KMLImporter progress

Even though I didn't entirely fix the problem that was keeping me from adding KMZ support,
I'm still going to give you version 9 which has KMZ support after a small workaround
Major new features are 'native' KMZ support and icon scaling
To get this plugin to work on anything older than the latest WorldWind build:
Extract the plugin as usual, then copy ICSharpCode.SharpZipLib.dll to your main WW directory
Plugin available at: http://www.twobeds.com/shockfire/WW-Rel/KMLImporter9.zip

KMLImporter support extended

KMLImporter support extended
I've extended KMLImporter placemark with lots of small and not so small features
Most notable are support for folders and icons from disk
This means that you can now simply extract a KMZ file with a tool like WinRAR,
KMLImporter will then be able to find the extracted icons when you load the extracted KML
There have been lots of small fixes regarding styles, so just about any KML with icons should load now
A new version is available at http://www.twobeds.com/shockfire/WW-Rel/KMLImporter7.zip

SideWind progress
First of all I have to 'correct' myself:
SideWind is not being developed by them but by us, meaning me and a friend
(we will also be joined by various others, but we form the main development team)
I admit the posts on this subject were rather inconclusive on this part
There is certainly progress on SW, there's just no coding going on just yet
We are busy planning and investigating though, and I hope there's something to post sometime soon

KMLImporter plugin

I've spent a few hours moving some of PlaneTracker's code over to a new plugin
and the result is a plugin that can read most .kml files that contain icons
Support for other features such as polygons and network links are on the list
(note that it already supports images that have to be downloaded from the web)

Because I cannot include the default icons GE uses you have to copy those over yourself
Find palette*.png in the GE res dir and copy those over to the empty icons directory
This plugin comes with no sort of warranty at all, so use it at your own risk
Download: http://www.twobeds.com/shockfire/WW-Rel/KMLImporter4.zip

WWLatConverter released

WWLatConverter is a very simple app that allows you to convert .lat files to WorldWind add-ons
Such files are usually generated by scout, allowing you to convert KML files
There's no GUI and it only converts icons, but it can still be usefull quickly converting simple KML files

Feeds now available

RSS and Atom feeds are now available for this blog
Links to these feeds can also be found under the Feeds header on the right

Codename for WorldWind game announced

Codename for WorldWind game announced
Not one, but yes... two codenames have been decided for the previously mentioned WorldWind game
The WorldWind game will start off as 'SideWind'
This name is meant for the first version, which will be based on WW 1.3.4 and will probably mainly be a technology test
Later, the game will transition into the WW 1.5 engine, and will then be known as 'SolarWind'
(this because current plans are to feature the entire solar system in the game)
Both names will be shortened to SW to preserve keyboards

PlaneTracker to feature 3D models
Plans are under way to include a mode that shows airplanes in 3D in the next version of PlaneTracker
Since performance may be less than optimal icons will still be available, and there may even be a combination of the two
Though this data isn't available directly, it's possible to figure out the type of aircraft and show an appropriate 3D model accordingly

I've decided to reopen my blog!

I've decided to reopen my blog!
The main content will be about WorldWind, but it's still open for everything I might want to share
For now, I'll start off with some current WorldWind news, and I'll try to post updates as they come along

A beta of PlaneTracker has been released
A test version of PlaneTracker has been released to the public and can be found in this forum post:
http://forum.worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/index.php?showtopic=5528
This is still not resembling a final version, but it's fairly usable and fun so far so it's worth a try
The release is mainly meant to catch bugs, but of course suggestions are welcome as well

Bull_[UK] opens 'Bull's rambles' weblog
At what seems to be an attempt to get WorldWind blogs going, Bull opens up his own blog
As the name suggests, this blog isn't all that formal, thus nicely complementing the add-ons blog
Bull's brand new blog can be found at http://bullsworld.blogspot.com/

Work on WorldWind game started
Even though there's nothing official about this yet, development has quietly started
So far no actual work has been done but the idea is out there so I suspect there will be more news on this subject very soon
The next step will of course be creating a codename for the project so I can actually refer to it