Fractal Terrains And Google Earth (match made in heaven :) )
So, been working on a project. Originally I had a nice pretty Fractal Terrain map. Pretty, and fun to look at. However, it just wasn't that usable for a website. The html files are nice but not what i was looking for. So one day on a lark I looked up Google Earth and what it could do in terms of just being a blank globe.
Yeah it's good at that. So while just having someone download ALL of the images I created just to use it, I made it a "Super Overlay" which means my images work basically the same as Google Earth. You zoom in, more detailed images are loaded.
By hand creation of these files is impossible in any reasonable time frame. So I made a WPF application that takes the output from Fractal Terrains and sets it up to work with Google Earth on a website. The best example I have of it in action is http://www.rangoric.info however I am moving it all to http://maps.rangoric.info which has a very basic and ugly sample.
The project is a codeplex project so the binaries and source are available, and I do plan to continue development as I eventually want to be able to add in CC3 maps for very detailed views of cities and such, as well as campaign notes, since it is basically for a D&D campaign for now.
http://ft2ge.codeplex.com/
Yeah it's good at that. So while just having someone download ALL of the images I created just to use it, I made it a "Super Overlay" which means my images work basically the same as Google Earth. You zoom in, more detailed images are loaded.
By hand creation of these files is impossible in any reasonable time frame. So I made a WPF application that takes the output from Fractal Terrains and sets it up to work with Google Earth on a website. The best example I have of it in action is http://www.rangoric.info however I am moving it all to http://maps.rangoric.info which has a very basic and ugly sample.
The project is a codeplex project so the binaries and source are available, and I do plan to continue development as I eventually want to be able to add in CC3 maps for very detailed views of cities and such, as well as campaign notes, since it is basically for a D&D campaign for now.
http://ft2ge.codeplex.com/
Comments
And thanks for making the source code available. Nothing is better than being able to modify a program yourself to make it fit your own uses.
Once I get it looking/working a bit easier I want to get it to do desktop packages, just so you don't need to have a website to have it work, but somehow I borked that. I actually thought the method I was using would work for the desktop, it's just having test files for the "network link" can only really be done once you have something that will generate them.
Edit: Oh yeah and each layer can be generated by a different set of Fractal Terrain Pictures
and here I has spend hours creating various overlays for Google Earth from my FT worlds. Very very impressive. Can't wait to see it with CC3 maps enabled too!!