Geovisualization and Real-Time 3D Computer Graphics

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on the impact of real-time 3D computer graphics on geovisualization. Various real-time 3D rendering techniques have been developed that provide technical fundamentals for the design and implementation of new geovisualization strategies, systems, and environments. These key techniques include multi-resolution modeling, multi-texturing, dynamic texturing, programmable shading, and multi-pass rendering. They lead to significant improvements in visual expressiveness and interactivity in geovisualization systems. Their complex implementation requires encapsulated, re-usable, and extensible components as critical elements to their success and shapes the software architecture of geovisualization systems and applications. Geovisualization is migrating into many application domains as a ubiquitous element of software-intensive systems and their user interfaces due to the broad diffusion of geographic data. Car navigation systems, facility management and control systems, and location-based services providing digital maps on mobile devices represent just a few examples of widely spread uses of geovisualization. As an independent discipline, real-time 3D computer graphics has become a major field in Computer Science and media due its applications in diverse fields such as virtual reality, video games, computer-aided design, and the film and printing industries.