Authors:
Andrey Rodrigues
and
Waldemar Celes
Affiliation:
Tecgraf/PUC-Rio Institute and Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Keyword(s):
Digital Elevation Model, Terrain Rendering, Scalable LOD, GPU Tessellation.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Computer Vision, Visualization and Computer Graphics
;
Real-Time Rendering
;
Rendering
;
Rendering Hardware
Abstract:
Efficient rendering of large digital elevation models remains as a challenge for real-time applications, especially
if those models contain irregular borders and holes. First, direct use of hardware tessellation has limited
scalability; although the graphics hardware is capable of controlling the resolution of patches in a very efficient
manner, the whole patch data must be loaded in memory. Second, previous techniques restrict elevation
data resolution and do not handle irregular border or holes. In this paper, we propose an efficient and scalable
hybrid CPU-GPU algorithm for rendering large digital elevation models. Our proposal effectively combines
GPU tessellation with CPU tile management, taking full advantage of GPU processing capabilities while maintaining
graphics-memory use under practical limits. Our proposal also handles models with irregular borders
and holes. Additionally, we present a technique to manage level of detail of aerial imagery mapped on top
of elevation model
s. Both geometry and texture level of detail management run independently, and tiles are
combined with no need to load extra data.
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