Open Standards for Real-Time 3D Communication

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Bertelsmann, one of the world’s leading publishing houses, wanted to develop a comprehensive 3D world atlas for consumer use. They needed a solution that could render massive amounts of geographic data to 3D in real-time. They also wanted the Atlas to integrate with other media types including audio, video, and web pages.

Bitmanagement developed a a 3D Atlas using BS Contact Geo and X3D. End-users have the freedom to explore in real-time, all areas of the globe in super-high 3D resolution by zooming in to specific locations and flying over accurate, real-world terrain.

The 3D Interactive Atlas takes advantage of several BS Contact Geo technologies:

• GeoSphere
  
  This node is a dynamically tessellating sphere (or ellipsoid) that supports both standard image formats (png, jpg, j2k etc) and the new bstile format (described below). The GeoSphere supports multiple map projection types (Sphere, GCC, VanDerGrinten, Mercator etc) and the tessellation increases as the user approaches (i.e. as elevation decreases).
• BSTile Format
  
  A special image format that enables the progressive loading of extremely high resolution textures, thereby overcoming video card limitations (of at most 4096 x 4096) and drastically improving scene initialization times and real-time performance. As the name suggests, large images are divided up into smaller, seamless tiles of 256 x 256 (or some other power of 2) and these are loaded by the application only when required. A conversion tool has been created to convert from jpg, j2k, png, bmp and dds. Bstile images can be exactly placed on a GeoSphere by specifying a range of geo coordinates. The BS Contact Tiler uses the tiled images to render massive amounts of data on a PC-level machine, all at very high resolution.
• Geo examine mode
  
  The geo examine mode is a more natural way of navigating the globe - speed is dependent on elevation and vertical movement is restricted from pole to pole (-90S to +90N), thereby avoiding the camera “roll” associated with the standard examine mode. Additional browser methods have also been created for the programmatic setting of geo location (via double floating point precision latitude, longitude and elevation). A smooth geo-transition from one set of coordinates to another is generated. A geo-fly mode is also in development, which enables users to fly over global terrain.
• GeoMap
  
  The GeoMap node supports the ESRI Shape file format to display georeferenced vectors, text and symbols correctly projected onto a GeoSphere. Individual GIS layers can be toggled on or off and full control is available over color, text sizes, fonts and at what elevation ranges layers are active.
• Geo-specific navigation modes for “fly” and “examine”
  These are special modes for geographical visualisation of the earth to provide a similar experience for the user as on a printed map. Geo-Examine: North is always up. The velocity is reduced once closer to the poles. Geo-Fly: Always fly on the “great circle” of the geoid (sphere).