World Wind - go get it!

that should be ..if it Does Not install

That reminds me that I've been meaning to try Ozi3D for ages :-)
They are different, however, in one crucial respect: for Ozi3D you need to obtain the elevation data first, and even then what you get is a calculation from the map. WW doesn't need anything and what you get is photography. Even though the satellite photos are some years old and a bit blurred when closing in below 20000 metres, they still allow you to see real vegetation etc rather than mere map colourings.
I suppose Ozi3D is better for use with GPS and out in the bush where you can't download the huge files used by WW. But for trip planning at home it's great fun, and useful too.

I have been using the WW sat images to see where the channels are in the extensive shallow waters of Shark Bay. It was a brilliant idea and very useful when used in conjunction of a marine chart.
The images do get sharp after some time, at least on some coastal area's they did. There must be some dowload or access limit as the close zoomed image updates for a bit (red rectangled area jumping about) then goes on hold for 2 minutes and so on.
This happened on a high speed link as well as on the home dial up connection.

I tried to zoom in close on the CSR track but it never got as sharp as the Shark Bay images. I guess the images they use do vary a bit, even zooming into a Perth suburb never got me really sharp images. Perhaps they're classified :-0
Klaus

Dont get me wrong WW looks very good – and thanks for the link - great resource….just thought I’d mention that Ozi3D does a similar job. Yes you need to download the height data first to use with Ozi3d but you also have to download data with WW (continuously and every time you log on - not just once) so dont see this as an issue (well a different issue anyway).

Not sure what you meant by "and even then what you get is a calculation from the map". In Ozi3D the map/airphoto is draped over the elevation data which is the same as with WW – using the same elevation data, same picture and same exaggeration the image would look the same with both programs I would think.

Good thing about Ozi3D is that you can use any image you want as the base – you are not restricted to the sat photos on nasa site. Air photos (4metres per pixel) available from DLI in WA are very good when used with 3 second data in Ozi3D and obviously significantly better than nasa sat photos…but they’re not free so bit a hindrance there. You can also plot track files and wayponts in Ozi3D - no need to guess where you want to go or where youve been.
Cheers
Greg

As I said, will try Ozi3D one of these days. Forgot that you could use aerial photos in Ozi, I suppose that must give the same or better effect as WW if you can get hold of better photography.
Let a hundred flowers bloom, I say :-)

As I said, you need a broadband connection. Don't fancy using it with dial-up either...

I've GOT ADSL

Would take hours on country lines..................... You better send me a CD iM

In that case it shouldn't take over an hour. It's a huge download to begin with (something like 160 MB, speaking from memory) but an ADSL connection should cope easily enough with the ongoing data downloads while using it.
If you can afford to dedicate a largeish disk cache to it (mine is 5Gb for now) and tend to explore limited areas only, you won't have to download the data files all the time either. I have most of NSW in my on-disk cache now...

Was 120 MB.

OK I'll go back and have a (proper) look.

Thanks

Who or what's that? Some kind of yeti?