Need World Turning Effect for PTE

[Guest Techman1]

Hello all,

I have a project where I need an earth model turning where I can stop the globe and pinpoint various locations (countries). This is going to be a PTE project and the final product will be as an EXE file. So AVI files will only work if I can get the files into a jpg, png or some other form that can work with PTE for an executable.

Does anyone know where I might be able to locate a earth model of this type? I've searched online (and this site), but haven't really found anything that looks like what I need. The slideshows here have an orbiting effect, but not with the earth actually rotating where you could pinpoint countries.

Anyway, if anyone has any ideas (or files) I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks as always and I hope everyone is doing well!

Best regards,

Fred

[cjdnzl]

Hello all,

I have a project where I need an earth model turning where I can stop the globe and pinpoint various locations (countries). This is going to be a PTE project and the final product will be as an EXE file. So AVI files will only work if I can get the files into a jpg, png or some other form that can work with PTE for an executable.

Does anyone know where I might be able to locate a earth model of this type? I've searched online (and this site), but haven't really found anything that looks like what I need. The slideshows here have an orbiting effect, but not with the earth actually rotating where you could pinpoint countries.

Anyway, if anyone has any ideas (or files) I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks as always and I hope everyone is doing well!

Best regards,

Fred

You could try Google Earth, which starts off with a complete globe rotatable by grabbing with the mouse. A series of screen dumps at suitable rotation increments should do it. It'll be somewhat time-consuming though.

Colin

[Guest Techman1]

Colin,

Thanks. I have used Google Earth and it works okay, but was hoping for something that looks a little better and maybe a little more seamless. If I could get the end result to look as good as Google Earth looks when it runs, I think it would be fine. But taking snap shots and then putting all those together, just doesn't look realistic enough. At least the last time I tried this (a few months ago), it didn't look too great. Maybe I'll try it again if there aren't any other suggestions.

Thanks again Colin, I appreciate the input!

Fred

[Lin Evans]

Hi Fred,

It won't be an easy animation because you will either have to do it with a decompiler or perhaps make your own AVI then decompile it. The easiest way I can think of would be to use a globe and take multiple frames with your camera from a tripod. It would be easiest I suspect if you use a smaller sensor digicam rather than a dslr for greater depth of field. If you take about 60 photos at 6 degree rotations you could get reasonably smooth animation. Alternatively, if you have a digicam or digital video recorder you could have someone spin the globe, take a few seconds of video then use a decompiler to break it into jpgs. You won't need much more than 640x480 to get a realistic effect. I know there are globes available which are three dimentional and very representational. Perhaps you could find one at a store and talk them into letting you photograph it?

Perhaps this weekend I may try this with one of my globes and if it works out I'll link the files for you.

Best regards,

Lin

Hello all,

I have a project where I need an earth model turning where I can stop the globe and pinpoint various locations (countries). This is going to be a PTE project and the final product will be as an EXE file. So AVI files will only work if I can get the files into a jpg, png or some other form that can work with PTE for an executable.

Does anyone know where I might be able to locate a earth model of this type? I've searched online (and this site), but haven't really found anything that looks like what I need. The slideshows here have an orbiting effect, but not with the earth actually rotating where you could pinpoint countries.

Anyway, if anyone has any ideas (or files) I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks as always and I hope everyone is doing well!

Best regards,

Fred

[Lin Evans]

Hi Fred,

I think I have a solution for you. Go here and download this free program. Check the web for PDF documentation. This will allow you to create a realistic simulation any way you want and then capture it as an AVI which you can then decompile to use in PTE. It's a "very" sophisticated program and extremely interesting. I haven't had time to thoroughly digest it yet but I'm confident that it will do what you need.

http://www.shatters.net/celestia/

Best regards,

Lin

Hello all,

I have a project where I need an earth model turning where I can stop the globe and pinpoint various locations (countries). This is going to be a PTE project and the final product will be as an EXE file. So AVI files will only work if I can get the files into a jpg, png or some other form that can work with PTE for an executable.

Does anyone know where I might be able to locate a earth model of this type? I've searched online (and this site), but haven't really found anything that looks like what I need. The slideshows here have an orbiting effect, but not with the earth actually rotating where you could pinpoint countries.

Anyway, if anyone has any ideas (or files) I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks as always and I hope everyone is doing well!

Best regards,

Fred

[Guest Techman1]

Lin,

Thanks for the suggestions. I hadn't thought about taking photos of a realistic looking globe and trying to use those. Now, I only need to find someone who has a good looking globe to borrow. Or as you suggest, find a store that will let me in with equipment.

I'll check out the program you suggested maybe tomorrow. I'm downloading the program, but won't have time to test it today.

Thanks for these suggestions and if anyone else already has some downloaded files of the earth rotating, I would be very pleased to receive them.

Thanks to all,

Fred

[Lin Evans]

Lin,

Hi Fred,

In all seriousness, you need nothing but Celestia to do what you want assuming you have a decent video card.

In five minutes you can have the AVI you need to decompile. Installation of the program takes seconds. When the Earth appears, press "V" on the keyboard to toggle on and off text. Press "L" to speed up the Earth's rotation and "K" to slow it.

I assure you that you will be pleasantly surprised....

Best regards,

Lin

Thanks for the suggestions. I hadn't thought about taking photos of a realistic looking globe and trying to use those. Now, I only need to find someone who has a good looking globe to borrow. Or as you suggest, find a store that will let me in with equipment.

I'll check out the program you suggested maybe tomorrow. I'm downloading the program, but won't have time to test it today.

Thanks for these suggestions and if anyone else already has some downloaded files of the earth rotating, I would be very pleased to receive them.

Thanks to all,

Fred

[thedom]

Hi Fred,

I don't know what exactly you want to achieve but just for information, tried tro simulate the earth model turning some months ago.

You can download the demo : http://thedom.fr/share/dload.php?action=file&file_id=194

Watch the second animation. I was not completely happy with the final result but it was a start.

And here is the World map I used : http://www.primap.com/Maps/en/World/Maps-world-map-2000.jpg (2000 x 1000 jpg file).

May be you will be interested in trying Mapcreator 2.0 (free) on this website : http://www.primap.com/en/index.html

I didn't try it myself.

And if you need help with your project, do not hesitate.

Hope it helps.

[JudyKay]

There is also this. It has a spinning world in 3d.

http://www.download.com/3D-World-Map/3000-...1.html?tag=list

jk

[Guest Techman1]

Dom,

Thanks for the map and the link to your site. In fact, I had seen your demo a while back and thought of it first. I'm going to try several of these ideas and see where it goes.

Judy Kay,

Thanks for the link to the program. I may give it a whirl too if the others don't work out exactly right.

Thanks all for your help. I truly appreciate it very much!

All the best,

Fred

[malcolm m]

Fred. The best site I have discovered for high resolution mapping imagery is NASA. There is a huge number of images of all parts of the world to choose from - and they are free. Their Blue Marble imagery includes rotating earth images of several kinds. This link http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a002700/a002708/ has a quite long, impressively smooth, rotation in various qualities from 3MB MPEG-1 to 254MB full screen DV. The rotation can be paused (frame by frame if needed) and screen grabs/digicam shots made as desired. Hope this helps.

Malcolm