A hardware accelerated algorithm for terrain visualization

Abstract

In recent years, rapid development of graphics hardware technology made it possible to render a large scale model in real-time. In this paper, we present a hardware accelerated algorithm for large scale terrain model visualization based on the ROAM (Real-time Optimally Adaptive Meshes) algorithm to create LOD models. GPU programming is therefore employed to calculate the vertices' transform, normal vector, texture coordinate, texture sampling and fragment lighting, and to accomplish terrain rendering. Experimental results indicate that the presented algorithm works efficiently for real-time roaming of large scale terrain. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.