The Virtual Planet Explorer

Roland Piquepaille writes "A European Union program has helped several European partners to develop the Virtual Planet (or V-Planet) software, which will enable its users to browse and interact in three dimensions with any part of our planet, according to IST Results. "Using Vplanet Explorer, anyone can set off on a journey to discover new regions in 3D, rather than staring at a flat map and trying to picture its scenery," says Eric Martin, coordinator of the IST project. The software can also be used for technical simulations and has already been used by both Airbus and Boeing. It should be available this summer for about 10,000 euros (about $12K). Besides other details and references, this overview contains several pictures of simulations using V-Planet."

I heard that it was developed in Python.

[CyricZ]

I read in a newsgroup posting that it was developed using Python and OpenGL on IRIX (not surprising, really), and then ported with ease to the PC. I think that this application really goes to show the versatility of scripting languages like Python, assuming what I read was correct. Such languages are stepping away from the fringes towards mainstream, massive application development.

Re:Worldy Wisdom

[Anonymous Coward]

While there's an illogical sense of entitlement on the part of some/many slashdot readers, the underlying point is valid... tax dollars are going to develop something and then the people whose taxdollars are spent have to pay outrageous fees to use it.

The question that should be asked is... Who's making money from this and how much money are they making? Then people can make a more informed decision on how their taxdollars are spent.

NASA's WorldWind

[tinrobot]

Does very similar things... is getting better every release... and it's free.

http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/ [nasa.gov]