Lunar Explorer and Planet Builder Technology
Beau Albiston
September 28, 2005
Go here to see screen shots of Lunar
Explorer.
Go here to purchase Lunar Explorer.
Current technology features of Planet Builder:
- Factor-of-two level-of-detail (LOD) steps resulting in nearly
zero transitional artifacts (most other technologies have factor-of-four
texture LOD
jumps).
- Multi-resolution support for basic data types: imagery,
terrain/elevation, vector, d-information, and custom.
- Efficient spherical tiling method that renders polar
areas without distortion.
- Custom data processing support.
- Datasets can be rendered independently.
- Image data sources are efficiently compressed for
minimal storage footprint.
- Image data sources are decompressed quickly at run-time
using consumer graphics hardware (supports DXT).
- Data sources are further compressed using lossless
compression (supports LZMA).
- Real-time rendering of planetary-sized data sources (no
limit to data source size).
- Continuous level-of-detail.
- Data source tiles may be efficiently paged from disk, over
a network (Internet), or any other similar system.
- Data source tile request pipeline designed for optimal
I/O performance resulting in minimal disk accesses.
- Asynchronous planetary texture optimization.
Process is independent of main application thread and is able to handle
streaming over a poor Internet connection.
- Planetary mesh optimization is performed in “chunks” to reduce
“think” time and to take advantage of graphics hardware batching efficiency.
- Flat or spherical globe rendering.
- Planetary mesh optimization tessellation control.
Features to be completed:
- Terrain morphing between resolution levels (currently not needed).
- Distributed, networked processing tools.
- Data source network server.
- Line-of-site (horizon-edge) correction.
- Generators.
- Atmospheric conditions (scattering, clouds, etc.).
Available datasets:
- Moon - Global detail: 500 m/pixel terrain, 100 m/pixel imagery (includes
grey scale, enhanced (near-natural) color, and color ratio (of geological
interest). Custom terrain and imagery data sets for Apollo landing sites
at ~10 m resolution (created from photographic and global data reference).
~100 m/sample elevation and texture data of Tycho crater and surrounding area. Source data size
is greater then 100 GB. Objects from Apollo, Luna, and other missions
are realistically modeled and textured.
- Mars - TBD...
Lunar object list (3D models, including textures):
- LANDER
- ROVER
- ASLEP
- LSM
- SWS
- HFE
- SIDE
- LACE
- LEAM
- LSG
- SWC
- RTG
- PSE_A11
- UVC
- PSE_A15
- LRRR_A15
- FLAG_US1
- FLAG_US2
- LRRR_A11
- ASE
- LUNOKHOD
- LRRR_A14
- SURVEYOR
- COMMEMRATIVE_PLAQUE
- S_BAND_ANTENNA
- TV_CAMERA
- SEP
- LUNA_9_BASE
- LUNA_9_PROBE
- LUNA_16
- LUNA_17_BASE
- C_DUKES_FAMILY_PORTRAIT
- MET
- STEREO_CLOSE_UP_CAMERA
- LPM
Screen shot #1.