Constructing a core framework of visual engine for Digital Earth system

A visual engine is the core of a Digital Earth system. There is a wide variety of functional requirements in Digital Earth system and different requirements correspond to different operations. Based on the development of the visual engine for ChinaStar, a 3D Digital China prototype software platform, and analysis of 3D Digital Earth platforms such as Google Earth, Virtual Earth, Skyline, etc, are discussed. A common core framework for a visual engine is proposed in this paper to construct a visual engine and then with this framework various Digital Earth application systems can be developed efficient. The parametric model of the Earth, scheduling and optimization in visual field, choice of 3D graphics library, and designing component-based visual engine framework of Digital Earth are discussed in detail. In addition, the relationships among these four basic components and the construction of visualization applications of Digital Earth by this method are also discussed.

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