A Format for Storing and Managing Multiple Level of Detail Terrain for Simulated Environments

Abstract

This study investigated a method of storing, managing and rendering terrain data, while addressing the conflicting goals of: rendering speed, display detail and memory usage. A data structure is presented to store terrain data, with an object oriented system to manage the data stored in the structure. The structure stores terrain data in a compact form, which is converted into rendering structures in real time. The structure uses levels of detail to maintain display detail. The structure is compared against an existing format for storing terrain data, MultiGen Flight. The system managing the structure is shown to decrease memory usage and increase frame rate, while maintaining display detail. The structure offers features not attainable from Flight format, including: interpolating vertices to prevent cracking, defining levels of detail by altitude and speed, and betweening. The structure allows storing and rendering larger databases than previously manageable with Flight format.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 1994
Accession Number
ADA278497

Entities

People

  • Keith L. Meissner

Organizations

  • Air Force Institute of Technology

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Air Force
  • Algorithms
  • Altitude
  • Application Software
  • Applied Mathematics
  • Computer Graphics
  • Computer Programming
  • Computers
  • Data Sets
  • Database Management Systems
  • Databases
  • Digital Data
  • Elevation
  • Software Development
  • Three Dimensional
  • Two Dimensional

Readers

  • Aviation Science / Aeronautics.
  • Database Systems and Applications