NPSNET: real-time walkthrough and rendering of urban terrain

Abstract

The focus of this thesis is performing walkthroughs of urban environments in real-time. This encompasses the environment both inside and outside the building, whereby a user can traverse the external virtual world and then enter any building and move throughout the interior. While inside the building, the user can see the exterior world via any windows present. The transition from one environment to the other is transparent to the user. The 2D terrain file used as source data is converted and rendered in 3D. This 3D representation of the model can then be used for Military Operations in Urban Terrain (MOUT) training. To help maintain the real-time response, new methods of visibility determination are used to lessen the overall polygon flow through the graphics pipeline. The radiosity lighting model is used for the walkthrough of building interiors