The Settings page of the Globe plugin, connected to a Picture Player plugin
The Globe plugin offers the most settings for configuration of all the plugins.
In the Name box, you can change the name of this plugin. This name is then subsequently used for the plugin in the program menu and the layout-manager. Currently you can have only one Globe plugin running in a layout, so there is no real need to change the name.
The dropdown-box Connections to other plugins lets you choose between not connected and other plugins. If you choose a plugin from the dropdown-box, then the Globe plugin gets the coordinates it displays and where it puts the marker on from that plugin.
In the following example the Globe is connected to one Picture Player plugin named All, but there could be several other plugins in the dropdown-list if your layout is a bit more complex.
Below the "Connections"-dropdown box you can see 2 other groups of settings, 3D Settings and Info Panel.
The 3D Settings group starts with a box which lets you select the Frames Per Second (FPS). That is the number of times, the Globe is redrawn in one second. 1 FPS means, that the Globe is drawn only once every second. This settings uses little CPU power, but only looks good in situations where the globe doesn't rotate at all. That is when the Globe is fixed on a certain position, e.g.. the coordinates of a webcam. If you want the globe to rotate, then the faster the rotation the higher the frame rate has to be to allow for the impression of a smooth rotation.
On the right side of the 3D Settings group you find the check-boxes for the visual effects: Atmosphere, Bumpmapping, Water Reflection, Night, Stars, Sun and Moon. Each of these effects has an impact on performance and memory consumption. If you want to use less resources, especially on systems with older graphics adapters, try switching off Bumpmapping and Night.
The last of the 3D Settings is the Marker Position. Changing this setting is only possible when the Globe is connected or not rotating. However, when the globe is fixed to a certain position and the marker shows the location of those coordinates, the setting for the Marker Position determines, where in the display area the marker is shown. This is of course only useful when parts of the display area of the Globe are obscured by another plugin like a Picture Player. Take the Globe and Cam preset for example: The display area of the Picture Player covers a great deal of the lower right corner of the screen. If the Marker on the Globe were to be displayed in the middle of the screen, most of the surrounding area on the globe would be obscured by the Picture Player. So instead the marker is now display in the top left area of the screen, where it can be clearly observed.
The Info Panel group start with a dropdown-box which lets you choose the Position at which the info panel is display or if it's displayed at all. The Elements settings lets you choose which elements of the available information of a webcam is to be displayed in the info panel.
If the Globe plugin is not connected, several additional Settings are available:
The Time Settings group start with a box labeled Globe Date/Time in UTC. Here you select the time of day in UTC time and a date. Effectively that means you are setting the direction the light is coming from. UTC means Coordinated Universal Time and equals Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). So in most parts of the world you are in a different time zone and have to subtract or add several hours from UTC to your local time. If you don't know the difference, click the Reset To Now button to the right of the Globe Date/Time in UTC box. Now the Globe plugin reads your computers clock, time zone and current date and synchronizes the globe's Time Settings with it. You now can see the difference of your local time computer clock and UTC. Watch the globe and see where on earth it's day and where it's night right now.
The next setting of the Time Settings group is labeled Speed. You can choose an entry from the dropdown-box, or you can enter a custom setting in the fields to the right of the dropdown box. If you select natural Time, then the animation of one day on the globe takes 24 hours to be displayed. Use this setting if you have initialized the time with the Reset To Now button and want to observe how the day/night unfolds on the globe while you watch it in real time. This looks great as a long running desktop background image. Of course you can also change this setting and speed things up... Summing it up, the Speed setting is the time it takes the light to circle once around the globe.
The Camera Movement group starts with another Speed setting. This sets the time it takes for the globe to circle once around its own axis. Again, you can choose from a dropdown-box or type in your custom setting in the fields at the right of the dropdown box.
The Speed dropdown box also contains the option random camera movement which puts the globe into free-flight mode, where the camera moves freely around the simulated earth, varying speed and distance as well as the viewing angle. This exciting new mode creates some spectacular views and is highly recommended to try out!
The next setting in this group is the Coordinate setting. If your globe is rotating, then you can only set the Latitude, which tells you how far north or south your from the equator on the globe. If your globe should displays a fixed position, then you also have to set the Longitude of the coordinates. The last setting in this group is the Viewing Distance which lets you choose how close you are to the globe.