Vector/SVG data of World / Country Boundaries?

Question

I'm developing an OpenGL application. I need to have a model of planet earth spinning around (with the waters in blue, the land in green). My question is not dealing with the OpenGL / graphics ... but with the data.

Where can I get this data? (Of the boundaries of the various countries). Bonus points if you also know where I can get elevation data for each country.

Thanks!

Answer 1

You can get elevation from SRTM data from NASA. For country boundaries, I would download a shp file from a site like Geocommunity. You then can find one of the many open source shp file parsers to parse the data. Another possiblity for elevation data is DEM data. Here's a discusion on working with DEM data. You can also find tile data from Nasa.

Answer 2

For boundaries you might want to have a look at one of those:

• Natural earth
• Global Admin Areas
• Geonames