Author: James

Comparison of GIS software

A reader who probably enjoys my bashing of Wikipedia sent me an interesting take on the GIS software packages. I’m guessing the person who created the table didn’t have much time to research the system requirements of all the different GIS software packages. Mapserver does run on Windows (I wouldn’t say it “runs” on the web, but then again I’m an ESRI apologist I guess) and “ESRI” does run on GNU/Linux (sorta as I believe only RHEL is supported) and one could say that ArcWeb runs on “the Web”. Don’t get me wrong, the task is very hard, but if you don’t know then don’t put “no” down. Someone care to bail this page out for the sake of GIS Day? Maybe Wikipedia User:Redlands can correct “ESRI”.

Frank points out that the Rumsey Historical Maps are available now as new feature content in Google Earth.

ArcGIS Explorer has had this layer “coming soon” for quite some time (though it was active at the 2006 User Conference).

Shame the development of ArcGIS 9.2 has taken so long as this layer seems to have given Jonathan Crowe an early Christmas present. The uniqueness of ArcGIS Explorer seems to get smaller and smaller every passing week.

Brian Flood has a very interesting post on the new big feature of Arc2Earth. The ability to create map tiles of maps that you’ve created in ArcMap and publish them to the web. Brian has figured out a way to simply do this using Amazon S3 for storage and either the Google Maps, Virtual Earth or even OpenLayers. The result is a web based map, that can utilize cartography that you create in ArcMap, that requires NO SERVER SOFTWARE. Plus Arc2Earth is smart enough to create markers from any layers you choose to give your new web map more functionality. Brian is looking for existing users of Arc2Earth to volunteer for the beta. Roll over to Brian’s blog to see how this all works. I’m excited to see how this works.

We all heard about Photosynth back in August, but now we can actually start using it. It is mesmerizing to play with and I can totally see this integrated into VE3D (I mean what is one more ActiveX control among friends). Being able to view not only your photographs, but millions of others puts a real spin on Flickr and Zooomr. 2D maps are nice, but this immersion type of experience is the next level.

You can check out all the collections available here and the Photosynth blog.

For those who have not seen the new management tools available at 9.2, ESRI has posted a video demonstrating the new web interface. Forget what you know about managing ArcGIS Server and ArcIMS as the new tools make it SO much easier to work with ESRI’s server product.

I still don’t understand why ESRI posts WMV video and has not gotten on the Flash video bandwagon though. Links to WMV is so 1999 guys. (actually to be fair, ESRI does have Flash video available, but consistency on their webpages just isn’t there)

One reads time and time again how many people are so disappointed the first time they realize there are no bridges in Google Earth. I’m glad to see that Virtual Earth 3D has plenty of them, even in areas that aren’t publicized, but some areas you’d think would have at least one, doesn’t.

Golden Gate Bridge

Tacoma Narrows Bridge

Walt Whitman Bridge

The detail of some of these models is quite good and I’m looking forward to seeing more out there.

Well I said I would, so I stopped at Target on my way home from work and picked up an Xbox 360 controller to use with Virtual Earth 3D. Well I’m happy to report it works very well. Windows XP SP2 seemed to have the drivers installed for the controller so I didn’t have to install anything to get it working. Then I just fired up Virtual Earth 3D and away I went. Navigating the digital earth was much easier than using the mouse or keyboard. You pan around with the left stick, rotate the map using the right stick (left/right), the view angle with the right stick (up/down), zoom in using left trigger and zoom out using right trigger, rotate map north using the A button, and change the map speed with the X/Y buttons. The only thing I didn’t notice was a way to change the map type from the controller (roads/aerial/hybrid). Other than that it worked flawlessly.

I never had any plans to buy an Xbox 360, but a digital earth application like VE 3D gets me to at least buy their controller. I tried to use the controller with Google Earth and ESRI’s ArcGIS Explorer with no luck.

You can tell we are getting close because there seems to be an opening of information about 9.2 publicly. David Maguire lists what he views as the most significant features of the new release:

ArcGIS 9.2 has been released to manufacturing and will ship to all customers worldwide by the end of November. This project has been over 18 months in the making and represents a very significant milestone in the evolution of ArcGIS.

I think the big hits with this release will be; quality, ArcGIS On-line and standards and interoperability. We’ll see how server is received by the public when we get pricing and some demonstrations of the capabilities and how ArcGIS Explorer stacks up against Google Earth, Microsoft Virtual Earth 3D and NASA World Wind with its ArcGIS Server wild card.

I got a comment last night from someone talking about VE 3D being the latest U.S. centric website. For sure the main focus is on the United States, but there are some 3D models around the world. Not many but a start.

London, England

Paris, France

Vatican City

Munich, Germany

Sydney, Australia

It is interesting that the photo detail on the 3D models in VE 3D are only available when you have the Aerial or Hybrid option turned on. When the roads are on, the model is just plain. It really stands out in Europe where the imagery is not very high resolution and you want to use the road layer. Interesting…