Creating an Imaginary Screen for Google Earth or other map

[mrmeebles]

I have been wanting to use the Kismet + Google Maps output to make a jpg. I want the JPG to be a very large detailed map covering a large area. Using Google Maps it's possible to save the map your on with the plotted points but the output is restricted by the screen resolution.

Any solutions on how to generate a map whose boundaries exceed the screen size and how to save it?

Does this violate the EULA?

Would there be another more GPL friendly program that this would be possible with? GPSdrive 2.10pre3 has a nice new interface for specifying maps. (BTW has anybody here had success compiling the latest svn copy of GPSdrive?)

[themacuser]

Does this violate the EULA?

Unfortunately it kind-of does...

You may not copy, reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, translate, modify or make derivative works of the imagery, in whole or in part. You also may not rent, disclose, publish, sell, assign, lease, sublicense, market, or transfer the imagery or any part thereof or use it in any manner not expressly authorized by this agreement.

[i_do_dew]

...
Any solutions on how to generate a map whose boundaries exceed the screen size and how to save it?

On the technical point of can you make a screen larger than your desktop area, yes.

It is possible to generate a desktop that is larger than your screen. The card needs to support Panning. The largest I've ever gone with this was 1600x1200 on the external video from my notebook. That is an ATI Mobility Radeon Using their software drivers. If you want to go larger you would probably have to build a custom monitor.inf file with your desired resolution information and apply it to the secondary monitor.

The resolution limit is based on screen geometry, and the amount of memory the video card has. If you could stand to loose some color depth, the possibility of going larger occurs up to the point at which your card cant display the full screen (page) in a cycle because of the bandwidth of Video processor on the card. Then it chokes. Interlacing, if supported, may get you larger since that paints every other line each pass.

The largest actual supported resolution on a monitor which I've seen was 1920 by something I cant recall at the moment. I think it was part of the XGA specification. If you custom designed a huge display area which the screen doesn't support, it will go all screwy. However The system is still displaying the information. If you can do whatever you need to do with keyboard function alone you still may be able to take the picture even if you cannot see it. Screen capture is done by grabbing the video buffer or window space, not reading the display device.

The minimum memory needed to display the page is bits per pixel times the number of pixels. You would probably need more than that in practical terms.

I've built custom Monitor.INF files. It is an easy process if you copy one and edit it down to a simple one with what you want. You usually have to fiddle with it if you want the display to be visible and not every resolution will work.