Abstract
This paper describes a GPU framework for the real-time visualization of natural textured terrains, as well as the steps that are needed to populate them on-the-fly with tens of thousands of plant and/or mineral objects. Our main contribution is a robust modular architecture developed for the G80 and later GPUs, that performs texture/seed selection and rendering. It does not deal with algorithms that procedurally model or render either terrain or specific natural objects, but uses them for demonstration purposes. It can be used to calculate and display realistic landscapes and ecosystems with minimal pre-stored data, CPU load and popping artefacts. It works in tandem with a pre-classification of available aerial images, and makes it possible to fine-tune the properties of objects added to the scene.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
AMAP - botAnique et bioinforMatique de l’Architecture des Plantes, http://amap.cirad.fr/
Asirvatham, A., Hoppe, H.: Terrain Rendering Using GPU-based Geometry Clipmaps. In: GPUGems2, Addison-Wesley, Reading (2005)
Balogh, A.: Real-time Visualization of Detailed Terrain. Thesis of Automatic and Compuing University of Budapest (2003)
Blanchet, J., Forbes, F., Schmid, C.: Markov Random Fields for Recognizing Textures Modeled by Feature Vectors. In: International Conference on Applied Stochastic Models and Data Analysis, France (2005)
Dachsbacher, C., Vogelgsang, C., Stamminger, M.: Sequential Point Trees. ACM Trans. On Graphics (2003)
Decaudin, P., Neyret, F.: Rendering Forest Scenes in Real-Time. In: Eurographics Symposium on Rendering, Norrköping, Sweden (2004)
Decoret, X., Durand, F., Sillion, F.X., Dorsey, J.: Billboard Clouds for Extreme Model Simplification. In: Proceedings of the ACM Siggraph (2003)
Deussen, O., Colditz, C., Stamminger, M., Drettakis, G.: Interactive Visualization of Complex Plant Ecosystems. In: Proceedings of the IEEE Visualization Conference, IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos (2002)
Deussen, O., Hanrahan, P., Lintermann, B., Mech, R., Pharr, M., Prunsinkiewicz, P.: Realistic Modeling and Rendering of Plant Ecosystems. In: Computer Graphics, Siggraph (1998)
Eingana: Le premier atlas vivant en 3D et images satellite, Cdrom, EMG (2001)
Fuhrmann, A., Mantler, S., Umlauf, E.: Extreme Model Simplification for Forest Rendering. In: Eurographics Workshop on Natural Phenomena (2005)
Gilet, G., Meyer, A., Neyret, F.: Point-based Rendering of Trees. In: Eurographics Workshop on Natural Phenomena (2005)
Roger, D., Assarson, U., Holzschuch, N.: Whitted Ray-Tracing for Dynamic Scenes using a Ray-space Hierarchy on the GPU. In: Proc. of the Eurographics Symp. on Rendering (2007)
Lane, B., Prunsinkiewicz, P.: Generating Spatial Distributions for Multilevel Models of Plant Communities. In: Proceedings of Graphics Interface (2002)
Lefebvre, S.: Modèles d’Habillage de Surface pour la Synthèse d’Images. Thesis of Joseph Fourier University, Gravir/Imag/INRIA. Grenoble, France (2005)
Lefohn, A.E., Kniss, J., Strzodka, R., Sengupta, S., Owens, J.D.: Glift: Generic, Efficient, Random-access GPU Data Structures. ACM Transactions on Graphics (2006)
Lindstrom, P., Pascucci, V.: Terrain Simplification Simplified: a General Framework for View-dependant Out-of-core Visualization. IEEE Trans. on Vis. and Comp. Graphics (2002)
Lintermann, D., Deussen, O.: Xfrog, http://www.xfrogdownload.com
Meyer, A., Neyret, F.: Textures Volumiques Interactives. Journées Francophones d’Informatique Graphique, AFIG, 261-270 (1998)
Park, S.K., Miller, K.W.: Random Number Generators: Good Ones Are Hard To Find. Com. of the ACM 31, 1192–1201 (1998)
Premoze, S., Thompson, W.B., Shirley, P.: Geospecific Rendering of Alpine Terrain. Department of Computer Science, University of Utah (1999)
RGD73-74: Régie de Gestion des Données des Deux Savoies, http://www.rgd73-74.fr
Smith, A.R.: Plants, Fractal and Formal Languages. In: Proceedings of Siggraph (1984)
Trias-Sanz, R., Boldo, D.: A High-Reliability, High-Resolution Method for Land Cover Classification Into Forest and Non-forest. In: 14th Conf. on Image Analysis, Finland (2005)
Seoane, A., Taibo, J., Fernandez, L.: Hardware-independent Clipmapping. In: WSCG 2007. International Conference in Central Europe on Computer Graphics, Czech Republic (2007)
Wells, W.D.: Generating Enhanced Natural Environments and Terrain for Interactive Combat Simulation (GENETICS), PhD of the Naval Postgraduate School (2005)
Boulanger, K., Pattanaik, S., Bouatouch, K.: Rendering Grass in Real Time with Dynamic Light Source and Shadows. Irisa, internal publication n°1809 (2006)
Bittner, J., Wonka, P.: Visibility in Computer Graphics. Jour. of Env. and Planning (2003)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2007 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Amara, Y., Meunier, S., Marsault, X. (2007). A GPU Framework for the Visualization and On-the-Fly Amplification of Real Terrains. In: Bebis, G., et al. Advances in Visual Computing. ISVC 2007. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 4841. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-76858-6_57
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-76858-6_57
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-76857-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-76858-6
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)