Real-Time 3D Rendering and Immersion

Abstract

People’s perception and experience of landscape plays a critical role in the social construction of these spaces—in how individuals and societies understand, value, and use landscapes. Perception and experience should, therefore, be an integral part of environmental modeling and geodesign. With the natural interaction afforded by Tangible Landscape and the realistic representations afforded by Immersive Virtual Environments (IVEs) experts and non-experts can collaboratively model landscapes and explore the environmental and experiential impacts of “what if” scenarios. We have paired GRASS GIS with Blender, a state-of-the-art 3D modeling and rendering program, to allow real-time 3D rendering and immersion. As users manipulate a tangible model with topography and objects, geospatial analyses and simulations are projected onto the tangible model and perspective views are realistically rendered on monitors and head-mounted displays (HMDs) in near real-time. Users can visualize in near real-time the changes they are making with either bird’s-eye views or perspective views from human vantage points. While geospatial data is typically visualized as maps, axonometric views, or bird’s-eye views, human-scale perspective views help us to understand how people would experience and perceive spaces within the landscape.