What's new in 1.3.4

NASA World Wind version 1.3.4 was released on April 20, 2006. Download now!

Important Note - If you do not have a Zoomit icon in your toolbar or a Zoomit entry in layer manager please redownload 1.3.4, two versions got accidentally released so some users who downloaded 1.3.4 soon after it's release may have an older version. Jupiter may also be absent from the first release.

Introduction
Highlights of some of the exciting additions in this release are the new Earth and extraterrestrial datasets and new plugins such as the measure and movie recorder tool.

New Extraterrestrial Datasets
Exciting new uses for exploring our world and beyond.
 * Mars: In addition to the Moon which debuted in 1.3.3, we now have Mars with full 3D terrain.
 * see TServo's Blog post I give you Mars
 * SDSS: View the galaxy with outer-space imagery from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
 * see TServo's Blog post Sloan Digital Sky Survey Images in World Wind
 * Venus: 3 image layers without 3D terrain + placenames
 * Jupiter: Jupiter and 4 Moons + placenames

New Included Plugins
In this release, we're including some of the best community-contributed plugins:

Some of these plug-ins are not turned on by default, to activate them open the Plug-Ins menu and click Load/Unload... (see figure 1).  Click on name of the plug-in you wish to activatein the Plugin Load/Unload window and then press the Load button, the indicator next to the plug-ins name should turn green (if you want the plug-in to automatically load each time World Wind starts also tick the plug-ins startup box), you can now safely close the Plugin Load/Unload window.


 * Movie Recorder: Movie recording script. Plays back a script file with camera positions and records each frame to sequentially numbered bitmap files on disk, via Mashi
 * Measuring tool: measure distances/bearings on the globe, via Mashi
 * Starfield: adds a dynamicaly rendered starfield background to World Wind using data from the Hipparcos catalog, via Patrick Murris
 * Compass Rose: renders a compass in World Wind, via Patrick Murris
 * Clock: On-screen clock, via Mashi
 * Earthquake Plug-In: Near-Real-Time Earthquake display and Historical Earthquake Query, via Chad Zimmerman
 * KML Importer: Import Placemarks from KML and KMZ files, via ShockFire
 * Double-Click to Zoom: Double-click to control zooming in and out, via 5of0
 * Global Clouds (near realtime clouds). Displays a global cloud image, via Patrick Murris
 * Atmospheric halo. Displays a virtual atmosphere around the Earth, via Patrick Murris

Newly Available Add-ons
Although not included in the release, these plugins and add-ons are our favourites:
 * Microsoft Virtual Earth: This plug-in shows Virtual Earth (local.live.com) data within World Wind, and also includes a geo-coder and business finder.

Updated Earth Datasets
Better, sharper imagery.
 * OnEarth 15m Landsat imagery
 * Improved elevation data based on SRTM+ and SRTM. Includes global Bathemtry.
 * ZoomIt! data: Additional datasets for parts of the US (MA, NY, IN, FL) and South Africa's Robben Island

Release Notes
Please refer to this link for Release Notes

World Wind General & Plugin Mgr

 * Added code to improve Drag&Drop handling for plugins
 * Fixed ImageOverlay plugin to work with new code changes
 * Added ImageOverlay 4 plugin
 * Added On-Screen clock plugin
 * "Internal" plugins are not ALWAYS loaded anymore. They will load based on a list in MainApplication.LoadSettings the first time the program starts, then will act like "normal" plugins.
 * Refresh="n" where n is in seconds inside a LayerSet attribute will now affect Icon positions
 * Switch to XPath based XML loading
 * Fix for view frustum bounding sphere intersection (from forum "Larry")
 * Icon memory leak fixed
 * Fix for blank terrain spots (might not work for REALLY close terrain, needs further testing)
 * Implemented a real-time FPS line graph meter
 * Added a "Goto Extent" context menu item when right mouse clicking on a layer in LM. Will move to the geographic center of the extents specified in the Layer file.

