Highest Resolution NASA Earth Textures (43200x21600 pixels)!

Tips for creating and manipulating planet textures for Celestia.
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jrobert
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Highest Resolution NASA Earth Textures (43200x21600 pixels)!

Post #1by jrobert » 03.09.2002, 03:41

I found the highest resolution Earth textures directly from NASA's "Blue Marble" site. I'm talkin 240MB download just for the western hemisphere so if you want the whole enchilada, you'll have to down 480MB (just under a half-a-Gig) but they're there... and here's the URL just scroll down to the bottom of the page... :D http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/BlueMarble/

The direct link to download is actually from their FTP site and has no glamour to it but this is the exact location: :lol:
ftp://gloria2-f.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/stockli/

There's also lower resolution textures available at the same site as well as cloud textures, night light polution textures, you name it, they've got it! :lol: These textures might be a bit of overkill for Celestia unless you scale them down, but if anyone out there is into 3D modelling, these textures are for you!

Rassilon
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Post #2by Rassilon » 03.09.2002, 05:54

Well I suppose someone with linux better compile that puppy to dtx for me cause windows would choke on that thing like there aint no tomorrow...
Fridger?

I dont see my version reading it anyway ;) Maybe XP?
I'm trying to teach the cavemen how to play scrabble, its uphill work. The only word they know is Uhh and they dont know how to spell it!

Redfish
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Post #3by Redfish » 08.09.2002, 20:19

I think for many ppl this site was already in their favorite sites :)
At least for me.

ftp://ftp.visibleearth.nasa.gov if I got it correctly. And i've tried to make an earth 43k, but photoshop wouldn't let me make a file bigger than 30000 pixels.

Then tried it in the gimp, it was possible, but would create a file that was 3500 MB. A bit too much for me to work with. So yeah, you'll need these very specific tools for editing these files, without loading them first.

Pixel seems to have them. But i wouldn't think the 43k texture adds a lot to the 16k.dds texture. I was able to load the 400 MB file. And found that the quality wasn't all that more stunning than the 16k file.

Besides, there isn't any graphics card that can display this map properly.

Size_Mick
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What about...

Post #4by Size_Mick » 14.09.2002, 20:06

What about texture swapping in Celestia? I don't know the technical term. What I mean is, as you get closer to an object, the textures on that object are swapped out for more detailed, smaller textures that only cover the visible area? Is this being considered for future releases of Celestia?

I'd like to be able to zoom in on my house someday.

Mikeydude750
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Post #5by Mikeydude750 » 14.09.2002, 22:56

Redfish wrote:I think for many ppl this site was already in their favorite sites :)
At least for me.

ftp://ftp.visibleearth.nasa.gov if I got it correctly. And i've tried to make an earth 43k, but photoshop wouldn't let me make a file bigger than 30000 pixels.

Then tried it in the gimp, it was possible, but would create a file that was 3500 MB. A bit too much for me to work with. So yeah, you'll need these very specific tools for editing these files, without loading them first.

Pixel seems to have them. But i wouldn't think the 43k texture adds a lot to the 16k.dds texture. I was able to load the 400 MB file. And found that the quality wasn't all that more stunning than the 16k file.

Besides, there isn't any graphics card that can display this map properly.


Now now now, I'm sure the Radeon 9700 Pro could handle it. Of course, even that puppy might choke...


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