vieWTerra 3D real-time Earth Viewer
The vieWTerra 3D
real-time Viewer allows seamless navigation around a spherical model of
the entire surface of Earth and beyond the stratosphere, zooming in and
out with a total freedom of movement in every direction from the bottom of
the seas to outer space (or the reverse), without loading times.
It
distinguishes itself by a strikingly realistic rendering of all the
landscapes around the Globe, offering both far-away horizons and close-up
precision, down to the blade of grass. To that aim, it makes use of various
Digital Elevation Models, Imagery, LandCover, Water, Ecoregions and
Weather databases as well as other types of databases, like aerial databases.
The
vieWTerra platform today uses NASA’s Blue Marble 464m data as the minimum
default resolution to define the Imagery on the entire surface of planet
Earth, while including much more precise data in certain areas: today 20
million km2 are already covered in higher resolution (90m, 30m, 10m to
90cm), and the system is regularly enriched with new databases, for Imagery
as well as for DEMs. vieWTerra also renders worldwide hydrographic network
whenever the Imagery is precise enough, and the global undersea topography
(1856m resolution). It also makes use of worldwide flora and fauna distribution
databases. Users automatically download data in on-line mode from the
vieWTerra streaming server whenever visiting new areas.
Users can integrate more accurate data in
multiresolution format on their own thanks to the Databases Integration
Tool, which is separate from the vieWTerra Viewer. Users can also very
easily complete/correct the missing information from the Imagery or the
LandCover via the Editor Tool, which is embedded in the vieWTerra Viewer,
and allows real-time modifications directly into the 3D (e.g. fill
riverbeds with water to complete a river, add or remove trees, etc).
The vieWTerra Viewer includes various
controls in its User Interface, so that users may conveniently and in
real-time change the various parameters in the 3D view: time of year, time
of day (triggering dynamic lights and shadows), temperatures, wind speed
and direction, precipitations, snow cover and visibility (thus changing
the type of weather, or the height or range of the snow mantle in
real-time). It also includes various dynamic entities (from 3D pedestrian
avatar to space shuttle), which can be dynamically controlled by the
user, and either incarnated in 1st person mode or viewed from the outside
by using 3rd person cameras from any possible angle.
Users can therefore very quickly and easily implement their own scenarios, by
customizing the scenery thanks to the Editor Tool and its Bank of 3D
Objects, and by animating the scenes via the various controls of the User
Interface. They may also integrate their own objects via the 3D Objects
Integrator, a scripting tool embedded into the Viewer, or via the
vieWTerra SDK. A great variety of scenes anwhere/anytime across the entire
surface of the Earth can therefore be created, modified, recorded,
replayed and studied at will, as users can go backward and forward in time
to record and edit videos, and all scene modifications can be viewed by
other users in on-line mode so as to allow collaborative work.
The vieWTerra real-time 3D Viewer, at
a glance:
• seamless rendering of
the entire surface of Planet Earth, from the seabeds to the stratosphere
and beyond (with the Sun and Moon correct positions)
• procedural rendering system allowing 1cm procedurally generated detail
at ground level, both for geometry and texture maps
• whole Earth database
provided at a default resolution of 464m for DEM and Imagery, 928m for
LandCover, plus higher resolution databases in multiresolution format from
90m to 90cm
• undersea DEM database and water surface database provided, including all
seas, main rivers and lakes
• meterological databases (cloud cover, temperatures, precipitations, wind)
based on weekly and monthly average data (year 2005 as a template for
clouds)
• real-time simulation of
weather conditions changes including volumetric clouds, mist, fog,
rain with puddles, storms with thunder and lightning variable snow
cover, etc
• dynamic management of
natural and artificial lights system including rendering of dynamic
shadows with raycasting
• dynamic vegetation
rendering system
• management of
Autonomous Life Form (ALFs), in order to populate the world with billions of randomly
animated animals or entities
• automatic integration of architectural
objects to the ground (terraforming) and random rendering of buildings
offering variations in colour/ size/ orientation, etc to obtain a greater
visual variety
• real-time scene building directly into the 3D view thanks to the Editor
Tool, easy construction and shooting of scenes anytime/anywhere on the
entire surface of the Earth
• creation of static or dynamic entities in vieWTerra optimized proprietary
format: conversion from 3DS format via the 3D Objects Integrator directly
into the Viewer, or via the vieWTerra SDK; these new entities can be can
be shared with other users and added to the vieWTerra Bank of Objects
• georeferencing of photos and possibility of overlaying photos instead
of, or blended with, the 3D view
• multi-users sharing server system
• 5 million + place names directory
• multilayer display system (to switch on/off additional information like
frontiers/water/geospatial icons/modifications of the terrains by the
various users, etc)
• collision and environment query system : each entity is informed
of its environment
• special effects management system: fire,
smoke, trails, tracks, lighting, etc
• rendering of objects according to their
materials (glass, wood, metal, etc), taking into account reflection/refraction
to light
• 3D sound system
(more)
vieWTerra SDK/libraries
Advanced users are also
being given access to C/C++ VWorldTerrain technology libraries so that
they may freely modify certain parameters and create import/export plug-ins
for their own specific datasets. For instance users can freely access
functions allowing to modify time, meteorological conditions, rendering,
FXs, sounds, or enhance the entities' AI and physics, or introduce their
own sets of controllable entities, etc, so that the
subsequent runtimes would be tailored to their specific needs.
Main features:
- C/C++ library, Windows XP/Vista
OpenGL
- 500+ functions
- Viewer source code samples provided
- high level programming capabilities (e.g. integration and movement of 3D
entities, special effects)
- low level programming capabilities (e.g. 3D and 2D drawing functions, callback
functions)
