Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
Getting the data
Lex will make use of two map layers: a
basemap layer
that displays a shaded-relief raster
image, and a
landmark layer
that shows the individual landmarks based on a set of place
names. Both of these datasets can be downloaded from the Natural Earth Data website. Vis-
it
http://www.naturalearthdata.com
and click on the
Get the Data
link to jump to the
Downloads
page.
The basemap data can be found by clicking on the
Raster
link. We'll want the highest-res-
olution data available, so use the link in the
Large scale data, 1:10m
section.
While you could use any of these datasets as a basemap, we will download the
Natural
Earth I with Shaded Relief, Water, and Drainages
dataset. Make sure you download the
high-resolution version of this dataset so that the raster image will still look good when the
user has zoomed in.
For the landmarks, we'll be using the "populated places" dataset. Go back to the main
downloads page and click on the
Cultural
link in the
Large scale data, 1:10m
section.
Scroll down to the
Populated Places
section and click on the
Download Populated Places
link.
Once you have finished downloading, you should have two ZIP archives on your computer:
NE1_HR_LC_SR_W_DR.zip
ne_10m_populated_places.zip
Create a folder named
data
, decompress the preceding two ZIP archives, and place the
resulting directories into your
data
folder.
