WW2D plus one - Vitaliy Pronkin WW2D modified by Patrick Murris for a 3D view
http://www.alpix.com/3d/worldwin/WW2d_Java.html

Version : beta 1, april 27, 2006


WHAT
----

This is an update to Vitaliy Pronkin software WW2D as of april 27, 2006.

It adds a 3D mode similar to Nasa World Wind.

It does not overwrite WW2D files, just adds to it.

However this beta version needs you to either edit the file WW2D/Earth/!Base/!Base.xml 
or replace it with the provided copy - see below for instructions.


INSTALL
-------

1. Unzip this archive with its directory structure preserved
in a working WW2D installation directory 

	Ex : C:\Program Files\WW2D\ww2d-0.99.87\

This should add the following files to WW2D:

WW2DPlusOne.jar		The WW2D.jar replacement
favicon.ico		Some icons
favicon2.ico
/Global/!Base/Hipparcos_Stars_Mag6x5044.tsv	Hipparcos stars
/Earth/!Base/2kEarthBump.png	Terrain default bumpmap
/Earth/!Base/!Base.xml.new	Example of config with SRTM terrain


2. Change /Earth/!Base/!Base.xml by doing one of the following:

2.1 Open and edit your copy

Open /Earth/!Base/!Base.xml in a text editor
Add the following lines just below <World Name="Earth" /> : 

  <LayerSet Name="Terrain" ShowOne="false" On="true" Pos="0">
    <QuadTileLayer On="false" Name="SRTM-ZIP" North="90" South="-90" West="-180" East="180" ZeroLevelDeg="20.0" MaxL="12" TileSize="150" MinTileSize="0" DataUrl="http://worldwind26.arc.nasa.gov/wwelevation/wwelevation.aspx?T=srtm30pluszip&amp;L={l}&amp;X={x}&amp;Y={y}" DataDir="SRTM/" Provider="org.ww2d.core.WWTileProvider" Pos="1"/>
  </LayerSet>

Save

2.2 Replace with the new one

Rename /Earth/!Base/!Base.xml into !Base.xml.old
Rename /Earth/!Base/!Base.xml.new into !Base.xml


3. To launch this version double-click WW2DPlusOne.jar


4. Important : turn on the SRTM layer for detailed elevation data

This version use downloaded SRTM data to build the terrain geometry. 

The SRTM-ZIP layer is turned off by default in !Base.xml (see above) to avoid 
the original WW2D to misinterprete it as an image layer. If activated in WW2D, 
the program will start downloading zip compressed .bil elevation data as .jpg images 
and try to display them - as blank tiles... you would have to clean up the SRTM folders 
for *.jpg(s) but that would not impede any further operations if not done.


New keyboard controls :

Ctrl+3		Switch 2D / 3D mode
Ctrl+W		Display terrain in wireframe
Ctrl+F		Turns fog on and off
1, 2...0	Set the terrain vertical exaggeration (default 1)
Shift+arrows	Change the camera tilt and heading
Shift +/-	Change the camera field of view (zoom)
space		Reset view to vertical and north

Mouse :

Right Click + drag	Change the camera tilt and heading


KNOWN ISSUES - FAQ
------------------

THIS IS BETA SOFTWARE - USE AT YOUR OWN RISK - RESULTS MAY VARY

* Terrain elevation is still coarse. 
	- Turn on the SRTM layer in the layer manager it should work...
	- This version use an experimental SRTM-Plus Zip compressed service 
	set up by NLT for NWW 1.5 upcoming JOGL version. It may change or disappear...

* Things are slowing down when zooming in and tilting the camera... and spinning around...
	- Optimization is still the most challenging issue for now
	- Things are getting better though

* When close to the ground and tilting, parts of the terrain disappear
	- Some tuning on the the viewfrustrum logic is needed

* After a while, no more images gets loaded and big holes appear everywhere...
	- Something overflowed. There are some memory management issues
	- Things are getting better though

* Zooming on the poles slow things down a lot
	- This is a general issue for this kind of data projection - an alternate 
	projection would be needed for the poles, but is not served (or defined ?) yet.

* Terrain is less detailed than in NWW
	- Terrain mesh has half the resolution of NWW for now
	- A variable terrain level of detail or quality will be implemented to 
	increase the resolution where needed or when asked for.

* Speed, speed, speed...

This version has still a lot of room for optimization.

In fact, it is somehow amazing it is still usable... consider the following : terrain 
geometry is reconstructed from scratch at each frame, with deep queries and interpolation 
to the SRTM data quadtree *twice* per vertex. It should be crawling (and it is certainly on 
sub Gz systems).

Stay tuned ;)


THANKS
------

* Vitaliy Pronkin for starting it all with WW2D http://ww2d.csoft.net
* Tishampati Dhar aka what_nick http://whatnick.blogspot.com/, for his efforts in decoding 7z and Zip SRTM files.
* NASA Learning Technologies for serving SRTM as Zip now...
* All the NWW community people for their feedback.

Thank you all

Patrick Murris