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ossimPlanet Virtual Earth
posted by Satri
on Wednesday March 07, @09:40AM
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from the open-source-virtual-globes-invasion dept.
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from the open-source-virtual-globes-invasion dept.
mlucas17 writes "ossimPlanet is a high performance, cross platform, open source software virtual earth. It differs from other solutions in that it is scientifically accurate, does not require pre-layering of data sets, and is written in C++. Binary installers for Windows and MacOSX and source code for all platforms are located at http://www.ossim.org. It is built on top of OpenSceneGraph for advanced visualization and OSSIM for geo-spatial processing. OSSIM is one of the founding projects of the OSGeo foundation." This sounds really great. The website does not provide answers to some questions such as: does it supports kml? How ossimPlanet is or is not a competitor to NASA World Wind Java? Why is ossimPlanet rather unknown in the geospatial community at this moment?
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Application Domains: Fighting Fires with OSSIM
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mlucas17 writes "Open Source Software Image Map (OSSIM) is being used by the CSIR in South Africa to identify and locate forest fires. Frederic Claudel, an image processing researcher based at the Meraka Institute, worked on the project to port the once-proprietary mapping system to open source. The Advanced Fire Information System detects fires by analysing small changes to satellite images using complex algorithms. "Whenever the satellite takes an image, it will look for specific brightnesses ... and look for anomalies," says Claudel."
Which Open Source GIS? 12 comments
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I'd like your opinion on the different open source GIS projects. I'm looking for a GIS for our 50+ non-GIS-savvy scientists here. We use mainly use Debian. I quickly looked at GRASS, Quantum GIS, uDig, OSSIM and others. Some look great, but I can't decide which one to adopt! Here are our requirements: (a) easy enough to use for non-geospatial scientists, (b) able to read, convert and save most GIS/RS file formats, (c) allow basic data processing (e.g. reprojections, interpolations, data cropping, merging, cookie cutter, etc). For my personnal needs, I'd like the chosen GIS powerful and have a bright future. So far, I believe QGIS is my front runner. Am I doing a good choice?
ossimPlanet 1.6.8 Binary Installers Released 3 comments
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mlucas17 writes "ossimPlanet 1.6.8 is now available for download. Binary installers for MacOSX and Windows will fetch the installers. This release has improved OGC WMS interfaces, performance enhancements, initial KML support, and WorldWind server access. Direct drag and drop of most geospatial formats is also supported. Much of the focus of ossimPlanet will remain on geodetic accuracy, native file formats, and distributed collaboration. This version supports broadcast and listening channels that allow navigation synchronization of multiple clients. An initial users guide can be downloaded from here. The home page for this open source project is located at http://www.ossim.org/." ossimPlanet was introduced here a few months ago, it's an high performance open source virtual globe.
OpenSceneGraph 2.0 Released
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A product which can be used in various geospatial projects, Kurt informs us the open source OpenSceneGraph has released version 2.0. From their website: "The OpenSceneGraph is an open source high performance 3D graphics toolkit, used by application developers in fields such as visual simulation, games, virtual reality, scientific visualization and modelling. Written entirely in Standard C++ and OpenGL it runs on all Windows platforms, OSX, GNU/Linux, IRIX, Solaris, HP-Ux, AIX and FreeBSD operating systems." OSSIM uses OpenSceneGraph. OSG has potential for, as an example, Building Information Modeling.
ossimPlanet 1.7.0 Released
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mlucas17 writes "Binary installers are now available for ossimPlanet 1.7.0. This is the first release were we are supporting Windows XP installers in addition to the MacOSX versions. The new version includes BigTiff, Pixia NUI, KML and KMZ support. The OGC WMS interfaces have been improved and new communications mechanisms allow the synchronization of navigation and data in multiple ossimPlanets. With the KMZ support the user can drag and drop urban models from the Google 3D warehouse. The full installs include global bathymetry and elevation as well as a blue marble next generation backdrop. With ossimPlanet, the emphasis is on performance, native file access, and collaboration. OssimPlanet is part of the OSSIM project. OSSIM is part of the OSGeo open source foundation. More details are available at: http://www.ossim.org/OSSIM/News/Entries/2007/11/17 _ossimPlanet_1.7.0.html" Here's the previous story explaining what ossimPlanet is.
Minerva Open Source GIS
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Kurt's weblog made me aware the open source GIS project named Minerva, not yet mentioned here before. Here's the Minerva presentation done at the FOSS4G 2007 event. As the presentation show, Minerva can display geodata in 3D over 7 large boards. From the summary: "Minerva's primary strength is the ability to display raster and vector data together from multiple sources with the benefit of high-performance computer graphics (including animating through temporal data sets). By using robust open source toolkits like OSSIMPlanet, we are able to manage gigabytes worth of terrain and image layers.
Minerva is an open-source project under active development at Arizona State University's Decision Theater and is used in our production facility to support policy decision-making meetings for our customers. Projects completed with Minerva vary from school enrollment to disease propagation studies." In addition to OSSIM, Minerva uses PostGIS and OpenSceneGraph.
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Answers
(Score:2, Informative)( http://vterrain.org/ )
If the software did something as major as that, it would certainly be listed as a feature.
"How ossimPlanet is or is not a competitor to NASA World Wind Java?"
Well, in the realm of free software, it not so much a 'competitor' as an 'alternative'. They have different strengths and weaknesses.
"Why is ossimPlanet rather unknown in the geospatial community at this moment?"
Because it's a huge body of code in heavy development, tricky to compile and (like much open source) large undocumented. It's also very slow, which is the inevitable result of performing the entire image chain at runtime, but this is also its strength and most impressive feature: any number of complex inputs, even of different projections, can be rendered together onto the sphere dynamically.
Is their web page navigable?
(Score:2, Interesting)Re:Is their web page navigable?
(Score:3)( http://alexandreleroux.blogspot.com/ | Last Journal: Friday March 17, @04:07PM )
That said, once downloaded, the app seemed to work well.