Efficient and accurate rendering of vector data on virtual landscapes

Abstract

In geographical information systems (GIS) vector data has important applications in the analysis and management of virtual landscapes. Therefore, methods that allow combined visualization of terrain and geo-spatial vector data are required. Such methods have to adapt the vector data to the terrain surface and to ensure a precise and efficient mapping. In this paper, we present a method that is based on the stencil shadow volume algorithm and allows high-quality real-time overlay of vector data on virtual landscapes. Since the method is a screen-space algorithm it is per-pixel exact and does not suffer from aliasing artifacts like texture-based techniques. In addition, since the method is independent of the underlying terrain geometry, its performance does not depend on the complexity of the data set but only on the complexity of the vector data.