Google Earth
Has anyone played around with Google Earth? This allows you to zoom into any part of the earth and gives you a 3d bird's eye view of the landscape. I have been able to zoom into WWII battlefields in Italy and get a fascinating view from every angle. For example, I was able to find the place where my father was wounded in Feb 1944 and was able make out where the trench lines used to be.
Google Earth combines satelite imagery and aerial photography which is much higher resolution. Luckily most of the Italian campaign landscape is covered in this hi res imagery -the Sicily landings, Ortona, the Liri Valley and the Gothic Line battles.
You can download Google Earth for free here . There are some system requirements. You need a 3d graphics card.
Another 3Dtool is Worldwind. The imagery is not as hi res as Google Earth but gives you a good overview of the rugged terrain and allows you to zoom in and out.
I think this could be a valuable teaching tool they give you a virtual tour of 2nd world war battlefields.
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Edited to give proper links. Ed.
Google Earth combines satelite imagery and aerial photography which is much higher resolution. Luckily most of the Italian campaign landscape is covered in this hi res imagery -the Sicily landings, Ortona, the Liri Valley and the Gothic Line battles.
You can download Google Earth for free here . There are some system requirements. You need a 3d graphics card.
Another 3Dtool is Worldwind. The imagery is not as hi res as Google Earth but gives you a good overview of the rugged terrain and allows you to zoom in and out.
I think this could be a valuable teaching tool they give you a virtual tour of 2nd world war battlefields.
___________________________________
Edited to give proper links. Ed.
posted by Ronmac at 3:06 am
9 Comments:
Hi Ronmac
I've seen the program being run at a friend's house and yes, it's a cracker. Unfortunately for me I've no 3D card, so therefore no joy.
I looked also at worldwind.arc.nasa.gov
but this has the same 3d card requirements.
Glad that you've swelled our ranks and keep sending in the tips :)
I've also looked at this at a friend's house but not of any battlefields. For WW2 what you could really do with are aerial views from that time.
I have copies of photos of the village where my uncle was based in Normandy (Plumetot). They were taken by a German aeroplane during the Battle of Normandy in 1944. The detail is really good. Luckily, although the Germans could pinpoint where to bomb, they couldn't exploit this knowledge by accurate bombing.
Has anyone heard of Evidence in Camera which is supposed to have thousands of aeral photos from WW2. They were supposed to go online a couple years ago and be open to the public but they were swamped and their servers crashed. They are still not up and running. It is a UK site.
For those with GE, try this page:
http://members.chello.se/wunderboy/ge/
You'll need to have GE open and then click on the KMZ after the '/'.
You can read about and download Google Earth here. It will work with most graphic cards. You do not require a dedicated 3D card, it requires a 3D capable card, there is a difference.
Google Earth will work on most graphics cards from the following manufacturers:
NVIDIA
ATI
3D Labs
Intel
Matrox
S3
My card is, a now old, NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 500, but it runs Google Earth perfectly. I honestly thought that we were all running it.
Check here for the minimum system requirements and download page.
You should be OK, Frank. My graphics card is longer in the tooth than yours.
The best way is to download it and see if you can install and run it. If it won't install you have lost absolutely nothing. It is free.
It is only with bought software that you have to be very careful because once you have broken the shrink wrap you cannot reclaim your money.
If you get it running I will show you a few tricks that are not immediately obvious.
You will get information here in the FAQ on how to check your graphic card.
If you don't have a 3D capable grahics card this is a good excuse to go out and get one.
They are fairly inexpensive (less than a $100 CDN) these days. Computer shops wlll pop one in -all it takes is a few seconds and they wll probably give you a few shillings for your old card as exchange
RON ARE YOU GIVING UP ON ME???
I DON'T BLAME YOU! WHEN I GET THE BLOG PAGE FOR ME IT HAS MY FULL NAME ON IT BUT NOT WHAT I SHOULD GET. AND THEY KEEP ASKING ME FOR AN ACCOUNT ,SOMETHING I HAVE ALREADY!IUam at my wits' end
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