Create 3D terrain from Google earth

• Main Author: Pek, Alvin.
• Other Authors: Zheng Jianmin
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Computer science and engineering::Computer applications::Physical sciences and engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/19283
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Creating 3‐dimensional (3D) models of the terrain is a painstaking task and it involves large amount of time to create a realistic one. In this project, the author has developed a program, 3D Terrain Generator, in Java which allows the users to create 3D mesh of the terrain quickly and conveniently in just a few steps. The program reads Digital Elevation Model of the terrain and displays the 3D terrain. The author has also done some research on mesh simplification to convert the regular‐grid mesh into triangulated irregular network. Users can enter in error threshold to approximate the terrain mesh. The author will also be looking into UV texturing to add realism to the terrain. Man‐made objects like buildings can be added manually on the urban terrain using the program’s Building Editor. The resulted model can be saved in general purpose file like OBJ format which can be viewed in many 3D authoring software. Finally, the model of the 3D terrain generated by the program will be compared with the terrain viewed in Google Earth. This is to validate the similarity of the models between author’s program and Google Earth and also to compare their differences.