Dan P wrote:
> Awesome!!
> 
> Another way to view the earth is earth.google.com too. It's a 3D sphere with
> raised terrain that you can fly around.

Note in many ways the images you can generate with Google Earth are not 
comparable to mine.  I don't know its size limits for geometry and 
output image but for sure they are not sufficient to generate detailed 
views much larger than screen size.  All Google Earth images i saw until 
now suffer from the following further problems:

- the geometry is cut off in the background so there is no realistic 
horizon.
- the surface coloring is often quite wrong and inconsistent where two 
different image sources meet.
- extremely crude shading and lighting (1990s computer games quality, no 
shadows).

The main purpose of Google Earth is to impress computer graphics 
newbies, being an 'informative computer game'.  The Views of the Earth 
are meant to generate detailed and realistic images.

Christoph

-- 
POV-Ray tutorials, include files, Landscape of the week:
http://www.imagico.de/ (Last updated 01 Jun. 2006)
MegaPOV with mechanics simulation: http://megapov.inetart.net/

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