Real-Time Terrain Visualization on PC

Jan Vaněk
University of Hradec Králové
Faculty of Informatics and Management
500 03, Hradec Králové
Czech Republic

e-mail: janvan@post.cz

 

Abstract

Terrain visualization is a task taking place in all geographic information systems (GIS). Very large datasets are often processed and visualized in real-time. Although performance of hardware continually increases, it is necessary to optimize the form and the amount of 3D terrain information to obtain sufficient framerates during visualization. The article deals with choosing the appropriate terrain representation and suitable method for large terrain data management. Proposed optimizations were successfully tested in implementation of real-time terrain visualization using a common graphic card for hardware acceleration.