500 Meter BlueMarble Next Gen Imagery

Don. Edwards · Post #1by **Don. Edwards** » 14.10.2005, 19:45

Hey Everyone,
Well after looking over what its going to take to download the 500m files and work with them I am going to have to take a pass on it at this time. I am going to download the 2km files in PNG format and work with those. But I simply do not have the system to handle such a job at this time. The memory requirments are just to high. So this leaves the big files to someone else to tackle that has more memory and a stronger system then I have. The nice thing is that the 500km data sets are already cut into tiles. But the shear amount of storage that we are talking about is also an issue. We are talking about several gigs of space needed and that is even before processing the textures can begin.
So in the end I will have to scale back plans. I will be able to deliver all 12 seasonal textures, all at the 16k level. I will also be able to add the missing water ice data to the north and south polar regions. I know some of may be a bit dissapointed in this outcome but I have to work with what I have. Until I have a stable income that is bringing in money I can upgrade my system. So I am stuck.

I amy have a few sample pictures of the October texture ready for sunday night, but it will more than likely be monday night PDT.

Don. Edwards

LoneHiker · Post #2by **LoneHiker** » 14.10.2005, 22:45

Plus the data is in three variations - no shaded-relief, shaded-relief and shaded-relief + bathymetry. There's also a 16-bit elevation set at 86400 x 43200 (6.95 GB unzipped) and a 2km/pixel bathymetry set.

The no-shaded relief and elevation sets eat up 17 GB of hard disk storage on my computer in their zipped state. The July shaded-relief + bathymetry set alone is another 2.02 GB zipped. It's a biatch.

Lone

BlindedByTheLight · Post #3by **BlindedByTheLight** » 15.10.2005, 07:01

I have the space and a fairly high end system (with a LAME graphics card)... but I'm on Mac... does that make it basically impossible for me to do what needs to be done?

Don. Edwards · Post #4by **Don. Edwards** » 15.10.2005, 08:31

BlindedByTheLight, unless you have a vary fast G4 or G5 with over 1.5GB of RAM I would have to say no. These image file are truely huge. I am not even sure if my system had 3GB of RAM it would be enough. The beat plan is for someone to dowmload them and cut up the tiles further into virtual textures. But this is not going to fix the problem of the darker water along the coastal areas. So we are back to square one. I am going ahead with the creation of 16k textures. I have a feeling these are going to be shaded. if they are I may cancel the whole project. I don't like working with pre-shaded textures. So we will have to waite and see.

Don.

BlindedByTheLight · Post #5by **BlindedByTheLight** » 15.10.2005, 20:13

I actually do have a G5... dual 2.0 with 1.5 gigs of RAM. The only thing that sucks is the graphics cards... but I've been thinking about getting a new one... depending on what goes on with work... (if I even need to get a new one for this?)

Don. Edwards · Post #6by **Don. Edwards** » 15.10.2005, 22:40

BlindedByTheLight,
If you do decide to buy a new card try moving to an nVidia card for use with Celestia. The ATI cards do work but Celestia still works best with nVidia. You do have a few option here though. You can try and buy an Apple aproved nVidia card and pay much more for it or you may try what many have done in some forums. You may get a PC vidia card to work on your G5. Many out there have simply bought certain brands of nVidia cards and plug them in any they work. Some nVidia vendors bios's or in the Mac world firmware, have Mac boot code in them. I would do a search on the web on the subject and find out what brands may work with your G5. It will save you some money in the long run, trust me on this.

Don.

BlindedByTheLight · Post #7by **BlindedByTheLight** » 16.10.2005, 21:01

Thanks Don... I will put the call out for more info when the time comes. Of course, when the time comes... I'm sure it'll all be outdated anyway...

I think Chris works for nVidia... shame he's not around to provide some guidance...

Don. Edwards · Post #8by **Don. Edwards** » 16.10.2005, 22:15

Yes,
He is off doing what ever it is he is doing an hopefully enjoying it.

Don.

John Van Vliet · Post #9by **John Van Vliet** » 18.10.2005, 06:54

hay cool i will have to look into the 500km but i seam to have losed my 42k orig venus map ( the one i used for the 16k map )so i am redoing it
then the same for mars ,and then i can get back to the earth

so it will be a while

danielj · Post #10by **danielj** » 18.10.2005, 11:41

I think you should consider building a giant 32k texture of Venus.What do you think?

john Van Vliet wrote:hay cool i will have to look into the 500km but i seam to have losed my 42k orig venus map ( the one i used for the 16k map )so i am redoing it
then the same for mars ,and then i can get back to the earth

so it will be a while

danielj · Post #11by **danielj** » 18.10.2005, 11:42

Do you think in doing a 32k giant texture of Venus?It would be very nice.

john Van Vliet wrote:hay cool i will have to look into the 500km but i seam to have losed my 42k orig venus map ( the one i used for the 16k map )so i am redoing it
then the same for mars ,and then i can get back to the earth

so it will be a while

bdm · Post #12by **bdm** » 19.10.2005, 03:15

Just a small note, the images are 500m per pixel, not 500km per pixel. A 500km image would be about 80 px x 40 px, and thus not very satisfying.

Don. Edwards · Post #13by **Don. Edwards** » 19.10.2005, 11:05

Error noted and corected.
Thank you

Don.

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