DOI:10.1109/DMAMH.2007.32

Extracted Abstract:

Large terrain dataset visualization is very difficult in flight simulation, because the size of terrain dataset is orders of magnitude larger than the main memory of system in flight simulation. The dataset are usually stored out-of-core. The relatively slow access speed of out-of-core makes data retrieval the bottleneck of the terrain visualization in flight simulation. The previous works on large terrain dataset visualization focus on two aspects: simplifying scene and organizing data. They always organize the terrain dataset on the disks, then load them into main memory part by part and render them efficiently. However, organization of terrain data on disk is quite difficult because the error, the triangulation dependency and the spatial location of each vertex all need to be considered, and the frame deadlock or skip phenomenon will occur probably. This paper proposes a new method for large dataset loading and rending in flight simulation. This method presents a new concept called sub-dataset, which are the all data to render the terrain in a frame. By loading the sub-dataset into main memory and real-time render them, we can realize the large terrain dataset visualization in flight simulation. Virtually, the terrain dataset refer to the longitude and latitude (L/L) coordinates of the flight position. By means of the index of L/L information, we can find the sub-dataset we need to load and render. The new method is very simple, and it costs much less time, provides visual continuity, and obtains fast visualization and animation of large scale terrain in flight simulation. 1.