probably having fun already. You can look at almost all of North America with USGS 1m data. In addition you can view the TOPO maps. Also you might try opening up the layer manager and turning on USGS urban. Turn off all others. USGS urban only covers certain areas however the imagery is great.

The landsat server is down, however there are a couple of things you can do.

1) Nowak has set up a mirror server which offers the cache files up. Back up your worldlayers.xml file and download his modified one here. It is HIGHLY recommended that you download this for maximum WW enjoyment, currently it is serving level 0 and 1 landsat visual and psuedo data, plus SRTM. In addition to offering all available cache files.

2) You can download additional cache files from NASA. Nowak has been very good about keeping his mirror server updated so if you've done number one, there is no reason to download the additional sets.

Are there any plans to provide connection support for people using routers? That's the only thing I can think of to be the problem with mine, as I've tried the mirror for cache files and I'm getting nothing.

[Llynix]

Originally posted by Guest@Oct 21 2004, 01:42 PM
Are there any plans to provide connection support for people using routers? That's the only thing I can think of to be the problem with mine, as I've tried the mirror for cache files and I'm getting nothing.

Quoted post

Some people have had luck using the AnalogX portmapper.

http://learn.arc.nasa.gov/worldwind/forums...howtopic=16&hl=

I tried re-routing port 80 but had no luck.

The landsat server is down, however there are a couple of things you can do.


Can someone please tell if the Landset server is up now? I am still getting error "Problem connecting to server" .

[TomServo]

Originally posted by Sunil@Oct 22 2004, 12:27 AM
The landsat server is down, however there are a couple of things you can do.
Can someone please tell if the Landset server is up now? I am still getting error "Problem connecting to server" .

Quoted post

If you would read the stickies.. you would know that they are still down and WHY they are down and that they are not up yet.

[kolomvos]

How on earth do I use this program??? Please...! Help Me! How do I get the images??? All I see is white squares and only in the US. It's useless...!I cannot help it...!

[Beansprout]

kolomvos, read this guide and read the unofficial FAQ in the general forum

[TomServo]

I should work this into the documentation. Been too busy and tired to get much further.. but will do more on it tonight.

[Llynix]

I fixed the link to Nowak's server.... Sigh.. what a mess I made.