Rendering interior-filled polygonal vector data in a virtual globe

Abstract

ABSTRACTPolygonal vector data are important for representing countries, lakes, residential settlements, and other polygonal features. The proper representation of polygonal vector data is the basis of efficient rendering and picking and quick access and display of the analysis results based on polygons (e.g., 3D overlaying and surface area measurement in mountainous areas) in a virtual globe. However, polygonal vector data are displayed using texture-based or boundary-based approaches in most existing virtual globes. The texture-based approach cannot easily support interactive operations (e.g., picking) and spatial analysis (e.g., adjacency analysis and spatial measurement). The boundary-based approach treats the holes as independent features; however, it is difficult to recognize which boundaries constitute a polygon. Further research is needed on how to better organize the polygons to support efficient rendering, picking, and analysis in a virtual globe. In this article, we propose two methods to drape interior filled 2D polygons onto a multi-resolution 3D terrain. Both proposed methods combine polygon clipping and polygon triangulation. The difference between the two methods is in the way holes are eliminated. Method 1 recursively subdivides a terrain triangle until the child-triangles contain no holes; every resulting clipped polygon, which is then triangulated, contains no holes. Method 2 directly clips a polygon against a terrain triangle and creates bridge edges to transform the resulting polygons with holes to degenerate polygons that are further triangulated. The experimental results demonstrate that both proposed methods can efficiently process polygons with holes resulting in appropriate numbers of triangles. The processed interior-filled polygons remain close to the terrain surface in a virtual globe. Both proposed methods support real-time rendering of polygonal vector data in a virtual globe.