Can't get Google Earth Portable to run.

[bigphil]

Mods, I've duplicated this post in Additional Software (PETs, n' stuff)/Browsers and Internet but nobodies answered so I wondered if it had got buried . If it the wrong thing to do please delete one of the post and accept my apologies,

I'm running Fossapup 9.5 64 bit and can't get Google Earth Portable to run.
It fires up OK but the display area is blank (no image).

I know I have had it running before so I booted into Bionic and it runs perfectly.

Any of you clever people got any ideas?

Phil.

[pp4mnklinux]

Hi:

Sometime ago I experiment problems with GoogleEarth Portable, so no worries for me.-

I have different browsers so I used Chrome to navigate to https://earth.google.com/web so I don't need the Earth Software.

Faster, Better.... WEB.

Happy New Year.

[mikewalsh]

@pp4mnklinux :-

Well, yeah. You CAN get by with Earth Web.....but it's considerably slower on equivalent hardware, and far more resource intensive. For a given CPU, the Google Earth app will always be much more responsive; you don't get all that fancy 'tourist'-type information, for one thing.....and it's this that appears to make the online version so sluggish.

But of course, at the end of the day, it's a personal decision. I know that, for ME, the Google Earth app works far better. With my set-up, Earth Web is quite 'laggy' & 'sluggish'.....even under Puppy, and even with buckets of RAM along with a discrete GPU.

=====================================

Y'know, now that I think about it, on the big HP desktop rig, this might just have summat to do with the 6-yr old Pentium G5400's lack of the AVX instruction set. The 'new' Latitude's considerably older Core i5-3340m, however, does have AVX. I'll have to try Earth4Web - in Chrome itself - on the Lat.....and see what happens. It strikes me that, with the way Earth4Web works, vector extensions would be a very useful addition for the CPU. Hmm. Let's see what transpires, shall we..?

Mike.

[mikewalsh]

Well, I'll be jiggered. Un-be-lievable. Interesting; what a difference.....

Earth for Web is running every bit as snappily - here on the 12-yr old Latitude, with good old Intel on-die graphics - as the Google Earth-portable 'app' does on the HP desktop rig with a discrete Nvidia GPU. Nice one.!

And all, apparently, courtesy of the AVX instruction set.

So; Earth4Web is now "installed" as a Chrome 'app' here on the Latitude.....and joins the video-calling apps and other Chrome 'apps' I'm already using in this highly-modified & hugely upgraded Xenialpup64.

I'm a happy bunny tonight, yessirree. Sorted ! [ @pp4mnklinux - cheers, mate. Thanks for the reminder about Earth4Web. ]

Mike.

[ozsouth]

@mikewalsh - the web link a few posts up works, even on my Celeron N4500 (no avx), but what I see in Firefox is quite old. My house was built 12 years ago, but isn't there.

[mikewalsh]

@ozsouth / @all :-

Hm. Y'know, having said what I said above, I think I agree with you, Oz. I've just tried Earth4Web out here on the big HP desktop - no AVX - annnnd, well; it's behaving itself a whole heap better than it was doing, say, 6 months ago. I believe this points to code improvements and probable streamlining on Google's part, rather than owt to do with specific instruction sets, TBH....

Eeh, well; I'm not complaining..! Gives me TWO strings to mah bow now. Nice one.

Mike.