The raster display of the Amiga was of high enough resolution to make nice images of the earth's surface. The program was written in AmigaBasic. An image of the earth's surface was rendered in about 15 seconds. I took a formal course in computer graphics in graduate school, and have had substantial exposure to matrix algebra in the meantime. Therefore I had a much easier time with the mathematical parts of the programming than I had had before.
Modern computers are now fast enough that the images be manipulated in real time.
Simple images of the earth can be rendered in about 250 milliseconds on my PC, and in about 100 milliseconds on a fast SGI workstation. Select an image to view the full size version 2000 - Java version Java GlobeView Plans for the future Other projections Fill in the contintents instead of just drawing outlines. This is going to require that I reformat the data so that everything is in terms of strictly closed polygons, all drawn with the same convention. This is probably best done by creating a low level data browsing and modification menu. Stereoscopic modes for perspective and orthographic projections Incorporate elevation data.