Implementation Technologies and Procedure of the Real-time Interactive Roaming System of Virtual City

Abstract

Virtual reality is a hot research topic in computer science and the introduction of virtual roaming to the field of urban planning provides a new means for urban design. This paper analyzes the development, features and technology of virtual reality and the virtual city roaming and its applications and advantages in urban planning; then focus on key tech- nologies and how to implement a real-time interactive virtual city roaming system, taking example of the scene develop- ment software Vega, and finally concludes the importance of virtual city roaming in urban planning. A virtual city is a concept proposed after digital city. A digital city is digitization, networking and visualization of urban geography, environment, resources, population, econ- omy and various social services in order to optimize decision support. While a virtual city is a manifestation used for de- scription and a virtual reproduction, the operating environ- ment and interactive interface of a digital city and a means of true three-dimensional display of city information. From the base layer to the application layer and to the decision-making layer, a virtual city participates in each layer of a digital city. The virtual city roaming replaces traditional maps to ex- plain, describe, analyze and discuss design ideas and urban progress, presents a city vividly in front of people, provides an immersive environment for urban development and the application of geographic information and enables users to move and interact in it. It enables users to visually see the urban street scope, to autonomously roam in the three- dimensional scene and to undertake operations such as query, measurement and flight browsing, so as to understand the direction of future planning and development of enterprises, building districts and even cities as well as to provide visual- ized geospatial information services for urban construction planning, community services, property management, tour- ism, transportation, fire safety and so on. This paper introduces a virtual city roaming system, makes comparative analysis of other computer-aided methods com- monly used in urban planning and design, researches the com- position, key technologies and realizing methods of the virtual city roaming and makes a detailed description of the process and technologic route to achieve the virtual city roaming sys- tem with MutligenVega. Finally, it makes a brief summary of the application and significance of virtual reality roaming technology in the field of urban construction.