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30/09/01
Mandrake 8.1 users : if WMGlobe segfault, you should rebuild your WindowMaker from the .src.rpm (rpm -ba), or use these WindowMaker RPM.

12/08/01
WMGlobe 1.3 is released. This version solves the bug of the 1.1.alpha, so it's now possible to display whatever map you want. This version need WindowMaker 0.64 or more recent (tested with 0.65.1). New feature : the day map and the night map don't need to have the same size.

see CHANGES    README

WMGlobe-1.3.tar.gz  sources (74 kb)
WMGlobe-1.3.tar.gz.asc  gnupg signature

9/04/99
WMGlobe 1.1.alpha This version is not finished, currently it's impossible to load a custom map (some part of the code should be rewritten). But it run with WindowMaker 0.62, and got a few new features.

WMGlobe-1.1.alpha.tar.gz  sources (70 ko)

30/05/99
WMGlobe 1.0 released. Very little change since version 0.5 (new option -stable, my new email). Should work on WindowMaker 0.20.3 and up, on Linux, *BSD, ...

see CHANGES    README

download

 
WMGlobe 1.3
WMGlobe-1.3.tar.gz  sources (74 ko)
WMGlobe-1.3.tar.gz.asc  gnupg signature
Old versions
WMGlobe-1.1.alpha.tar.gz sources (70 ko)
WMGlobe-1.0.tar.gz sources (70 ko)
WMGlobe-0.5.tar.gz sources (70 ko)
beware, email not updated

RPM  (65 ko)  done by Ian Macdonald ianmacd@xs4all.nl this RPM is available on RH-contrib mirrors.
wmglobe-0.5-1.i386.rpm

DEBIAN  package (65 ko) made by chomsky (http://master.debian.org/~chomsky), available on debian mirrors.
wmglobe_0.5.stable-2.deb

binary for linux 2.0.36 / libc6 / ix86, with static libwraster : see ldd   (65 ko)

description

 
wmglobe WMGlobe is a WindowMaker dock.app that displays the earth on an icon. It's an adaptation of XGlobe to WMaker environnement. WMGlobe uses a map which is rendered on a sphere by raytracing. Yes, for a 64x64 pixel result :-)

Installation
You need WindowMaker to build WMGlobe. WMGlobe needs libwraster to compile, this lib is built by WindowMaker. No more need at run time if statically linked, but then, you need WindowMaker to get the full magic :-)
 

 tar -xvzf wmglobe-1.3.tar.gz
 cd wmglobe-1.3
 make
 then move wmglobe in /usr/local/bin and man page somewhere or do (as root) :
make install
If it doesn't work, look for the graphic libraries.

The Makefile is quite crude...

WMGlobe is developped on Linux (WMaker 0.65.1 and linux 2.4.x/ix86).
If you are successful on other platforms, please tell me so.

Platforms with successfull built reported :

Compile time problems & hints : see the README
 

maps

Like XGlobe, WMGlobe needs a longitude/latitude map to work. By default,  it uses a low quality built-in map of earth. But you will probably want to use better ones.

You can get maps usable with WMGlobe on the net. See the LINKS chapter.
 

Using custom maps :

For the image to the mapped correctly, position 0°N 0°W must be in the center of the image and the latitude must be linear from 90°N to 90°S.

You can safely use a night map of different size than the day map (since version 1.3).
By the way, you can use maps of Mars, Luna ... and text.

config

Configuration is done through command line options or dynamic menu
-v   version
-h   short help

-zoom value  Value > 1 to magnify the view, value < 1 to lower. Default : 1.0

-pos latitude long. Initial position of vision fixed at this position, accepted values in the form 45°12'36 or 45.21 or 45:12:36    Default : the initial position is "under" the sun, and the point of view follows the sun

-rand   New random position at every refresh of screen

-map map_file  Map used for the rendering. Can be JPEG, GIF, XPM, PNM, TIFF but none BMP.   Default : use internal map of earth.

