Comparison
Today's virtual globes can support various features:
| Virtual Globe | Introduction year | OS - Windows, Mac, Linux, Unix | Program/data license | Multiple datasets | Guides | Overlays | Tools | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| School, Restaurant, Hotel | Transport | Park | Street map | Satellite and aerial image | Weather map | Topographic map | Real-time traffic report | GPS-integration | Distance measure | Drawing tools | Movie maker | |||||
| Google Earth | 2005 | all | freeware (Basic) proprietary(Pro) |
No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Some | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| NASA World Wind | 2004 | Windows/all | open source, free domain | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Bing Maps | 2006 | Windows only | freeware | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Marble (KDE) | 2006 | all | LGPL | Yes | No | No | No | Yes: OpenStreetMap | Yes | Some: Shows real-time cloud images | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Virtual Globe | Introduction year | OS - Windows, Mac, Linux, Unix | Program/data license | Multiple datasets | Guides | Overlays | Tools | |||||||||
| School, Restaurant, Hotel | Transport | Park | Street map | Satellite and aerial image | Weather map | Topographic map | Real-time traffic report | GPS-integration | Distance measure | Drawing tools | Movie maker | |||||
| Virtual Globe | 3D Modelling | Planetarium | Day/night views | Imagery of other planets | Telescope/ Sky mode | Simulators | Online community user input | Extensibility | Wikipedia integration | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3D Graphics | Buildings | Terrain | Sea-floor | Flight Simulator | Sunlight Simulator | ||||||||
| Google Earth | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Some | Yes |
| NASA World Wind | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Some | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Bing Maps | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| Marble (KDE) | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Virtual Globe | 3D Modelling | Planetarium | Day/night views | Imagery of other planets | Telescope/ Sky mode | Simulators | Online community user input | Extensibility | Wikipedia integration | ||||
| 3D Graphics | Buildings | Terrain | Sea-floor | Flight Simulator | Sunlight Simulator | ||||||||
| Virtual Globe | languages supported | Hi-resolution data set areas | street-level address search areas | driving direction areas | business listing areas | hotel listing areas |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google Earth | 45 different languages, see the full list | Some: Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, United Kingdom, United States | Some: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, United Kingdom, United States | Some: Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, United Kingdom, United States | Some: Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, United Kingdom, United States | Some: Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, United Kingdom, United States |
| NASA World Wind | English | Some: United States, New Zealand (partially) | Some: Australia, Germany, France, Japan, United States, United Kingdom | No | No | No |
| Bing Maps | English | Some: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Italy, France, Australia, Germany | Some: United States, United Kingdom, Australia | Some: United States, United Kingdom, Australia | No | No |
| Marble (KDE) | Translated as part of KDE, which has 88 languages | No | Yes: via Openstreetmap | Yes: Worldwide via Openstreetmap | No | No |
| Virtual Globe | language support | Hi-resolution data set areas | street-level address search areas | driving direction areas | business listing areas | hotel listing areas |
Read more about this topic: Virtual Globes
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