WWJava Application Feature List

This page is intended to gather and organize desired features and ideas for a future World Wind Java multiplatform application of the SDK.

For this list to be useful it needs to be clear enough so that anyone can understand what each listed feature or idea means. For instance "Plug-ins support" or "Add-ons support" is too vague. Please describe each new item with one or two sentences. If need be, add a paragraph in the "Notes" section at the bottom of the page to describe more complex features or ideas with possibly links to forum threads or other reference.

Right now this list is a draft but it should ultimately be sorted by priorities before any development starts.

= Desired Features List =

Must Have

 * Support for different 'worlds' or planets
 * Tree based layer manager. Add/remove layers, opacity and layer order control. Persistent.
 * Support for WW.net XML based Add-ons
 * Support for software extensions or plug-ins
 * Support for persistent WMS layers
 * Some KML support
 * Support for .shp shapefiles.
 * Placemarks. Allow to save locations in one or different 'favorite places list'
 * Flexible user interface. Allows to show/hide components. Persistent.
 * A multitude of globe-specific GUIs such as a ColorPicker, SymbolEditor, etc.

Would Be Nice To Have

 * Support for Mercator tiled layers (GM, Yahoo, Virtual Earth...)
 * Full screen mode
 * 3D models support, OBJ/KML(Collada)?
 * Drawing lines and polygons + saving to KML or some other vector format (GPX, SHP, PostGis, WFS-T)
 * Change and save existing layer properties to XML via GUI (Layer Manager)
 * Movie recorder. Allows to record and play view animations.

Miscellaneous

 * Sun light and shading
 * 3D stereo anaglyph. Already implemented in the SDK.
 * FPP (or free view) camera mode (allows looking up to the sky)

= Architecture = These are open questions and ideas regarding the general application architecture and organization.
 * Stand alone application or Eclipse RCP application?
 * Desktop vs Applet vs Java Web Start? All?
 * Plug-in based application: tiny core or stub, everything is a plug-in?
 * Automatic software updates?

= Notes = These are notes and references about some of the above features.


 * WW Forum thread regarding this application.