3D modeling and multi-resolution representation of highway integrated with terrain model

Modeling of 3D highway integrated with terrain model was firstly discussed in this paper, and a new method of judging the maximum angle was used to eliminate the distorted triangles on the boundary of model. It is a fundamental issue for visualization and analysis on 3D GIS at a rapid speed. To strip-distributed terrain data, this paper proposed a new dynamic multi-resolution model. Different from other models/algorithms, this algorithm need not pre-partition the model regularly and can achieve multi-resolution representation in one tile. In addition, such a condition was considered in the approach that only resolution level of parts of triangles will change in adjacent frames when roaming. That is, the resolution of parts of triangles which locate in the joints of adjacent resolution levels will change. Therefore, the speed of algorithm can be improved. Finally, a software prototype "VRHighWay", developed by VC++ 6.0 and OpenGL, was introduced. The experimental results demonstrate that proposed method acquires better performance in terms of accuracy for the multi-resolution representation of terrains with roads embedded.