UGO

Progressing with c#

May 31, 2007 (01:57 CET)

Mmm, this c# OOP paradigm is certainly a fine challenge, Python and Delphi were a smooth ride compared to this. I need to switch some buttons in my head to get this OOP stuff to work. Have spend quite some time already, reading, figuring it out, testing, reading again. And its getting there, but its going slow, and I also don't have the nights to spend like I had a couple of weeks ago so please bare with me while I finish the code and deliver you the beta. The slow down also stems from my needing to figure out what the beta should entail in terms of features. A nice addition I'd like to make is to have the UGO be created on the spot (as in real-time), but all this needs a bit of rework on the code...and that's confusing if I can't get the original one to be coded correctly first (no .kmz's this time).

To the Moon and Beyond

May 25, 2007 (02:55 CET)

Ok, sorry folks, no beta yet, cause I decided to port my app one more time, this time from Delphi to c#...Why, you might ask? Well, after some good feedback and discussions following a limited mailing of my gamma alpha release (thanks Duncan), I figured it would be a shame to release UGO only on the windows platform. Getting my app to run on c# will allow me to port it reasonably fast to the Mac OSX platform. Please stay tuned while I spent another couple of nights getting up to speed on Visual Studio Express and Xcode...

Oh, and another thing. I will be changing servers in the meantime too, so there might be an interval where both my blogs will appear a bit funky.

To see the UGO's below, load the following Moon or Mars overlay (provided by Matt Foxx) in combination with the .kmz file:

• Moon overlay --- UGO Moon .kmz
• Mars overlay --- UGO Mars .kmz

UGO testing ongoing

May 15, 2007 (11:37 CET)

I did some more coding and testing over the weekend and yesterday and its turning out as a really neat app. Here are some screendumps I made during the process (more at flickr). I am aiming to publish a UGO beta version before the end of this week but as I am basically learning as I go along (steep learning curve ;), it might be a couple of days later... (.kmz file #1, .kmz file #2, .kmz file #3)

UGO @ Mauna Kea

May 9, 2007 (18:54 CET)

Still busy porting my python script to Delphi for a more user friendly GUI. Basic functionality is over, now its time for some buttons. Hope to be back with a Beta soon ;)...(.kmz file)

UGO touch&go

May 7, 2007 (18:16 CET)

Reminds me I really have to get my pilot license one day. Google Earth is all fine and good, but I am sure it can't beat just flying through the beautiful Dutch clouds in real life. (.kmz file)

UGO 4 banner image

May 6, 2007 (20:48 CET)

I didn't manage to put up a py2exe of my UGOgenerator yet, but with some luck I'll be able to manage a bit more sophistication through Delphi this week for a Beta version. Instead, here is the UGO which I just created to make the banner for this new blog. (.kmz file)

UGO @ Afsluitdijk, NL

May 5, 2007 (17:17 CET)

Another one of my earlier UGO tests. Here I found something closer to home to test the accuracy of my script: the Afsluitdijk just north of Amsterdam. Its a nice straight line in Google Earth, perfect for in-world testing. At one point I was having an error in my script which resulted in the UGO deviating more at increased altitude, like shown in the image below. It actually makes a nice graph... (.kmz file, test .kml file)

UGO update test

May 5, 2007 (15:22 CET)

Another random UGO for testing purposes. Here you see the position updating is clearly not what it ought to be. Check out the 3D Buildings layer in Google Earth, cause I'll usually use this as contextual markers for the performance of my UGOs (like shown in the lower image of this post). A useful tool you might wanna get a hold on once I put up v0.1 of the UGO visualiser is 3Dconnexion's SpaceNavigator (its the most intuitive way to create a UGO ;) (.kmz file)

UGO @ NEMO Science Museum, Amsterdam

May 5, 2007 (15:01 CET)

This is another test I did a couple of days ago to see whether my code really corresponds with my flightpath. I choose a thin line as part of a bridge in Amsterdam to test my current script. It also shows a little bit of the height resolution which I have been testing. One of the things that keeps me busy is to figure out how to increase the temporal resolution of the COM API readouts. So far, it seems there is an issue with the ActiveState Python IDE I am using in combination with Google Earth. At one point, I re-installed both programs which seemed to help in increasing the speed of the script (or possibly the COM API readout), leading to a better resolution and a more accurate path. Still need to figure out what exactly is going on here...(.kmz file)

UGO @ Low Earth Orbit

May 5, 2007 (14:46 CET)

Here is a somewhat more traditional UGO, a Low Earth Orbit around the Earth. When you load it into Google Earth, you'll notice that for the green one there is still something fishy going on around the International Date Line ...

(.kmz file)

UGO in NY

May 4, 2007 (19:21 CET)

Just playing around...Notice how the Empire State disappear behind the red wall...

(kmz file #1, kmz file #2)

UGO @ vondelpark, Amsterdam

May 4, 2007 (19:17 CET)

My old-time jogging round here in Amsterdam...the peaks in the red line is where I lost my way flying the jogging path in Google Earth, zooming out to look for the road which is obscured by the trees. (kmz file)

UGO @ KSC

May 4, 2007 (19:14 CET)

What better way than to test my script at the Kennedy Space Center landing strip? You can see in the second image that cutting off the resolution of the COM API output (lat, lon, range, tilt, azimuth) results in the path following the grid. Could be a nice opportunity to play a game of Tron in Google Earth!








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UGO: proof of concept #2

May 4, 2007 (17:11 CET)

Following up on my post at my tobedetermined! blog, I will start by posting a series of earlier screendumps of the UGO visualiser. You can see all my screendumps sofar at my flick account. I will be adding some more stuff over the weekend (gotta run right now...). Hopefully I'll also have the time to post a first py2exe executable of my python script here this weekend.