Archive for the ‘Google Earth’ Category

KML (& NetworkLink) for Nearby & any Geo-WordPress!

Saturday, February 17th, 2007

Following the addition of GeoRSS, earlier today while out photographing some PhotoSpots (TBA), I had an even better (possibly) idea, now that my WordPress stores Lat/Long, why not output KML too! The icing on the cake is you can also wrap it in a NetworkLink so that peoples Google Earth will auto update. (I am surprised couldn’t find this done already!)

And if that isn’t enough then I also release the code under GPL :) – note its the first time written anything for WordPress, so might not be a tidy as could be!

Anyway see it in action on my series of PhotoSpots:

- as all these list the PhotoSpot category, each post includes a link to open the actual spot, so just click the world icon in the balloon to open :)

Download the Source or view the source: WordPress KML Generator and NetworkLink Wrapper

Installation: This is not a proper plugin, so just drop the .php files into the root of your WordPress folder and you should be done (but you can configure the icon to display if you wish by editing the wp-kml.php file)

Use: Normally you would only provide a link to the Wrapper – which in turn links to the feed itself, but the feed is useful like in the above example to plot directly on Google Maps. You can also specify a particular category to display like the above example or otherwise will include all geocoded posts.
Important: Requires the GeoPress extension be installed (to get geocode info)
Only tested on WordPress 2.0.1 – Works For Me – Your Mileage May Vary – no guarantee, implied or otherwise

GeoRSS for nearby blog!

Saturday, February 17th, 2007

In one of those duh! moments, I suddenly realised the ironicness of the nearby blog not being GeoRSS enabled.

So now thanks to the wonderfully simple but powerful GeoPress WordPress extension, feeds are now GeoRSS talking, however this has only really been of any use (which probably why not done before) on the recent PhotoSpot mini series where the blog post is tied to a location!

It also allows a minimap to be embeded into the post, I’m not so sure on benefit of that in my case so have put one in the last post to see how it looks…

Also taken the opportunity to install Akismet plugin to help trap spam, I have my own very simple capatcha that means I only get about 4-5 a week anyway.

Update: also found you can get a (Geo)RSS feed of a particular category, so can could subscribe to the photospot series.

Geograph Hectads in Google Earth v2

Tuesday, February 6th, 2007

Sometime last year I created a visualization of Geograph coverage as a series of 3D columns in Google Earth, well as that is now out of date, time to create updated versions:

: Geograph Points Per Hectad (*)
and Images Submitted Per Hectad (each around 200kb)

These are spectacular in themselves, but if you then create a series of these each timestamped with the dates of the images included, you can get an interactive animation…

So here is a version that downloads a monthly bargraph, since the project began, allowing full animation using the timeslider. Due to the size will only give the Animated Images Version which is the best anyway.

(due to the way of loading the data with nested network links will take time and patience with the timeslider to load them, all it seems to only really be possible by manually dragging the time-slider slowly across the timespan. )

Just need someone to create a fly though preview and upload to YouTube ;)

(* Hectad is a Geograph term for a 10km by 10km square)

Another PhotoSpot

Friday, January 26th, 2007


View at Geograph: SH7840 : Stone on Carnedd Iago
Another in the mini-series of Panoramic Images loaded into Google Earth, using DigitalUrban‘s Panoramic Viewer tutorial.

This one is higher resolution than some of the others and ways in at 525kb,
but the extra resolution is useful to see the distant mountain ranges.

Anyway download it here: Google Earth Version

geotagged More Links for this location

Pen-y-Garn Mountain Panorama for GE

Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007

Following the nice spell of weather thought it an excellent opportunity to capture some images to create another Google Earth PhotoSpot (I still don’t think there is an official name for these).

Pen y Garn Panorama

Download the Google Earth Version (262kb KMZ file).

Used in the making of this: AutoPano*, Paint Shop Pro, DigitalUrban Panorama viewer for GE, (of course) Google Earth, a SpaceNavigator and Winzip 10#.

