Real Terrain Visualisation on the Basis of GIS Data

The paper presents a concept of interactive system Vis3D for realistic real terrain visualisation based on Geographical Information Systems (GIS) data. Taking account of complexity and inaccuracy of geographical data this system has to work in two phases: off-line and on-line. The former off-line phase should convert data from GIS format to a form adapted for rendering algorithms (the intermediate form of data is called Terrain Model for Visualisation TMV). Using this form the latter on-line phase can generate a realistic image efficiently. This paper describes both phases, indicates difficulties in their realisation and shows the ways for overcoming them.