NASA World Wind’s multiplatform fuctionality
So if you are a developer and want to use NASA World Wind for development purposes, you can download it as well. However, if you are a general user that is of no use to you and you do not need to download it. Just download the Full Install, and that's all that is needed.
If you want to download the source code as well, you can download it. For this when you have successfully downloaded and installed Full install, copy the Data Directory from your Full install directory of World Wind in your source directory.
What are the system requirements for downloading NASA World Wind?
For downloading NASA World Wind you need to have system with the following requirements.
a) Windows XP, 2003, 2000, Vista (there is some additional compatibility requirement for Windows Vista). Note, that at this moment NASA World Wind does not support Linux or Macintosh. But they may be supported in the multiplatform World Wind Java SDK, which is to be released soon.
b) Your system should have a 3D graphics card (for this as well there is some additional compatibility).
c) An internet connection.
What about compatibility of Windows Vista?
Basically, NASA World Wind was not designed to be used for Windows Vista. However, it is able to run on it. At the beginning, it was reported that for, installing and running NASA World Wind on Windows Vista, the User Account Control (UAC) should be disabled. However, this resulted in a problem that all programs would run if the UAC was disabled.
To solve this problem an alternative method is to run world wind as an administrator. For doing this you can first install World Wind application, just the same way as you install any other Windows program.
When you have installed it successfully, click the World Wind application or its shortcut. From the options, choose properties. This would open up a dialog box saying “World Wind Properties Dialog Box 1”.
On this dialog box, below the Compatibility tab choose “Run this program as an administrator”. After this save this change.
Then “See World Wind Properties Dialog Box 2”.
after this you can run NASA World Wind, just the same way as any to Windows program, whether you wan to allow it to run or cancel it.
One more method which has been found to be used successfully, is to install World Wind outside the program files directory, for example, in can:\NASA.
What about Windows 95, 98 and ME compatibility?
As Microsoft no longer maintains these three versions of Windows; it is possible that NASA World Wind introduce features for breaking compatibility with them. However, NASA World Wind must no be longer expected to fun on these operating systems. Nevertheless, if your system fulfills the other minimum requirements, NASA World Wind will run on these systems as well.
What are the software requirements for running NASA World Wind?
The installer for NASA World Wind should be able to detect and direct you to install Microsoft .NET 2.0 and Microsoft Managed Direct 9.0c (October 2005 redistributable) by default.
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