Marble/MapThemes

Under Construction

This is a new page, currently under construction!

One of the core features of Marble is the support for different maps (map themes in Marble speak) and different planets. Each of them can be viewed in different projections: Make the planet look like a globe using the Spherical projection or view it like a printed map in the Mercator projection.

Planet Choices

Earth. Plenty of different map themes are available.	Moon. We're aware it's not really a planet.
Mars	Venus

Map Theme Choices

Overview Maps

Map Theme	Preview	Description
Atlas		A classic topographic map. It uses vector lines to mark coastlines, country borders etc. and a height relief.
Plain Map		A simple version of the Atlas theme without topography.
Satellite View		Earth as seen from space with sun illumination. Includes a cloud layer with real-time data.
Natural Earth		Natural Earth portrays the world environment in an idealized manner with little human influence. Includes a cloud layer with real-time data.
Earth at Night		Earth as seen from space without sun illumination.

Street Maps

These maps are optimized for high zoom levels, showing many details on the street and city level. Some of them provide good country and even continent or space views, but that's not their primary area of use. Need to find a route? Do you like hiking or biking? Want to explore the neighborhood? Pick one of these maps.

Map Theme	Preview	Description
OpenStreetMap General purpose		The famous OpenStreetMap Mapnik layer. A general purpose map with useful information for the most common use cases. The map is identical to that shown on openstreetmap.org. Combine this map theme with the Mercator projection for optimal speed and a sharp map view.
Osmarender General purpose		The OpenStreetMap Osmarender layer. A general purpose map with useful information for the most common use cases. The map is identical to that selectable in the top-right toolbox on openstreetmap.org. Compared to the Mapnik layer (OpenStreetMap theme), this theme has more lively colors and presents some different data. The view from space looks better than that of Mapnik. On the other hand, Mapnik handles conflicting elements at the street level better. In Osmarender, icon sizes are less balanced and the z-order (stacking) is wrong for some elements. Labels overlap in densely packed areas. Combine this map theme with the Mercator projection for optimal speed and a sharp map view.
OpenCycleMap For bikers		OpenStreetMap data presented for bikers. The map is identical to that selectable in the top-right toolbox on openstreetmap.org. Combine this map theme with the Mercator projection for optimal speed and a sharp map view.
OSM Hike & Bike Map For hikers and bikers		A map theme optimized for hiking and biking, based on OpenStreetMap data. Includes a very nice hillshading layer that shows the terrain (activate it in the Legend). Combine this map theme with the Mercator projection for optimal speed and a sharp map view.

Educational Maps

Map Theme	Preview	Description
Historical Map 1689		A historical world map from the year 1689 created by G. van Schagen in Amsterdam.
Precipitation (month)		Colors indicate the precipitation in the given month. Open the Legend to find out which color matches which precipitation.
Temperature (month)		Colors indicate the average temperature in the given month. Open the Legend to find out which color matches which temperature.

Restricted Maps

These map themes work fine in Marble from a technical point of view. The terms of service of the companies offering these maps, however, may prevent you from using it. If you want to use these map themes, you must install them manually. Make sure their terms of service allow you to use them within Marble.

Warning

To the best of our knowledge the usage of these restricted maps is forbidden in an application like Marble. We only want to demonstrate the technical feasibility here. Please don't add details on their installation in Marble to this Wiki. We don't want to promote the usage of maps which we think are not free.

Map Theme	Preview	Description
Google Maps		Street maps from maps.google.com
Google Satellite		Satellite maps from maps.google.com
Mapquest		Street maps from mapquest.com
Virtual Earth		Satellite maps from virtualearth.net

Installing Additional Maps

Map Theme	Linux (KDE)	Mac, Windows	Maemo (N900)
OpenStreetMap	Packaged	Packaged	Packaged
Atlas	Packaged	Packaged	Marble Maps package

Projection Choices

	Spherical Projection	Flat Map Projection	Mercator Projection
Example
Common Usage	Distant view, measuring large distances	Distant view	Close view