Real-time terrain visualization on PC

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 the 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. This article deals with choosing the appropriate terrain representation and a 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.