Earth Phase I - ReadMe

Written by Mark Crossley 2007,2008,2009,2010

Adapted from the forthcoming (it may already be out there by now) Moon Phase III gadget.

I recommend that you always unistall previous versions of the gadget then install a new version, this cleans things up somewhat.

This gadget uses a Flash 3D graphics engine to display the Earths globe.

• You can spin the Earths globe around to see what lies on the terminator more clearly.
• Display a realistic cloud layer based on what is actually happening. An off-line cloud layer is provided that displays sparse clouds mainly over the oceans if an Internet connection is not avaialble. The 'real' clouds are provided by the XPlanet service and are updated every three hours. Please note that adding clouds does increase the CPU demands of the gadget.
• Display city lights on the night-time section of the globe.

Q. Why would I want to change the Gadget background colour?

A. I would really like to make the background transparent and be done with it. But, sidebar cannot paint semi-transparent pixels over transparent ones. The edges of the Earth image that Flash normally generates are anti-aliased with semi-transparent pixels. Sidebar displays these as bright magenta! As a workaround I put the Flash into 'low quality' mode. This stops the aliasing, but gives a 'coarser' look.

However if you have a solid colour dekstop background, you can make the gadget background match this colour to blend seamlessly. The Flash is put into 'best quality' mode giving the smoothest appearance to the gadget. I recommend using this setting where ever possible.

I changed my location to somewhere else in the world and the Sun rise/set times do not look right. Why is this?

A. Just changing the location is not enough. The gadget always displays the rise/set times in your Windows timezone local time. To see the times in another place in the world you have to change your Windows timezone to match that location.

Q. Why doesn't the gadget display or I get an error about Flash on my Windows 7 64 bit machine?

A. The Adobe Flash Player is a 32 bit only application, at the time of writing there is only a beta 64 bit version available. The alternative is to force the Windows Sidebar application to work in 32bit mode. Use Regedit to...

Edit the following Registry Key:
HKey_Current_User\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
Change the SideBar value from:
C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\sidebar.exe /autoRun
to:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Sidebar\sidebar.exe /autoRun
Logoff and back on again, you may have to re-install some of your Gadgets, but you
should be up and running with any Gadget that uses Flash after this change.

Q. What future developments are planned?

A. The new 3D engine should allow me to implement the ability to show eclipses fairly easily.

Rewrite the code completely! I just used some quick and dirty routines I had lying around.

I hope you enjoy this Gadget, feedback via the Windows Live Gallery and email is always appreciated and any small donations via PayPal would be very welcome :) - I put many hours of work into writing these gadgets. Any amount is welcome - even $1.

Thanks
Mark

Change Log

v0.3.0

• Change transparency to no longer use the background masks, no more magenta pixels!
• Gadget can now be resized to any where between 131 and 600 pixels
• Much improved cloud download handling, I hope this works in all situations now
• Now supports high DPI screen modes (Windows 7 only)

v0.2.1

• Fixed background images not being displayed in 'transparent' mode - oops!
• Improved failed cloud image download handling

v0.2.0

• Improved default texture resolution
• Added in extra earth textures - topogrpahic and sea floor
• Added extra definition to globe 'sphere'
• Added static and real cloud layers
• Added/changed 'View From' options
• Improved layout of setup dialogs

v0.1.0 - Earth Phase I

• Initial release