[Qgis-developer] globe plugin stable?

[Pirmin Kalberer]

Hi Giovanni,

Am Samstag, 13. August 2011, 21.52:50 schrieb Giovanni Manghi:
> Hi all,
> 
> I just started to play around with the Globe plugin and I'm noticing the
> following:
> 
> it works much better on a Windows 7 Virtual Machine rather than on a
> Ubuntu 64 bit installation (on a pc with an integrated video card and a
> Intel i3 cpu). In fact on the Linux platform it is not smooth at all and
> it can't be used.
> 
> on both platforms I noticed it is pretty unstable, it is just enough to
> close the globe window and relaunch the plugin a few times to get
> crashes.
> 
> How/what I have to report to help debug this issues?

Short answer: Reports like this _do_ help.
Long answer:
The globe plugin is currently not in a stable state for many configurations. 
There are configurations which work quite good, but others definitevely not.
The globe started as a research project and Marco Bernasocchi extended it for 
his master thesis. But several places need a review and maybe a rewrite to 
bring the globe to a stable state.
In spite of that I decided to integrate it into QGIS master branch, to give 
packagers enough time for their non-trivial task. In the weeks after adding 
the globe plugin to the master branch, my main work was packaging osgearth for 
Debian and supporting others in building the globe plugin with its 
dependencies.
In the meantime, the two well maintained and stable base libraries got major 
updates. OpenSceneGraph (OSG) is available in version 3.0.1 and OsgEarth will 
shortly be available in version 2.1.

The following aspects of the globe should be reviewed for stability:
1. Multithreaded QGIS core: The globe was developed based on Martins threading 
branch. Since there are now basic locks to avoid parallel rendering, the globe 
can be run without a multithreaded QGIS core.
2. OSG-QT OpenGL adapter: The original QT adapater from OSG got updates 
in the meantime.
3. OSG version compatibility: Some stablity problems could be caused by 
specific library versions.
4. Dynamic layer configuration: OSGEarth support for adding, updating and 
deleting (DEM or QGIS tile) layers dynamically is improving. QGIS globe should 
be adapted to the newest OSGEarth version.
5. Plugin startup and cleanup: There are problems on startup (window for 
OpenGL capability detection e.g.) and in cleaning up after layer updates or 
closing the globe window.

Currently there is a ongoing discussion about funding most of this work. If we 
get some funding, we will start to work soon on these stability issues. If 
not, we will work on it on occasions like the QGIS Developer Meeting in 
November.

But to come back to your question: Yes, do report issues on 
http://hub.qgis.org/projects/quantum-gis/issues with category 'Globe' and 
report working configurations to the list or me. But do not spend too much time 
and energy in it and keep cool if the globe brings your machine to its knees 
or crashes QGIS. I promise to work on stability issues before releasing it.
When reporting issues, please install the osgearth binaries and add the output 
of 'osgearth_version --caps' to your report and don't forget to mention your 
OS and OpenSceneGraph version.

Regards
Pirmin

-- 
Pirmin Kalberer
Sourcepole  -  Linux & Open Source Solutions
http://www.sourcepole.com