Mobile Maps offer real-time, real-world images for PCs
HIGH COUNTRY SOFTWARE announces the release of it's MOBILE MAP VIEWER in the UK. The VIEWER offers fast and flexible movement around 3D virtual reality Mobile Maps on IBM-PCs.
Mobile Maps provide an answer to the age old question of traditional map users: "what does the ground here really look like?!" Instead of straining to make sense of the usual 'birds nest' of contours, the user can take an eye-level walk or flight around a vision of the real world.
While nobody is predicting a serious assault on the paper map, Mobile Maps introduce a new map medium that provides a realistic way of representing the world. From avoiding becoming lost on hikes, having an armchair heli-tour of the summit of Mount Everest, to professional uses in such fields as civil and environmental engineering, Mobile Maps offer numerous interesting and applied uses.
In time-honoured tradition, the startling technological breakthroughs that have made Mobile Maps possible are the result of a backyard development company thinking the unthinkable, and bringing what has generally been considered a supercomputer application onto PCs. Please step forward:- New Zealand graphics programmer Peter Abrahamson. =20
Key technologies in Mobile Maps include: infinite fractal scaling in the foreground, curved surfaces, displacement mapping, and ground based photo-texture mapping using mip-mapping.
What Mobile Maps provide is a vision of the natural world that looks just as good on the ground as in the air; and significant detail right from the viewer's feet to the horizon. Mobile Maps avoid blocky foreground pixellation, and lack of background depth and thereby achieve their unique realism.
The MOBILE MAP VIEWER was designed for optimum speed and low memory to allow use on mobile laptop and palmtop computers. With total memory requirements of a mere 550K RAM, 386 compatibility, and the ability to run in MS-DOS, Win3.1 and Win95, it is aimed at the widest possible market of PC users -not only high end Pentium users.
The VIEWER comes with a free basic map editor, for people who cannot find or buy the desired Mobile Map. Companies and institutions wishing to produce Mobile Maps for sale or to professional standard should contact HIGH COUNTRY SOFTWARE.
HIGH COUNTRY SOFTWARE is a computer software development and consultancy company with a local office at 22 Wycombe Gardens, Golders Green, London NW11 8AL, UK.=20
A licensed copy of MOBILE MAP VIEWER may be ordered from HIGH COUNTRY SOFTWARE for =9C50, $70, DM 120 (+ 17.5% VAT in Europe, +5% p&p outside Europe). Phone +44 (0)181-731-6360, or investigate the web page at http:\\www.mobilemaps.com
