Rendering process of digital terrain model on mobile devices

Abstract

Digital Terrain Model has been used in many applications especially in Geographical Information System. However with the recent improvement in mobile devices that can support 3 Dimension (3D) content, rendering 3D based terrain on mobile devices is possible. Although mobile devices have improved its capabilities, rendering 3D terrain is tedious due to the constraint in resources of mobile devices. Furthermore, rendering DTM add more constraint and issues to the mobile devices. This paper focuses on the rendering process of DTM on mobile devices to observe some issues and current constraints occurred. Also to determine the characteristic of terrain properties that will affect the rendering performance. Experiments were performed using five datasets that derived from aerial images. The experimental results are based on speed of rendering and the appearance of the terrain surface. From these results, issues and problems that are highlighted in this paper will be the focus of future research