* (demo version, hence the watermark, first time used but really good, just got to make a usecase to someone to buy it for me ;)

# using Winzip to create the KMZ file seems to manage to squeeze some compression out of the jpg itself :)

Mountain Panorama in Google Earth

Monday, January 15th, 2007

DigitalUrban, has for a while being working on a Panorama Viewer for Google Earth, well to prove that it doesn’t just apply to Urban settings, I have created this panorama of the Top of Snowdon Google Earth File, the highest mountain in Wales (and England).

Really impressive! Just in case you don’t have a SpaceNavigator to really explore, have created a few views, just double click to move around. (idea from Google Earth Blog – except I used folders, so don’t have icons).

To really enjoy the feel of the mountains, I recommend setting your Terrain Exaggeration setting to about 2.0, although having said that the included Snapshot views are designed for when TE is set at 1, as that’s probably the most common.

I should note that I scaled up the model, to make it easier to use, so it does leave a rather large blob on top of the hill! This is also only a rectilinear panorama, rather than spherical, so it will be nice if DigitialUrban can work in support for such images.

geotagged More Links for this location

Network Link updates

Friday, December 15th, 2006

Following on from the last post about the amazing 3D SpaceNavigator (PE) from 3dconnexion, it has finally inspired me to blow the dust off the experimental solution to Making a View-Based Refresh efficient when tilted?, that I blogged about a while ago.

So I’ve just implemented this on the Geograph Google Earth ‘Wide Area’ Network Link, and the Nearby NetworkLayers, (imaginative names aye?), which along with GB and Ireland Grid Lines Layers any my most used network links.

This should have no affect when looking ‘straight down’ but when the globe is tilted, hopefully the useful information should be better positioned in the foreground rather than extending into the blurry distance.

Feedback welcome…

Navigating a 3D globe the way it should be (probably!)

Friday, December 15th, 2006

I have to admit when first seeing the The SpaceNavigator, on Franks Google Earth Blog, I was a little skeptical that the device could be *that* good, boy was I wrong. In fact I’ve had it just a little over an hour, and hard to put it down, (similar case here). (thanks again to Frank for pushing me into trying it)
IMHO the best part is that it makes ‘User Based’ navigation a very real possibility, it appears its been a possible with the Joystick ‘Controller’ interface for a while, but I’ve never managed to get to grips with it, like I think it should of worked. (this is using a MS Flight Stick so should be quite good, but found it easy to get disorientated*)

Mouse and Keyboard (and an option with Controllers and this device) is still ‘Earth Based’ in Google Earth, which while does make sense, I repeatedly finding myself wishing I could just rotate my viewpoint rather than the ground spot I am looking at. (If anybody is reading this my next request would be for a quicker way to switch GE between the two modes)

Anyway back to exploring the Earth….
*This might be partly due to 3DConnexion making a design decision not to implement Roll. (having said that would like to see it as an option!)

P.S. It seems its not easily available in the UK yet, but the 3Dconnexion’s EU shop do ship to the UK.

Blue Marbled Google Earth Globe

Monday, November 20th, 2006

GE Screenshot showing Blue Marble ImagryI really should at least mention the hard work Frank Taylor from gearthblog.com has put into getting Blue Marble Imagry to overlay on your Google Earth Globe. The results are amazing, it seems a definite improvement over the patchwork mosaic you see when viewing large areas, and as a bonus you get realtimeish (3hours) global clouds.

Anyway read more over at GEarthBlog, here.
Or just download directly here Google Earth KML Download.

(it exploits the new Region Functionality in the GE v4 (Beta), however a bug prevents this from working nicely in all but the very latest version, so such users fall over gracefully to a version that works by intereacting with a webserver. )

Placemarks Grouped and Sorted

Tuesday, October 17th, 2006

I’ve had a request to be able to sort the output of the KML Grouper, so … well… now you can! Enjoy.