Image Accessor, QuadTiles

 * Cache expiration code is more robust
 * PermDir fix

Configuration Loader, Overview Form

 * Add CacheExpirationTime support for QTS
 *  is allowed inside  or  elements
 *  is allowed inside the  element
 * Allow for  or 
 * Fix placenames not using 
 *  uses , , and 
 * Could not use worldwind:// uri due to XML parsing errors
 *  and  support "RenderPriority" attribute with the following strings: "Icons", "Placenames", "LinePaths", "AtmosphericImages"
 * Fixes problem with ChildLayerSet loading
 *  now adds another <OnClickZoom> element that allows user to click an icon and have the camera zoom to a specified altitude (in meters)
 * Null terrain accessor from xml should work now
 * Handles new icon OnClick zooming
 * Overview form Home/End zoom works
 * ImageLayer accepts Url images through XML again
 * Higher resolution terrain subsets work again
 * Fixed ChildLayerSet "ShowOnlyOneLayer" attribute error
 * Remove diag log writing for wmsaccessor
 * WMSAccessor works again
 * Allow "CacheDirectory" element in ImageAccessor element for qts
 * Transparent color works for qts again
 * Redirect xml files are cached for offline access
 * Booleans from xml are parsed "smartly"
 * Struts back (again)
 * Redirect allowed from ChildLayerSet -> remote LayerSet file
 * Allows to split a category like "Images" into multiple xml files and still have them group in the Layer Manager
 * Url based layer xml files (check @Images.xml)
 * Switching back and forth between worlds works again
 * Overview form can launch icons from mouse click
 * New setting in World.Settings for allowing constant rendering even when 3d form is unfocused
 * Revert changes to "strut removal"
 * Change Texture format conversion to DDS using a Software-based reference device
 * Should help move this operation from the GPU to the CPU to minimize frame rate studdering
 * Fixed strange 180/-180 boundary line problem
 * Involved a different algorithm for the Quaternion4d.Slerp method
 * Mouse is now more responsive at super-high zoom levels
 * Camera is now more precise
 * Single to double precision calculations (should stop the "jitters")
 * Changes to QuadTileSubset to make the mesh work with higher precision
 * Range transparency for jpegs <TransparentMinValue>0</TransparentMinValue> <TransparentMaxValue>30</TransparentMaxValue> (in place of <TransparentColor>) it is calculated based on the Greyscale value of the pixel - ie. the pixels is transparent if (MinValue < (r + b + g) / 3 < MaxValue) is TRUE

Shapefiles

 * Filtering for shapefile points
 * Shape points optimized for faster rendering
 * Shapefiles PointType renders "points" now (finally)
 * Random color assigment of lines in shapefiles works again
 * Fixed bug with shape file path
 * ShapeFile Fixes:
 * LineColor is now used
 * Black Tiles have a hack fix
 * LevelZero Tile size can be set
 * Viewing Altitude can be set

Measure Tool

 * Save/Open of Measurements to CSV enabled.Saving to shape will be great.
 * Modified with Polyline measurement options, Save GUI is work in progress

Movie Recorder

 * Added sample movierecorder script
 * Added more (unworking) Squad-related code to the Quaternion4d class
 * Added modified movierecorder.cs plugin from www.mashiharu.com
 * Changed to work with revised version 1.3.4 camerabase class

Yahoo! Geocoder

 * First dump of Yahoo! based geocoder
 * Needs DMS location display implemented
 * Add background downloader thread
 * Need to implement WW Feature Search (requires server program)

Starfield/Stars3D

 * Changed stars3d to starfield, and increased altitude stars shut off at, possibly needs to be higher still

KMLImporter

 * Imports placemarks from kml and kmz files
 * Supports NetworkLinks with periodical refreshing
 * Handles scale, rotation and other style-related features
 * Supports icons that have to be downloaded from the web

Double-Click to Zoom

 * Double-Left-Clicking zooms in, double-right-clicking zooms out
 * Intended mainly for laptop users and those without scroll wheels
 * More control choices, zoom levels planned