-nimap night_file Map used for the dark side of the earth. Must be of the same width x height as the day side map. Default : if the default internal day map is used, use a default internal night file (see -nonimap option).

-defnimap  Use the default night map (with a custom day map).

-nonimap  Don't use the default night map.

-delay seconds  Time in seconds between each calculation of a new position. Limited to 0.04 at compile time (25 frames per second should be enough). The sun position move only once per minute, so if you use wmglobe without -dlong or -accel option, the CPU cost of WMGlobe is *very* low. The use of very low value for -delay plus -dlong and -accel can be CPU costly (but very nice...)  Default : 1.0 sec.

-dlat delta_latitude  Move the point of view by delta_lat degrees per second, with a value of 6 the earth make a full rotation in one minute. The value can be formated as -pos option. Default : 0°0'0

-dlong delta_long  Move the point of view by delta_long degrees per second, with a value of -0°0'15" the earth make a full rotation in 24 hours toward the west. By default, -dlong and -dlat are null. If they are used, the view follow their values. Going back to "follow sun" mode in parameters screen put -dlat and -dlong to zero.

-light light_value  Level of light of the dark side when there is no night map, from 0 to 1. Default is 0.25

-dawn  dawn_value  Level of continuity for dawn limit, from 0 to 1. With a value of 1, the border line between night and day is at maximum contrast. Default : 0.2

-bord bord_num   0 1 or 2. There are 3 different borders for the icon. Default : 2

-accel time_multi  Time warp factor. With -accel 24, the sun make a full rotation in one hour (or the earth, I'm not sure). Default : 1.0

-time  seconds  Time to display in seconds since 01-01-1970 (see the date command). Necessary if you need to be sure that WMGlobe is Y2K compliant without changing system time. Negative values for dates before 1970 accepted. Default : not set, use current time.

-fun dx dy   Move the earth image by dx dy pixels in the icon. See puzzle.sh to understand why.

-oz   Start in "austral" mode (for "down under" people).

-stable   Keep the globe from going over the poles.

-d display  Select another display

-w  -shape  Useless, since it is set by default (WMaker dockable application)
 

mouse :

left button  change longitude while pressed, change longitude & latitude if shift+left button.

middle button   zoom-in, shift + middle button : zoom out

right button  displays 7 screens of parameters. On every screen, just clic with left or right button on the figures to change their value. The TIME screen shows an approximation of date and time of the earth zone currently displayed, using GMT time + longitude offset, it's close to the real local time by one or two hours. Others options don't need more help. Intuitive they said...

links

Some sites dealing with WindowMaker :
Official Window Maker Website
The Dock App Warehouse
Where to find maps and similar softs :
Earth image by a cgi :
http://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/uncgi/Earth

two softs running under X :

XGlobe Homepage: http://www.uni-karlsruhe.de/~uddn/xglobe
(the recent 0.2 version brings a very nice map of earth)

Xearth Homepage: http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~tuna/xearth/
 

As written in XGlobe doc.,

« WHERE TO GET MAPS:

1. LivingEarth Inc.

http://livingearth.com/LE/LivEarthImg.html
http://livingearth.com/LE/BrillEarthImg.html

Livingearth Inc. has some nice (day and night) images on their web pages. With these you 7can test the -nightmap option of XEarth. Unfortunately they are pretty low-res (400x200).
You can find a higher-resolution (but heavily compressed) version of this day map at the "Earth View" page:

http://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/uncgi/Earth

Check "No night" and set display to "map", then save the image.
 

2. NOAA NGDC Marine Geology & Geophysics
http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov:80/mgg/image/mggd.gif

This image is definitely not "photo-realistic" but nonetheless pretty interesting. It also has a rather high resolution. »
 

feedback

For your questions, bugs, remarks, please contact our representative on planet Earth: jerome dumonteil@linuxfr.org
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