Gaia interface to the planet, display geographic maps with optional GPS tracking support.

Gaia is an open, portable, customizable and extendable Earth viewer, currently in an early stage of development. Optionally, the current position as reported by any GPS device supported by "gpsd" can be tracked and displayed.

Gaia is an Earth viewer that lets you navigate around the globe and zoom into almost any place. It features flat and 3D views, and also includes support for NMEA and gpsd.

Note that Gaia requires a hardware accelerated graphics card and an Internet connection to work properly.

Gaia is "an attempt to reverse engineer Google Earth and implement its functionality in open, portable, customizable and [extensible] way".

Although the project is far from being completed, Gaia supports Keyhole authentication, 3D earth view, navigation, layers, NMEA GPS.

It will be interesting to watch this project and the added functionality. Google Earth is a proprietary application that runs on Windows, Mac and Linux, but lacks a real API. An open source alternative to Google Earth is NASA World Wind, which, ironically, is a Windows-only application.

Download:

• [gaia_0.1.2-6.dsc]
• [gaia_0.1.2.orig.tar.gz]
• [gaia_0.1.2-6.diff.gz]

Similar packages:

• googleearth-package
• worldwind
• worldwind-doc
• libworldwind-java
• marble
• junior-games-gl
• kstars
• kstars-kde4
• geeqie-gps
• libglitz1
• gpsprune

Options.

        -w, --world=MODEL
             Select world model. Default model is  ‘flat’,  which  gives  you
             simple  flat world view, similar to plain paper map. No rotation
             or tilt, but this model  is  fastest.  Another  model  currently
             available  is  ‘3d’,  which  will show you earth as a globe with
             extended navigation functions. It’s currently not  finished,  so
             not much of use.

      -m, --master=TYPE
             Select  master  layer.  Master layer determines where earth data
             comes from and how it’s shown. Default master layer  is  ‘nasa’,
             which needs no explanation. Another layer is ‘test’ used primar‐
             ily for testing other components.

      -t, --test
             Add test slave layer. Used for testing like test master layer.

      -g, --grid
             Add grid slave layer. Shows dynamic geographical grid (not fully
             functional currently).

      -p, --gps=SOURCE
             Add  GPS  slave  layer.  Shows  location  of GPS device and it’s
             route.  Available sources are:

             gpsd://host[:port] - Connect to gpsd running on  specified  host
             and  port.  Port is optional and defaults to 2947. Gpsd supports
             many GPS devices  and  may  be  run  locally  or  remotely.  For
             details, see http://gpsd.berlios.de/

             nmea://path  - Path to device (socket/fifo also works) that out‐
             puts NMEA information from GPS device.

             test:// - Provides fake coordinates for layer testing.

      -h, --help
             Display a summary of the command line options.

Controls.

        Arrow Keys | Drag left mouse button
             Pan view.

      =/- | Drag the right mouse button | Mouse wheel
             Zoom in, zoom out.

      Q | Esc
             Quit the program.
      Homepage: http://gaia.serezhkin.com/

Screenshots.

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