Modern Algorithms for Real-Time Terrain Visualization on Commodity Hardware

computer graphics, rendering, real-time, level of detail, out-of-core, DEM, heightmap

The amount of input data acquired from a remote sensing equipment is rapidly growing. Interactive visualization of those datasets is a necessity for their correct interpretation. With the ability of modern hardware to display hundreds of millions of triangles per second, it is possible to visualize the massive terrains at one pixel display error on HD displays with interactive frame rates when batched rendering is applied. Algorithms able to do this are an area of intensive research and a topic of this article. The paper first explains some of the theory around the terrain visualization, categorizes its algorithms according to several criteria and describes six of the most significant methods in more details.