Marble is a

virtual globe A virtual globe is a 3D computer graphics, three-dimensional (3D) software model or representation of Earth or another world. A virtual globe provides the user with the ability to freely move around in the virtual environment by changing the vie ...

application which allows the user to choose among the Earth, the Moon, Venus, Mars and other planets to display as a 3-D model. It is

free software Free software, libre software, libreware sometimes known as freedom-respecting software is computer software distributed open-source license, under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, distribut ...

under the terms of the

GNU LGPL The GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) is a free-software license published by the Free Software Foundation (FSF). The license allows developers and companies to use and integrate a software component released under the LGPL into their own ...

, developed by

KDE KDE is an international free software community that develops free and open-source software. As a central development hub, it provides tools and resources that enable collaborative work on its projects. Its products include the KDE Plasma gra ...

for use on

personal computer A personal computer, commonly referred to as PC or computer, is a computer designed for individual use. It is typically used for tasks such as Word processor, word processing, web browser, internet browsing, email, multimedia playback, and PC ...

s and

smart phone A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as multi ...

s. It is written in C++ and uses Qt. Marble is intended to be very flexible; beyond its cross-platform design, the core components can easily be integrated into other programs. It is designed to run without the need for hardware acceleration, but it can be extended to use

OpenGL OpenGL (Open Graphics Library) is a Language-independent specification, cross-language, cross-platform application programming interface (API) for rendering 2D computer graphics, 2D and 3D computer graphics, 3D vector graphics. The API is typic ...

. An important user-experience objective being that the application start fairly quickly, it ships with a minimal but useful off-line dataset (5–10MB). Contributors have added support for on-line mapping sources such as

OpenStreetMap OpenStreetMap (abbreviated OSM) is a free, Open Database License, open geographic database, map database updated and maintained by a community of volunteers via open collaboration. Contributors collect data from surveying, surveys, trace from Ae ...

and the ability to interpret KML files. Marble also provides

route planning A journey planner, trip planner, or route planner is a specialized search engine used to find an optimal means of travelling between two or more given locations, sometimes using more than one transport mode. Searches may be optimized on differe ...

capabilities. A navigation mode called MarbleToGo was developed as part of Google Summer of Code 2010. It was later partially rewritten and renamed to ''Marble Touch''. ''Geothek'' is a

fork In cutlery or kitchenware, a fork (from 'pitchfork') is a utensil, now usually made of metal, whose long handle terminates in a head that branches into several narrow and often slightly curved tines with which one can spear foods either to h ...

of Marble adding a statistics module, pixel maps, and a 3D view. It is developed and used by Austrian publisher as atlas software for classrooms.

References

External links

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Geothek website
2006 software Astronomy software Earth sciences graphics software Educational software for Linux Educational software for macOS Educational software for Windows Free educational software Free science software Free software programmed in C++ Geography education software KDE Education Project Keyhole Markup Language Remote sensing software Route planning software Software that uses Qt Virtual globes {{KDE-stub

See also

References

External links