StyleDEM: a Versatile Model for Authoring Terrains

Many terrain modelling methods have been proposed for the past decades, providing efficient and often interactive authoring tools. However, they generally do not include any notion of style, which is a critical aspect for designers in the entertainment industry. We introduce StyleDEM, a new generative adversarial network method for terrain synthesis and authoring, with a versatile toolbox of authoring methods with style. This method starts from an input sketch or an existing terrain. It outputs a terrain with features that can be authored using interactive brushes and enhanced with additional tools such as style manipulation or super-resolution. The strength of our approach resides in the versatility and interoperability of the toolbox

Il contributo della idro-geomorfologia nella valutazione delle piene in Campania

2010 - 2011Italy and, in particular, the Campania region, has been exposed to Hydraulic Risk since long ago. In hydraulic risk analysis the definition of maximum flood discharge with a specific return time (T) is crucial and, to this aim, the VAPI- Campania procedure (1995) was adopted in the Campania region. The VAPI method is based on a geo-morphoclimatic model, identifying 7 climatic homogenous areas with respect to the rainfall probability density function and 3 classes of permeability for the rainfall-runoff transformation model. At the XXX National Congress on the Hydraulic and Hydraulic Engineering (IDRA 2006), the hydrological working group of Salerno University (Rossi and Villani (2006)), pointed out guidelines for up-dating the VAPI-Campania and, in particular the role of: orographic barriers in the evaluation of intensity and persistence of the extreme rainfalls; and the individuation of hydro-geomorphotypes for the rainfall-runoff modeling at the catchments and sub-catchments scales. In this framework, the present thesis gives a contribution to a hydro-geomorphological approach to achieve the two guidelines mentioned above. This research focuses first on the automatic individuation and objective delimitation of the orographic barriers in order to upgrade the heuristic delimitation (expert judgment) used in the simplified model of orographically induced rainfall of Rossi et al. (2005). The proposed procedure is based on the basic concepts of the hierarchic orometry (hierarchical mountain geomorphometry), prominence and parent relationships, to delineate the 'orographic mountain' in various spatial scale (hierarchical- multiscale approach). Also, the procedure defines the 'morphologic mountains' and its components (ridge, plain and hillslope) using slope, altitude, relief ratio and exposition with respect to the dominant perturbation fronts and its moving direction. The second topic of research deals with the individuation of the hydrogeomorphotypes. To this aim, the prototypal work of Guida et al. (2007), was taken into account as a guideline in the identification of the hydrogeomorphotypes and the decisional scheme of Scherrer and Naef (2003), here modify, allowed the identification of the three dominant runoff mechanisms on the Campania region. In particular, the prototypal procedure of Guida has been here objectified and automatized, defining the 9 elementary landscape forms (Troch et al., 2002), characterized in terms of sub-surface flow and soil moisture storage, under an objectbased GIS environment. The procedure here presented allowed identification on the hydro-geomorphological map, and of the runoff mechanisms: Hortonian overland flow for excess of saturation, subsurface flow, and deep percolation. In order to test the procedure some hydro-geomorphological analysis have been carried out based on data from two instrumented experimental catchments and on rainfall data from the Regional Functional Center of the Campania Civil Protection Sector. The results allowed to calculate the hydrologic index named Runoff Index, which improves the evaluation of the runoff coefficient (Cf) for un-gauged basins. Other analyses were performed on further 4 catchments with similar hydrologic and geologic behavior in order to extended the procedure to the whole Campania region. Also, conceptual discussions on the implementation of the Runoff Index in the rainfall-runoff transformation operated with a largely used hydrologic software, HECHMS, was made, in order to evaluate the feasibility of the procedure proposed in the present research and improve the RI in hydraulic risk evaluation at a regional scale. [edited by author]X n.s

Offene-Welt-Strukturen: Architektur, Stadt- und Naturlandschaft im Computerspiel

Welche Rolle spielen Algorithmen für den Bildbau und die Darstellung von Welt und Wetter in Computerspielen? Wie beeinflusst die Gestaltung der Räume, Level und Topografien die Entscheidungen und das Verhalten der Spieler_innen? Ist der Brutalismus der erste genuine Architekturstil der Computerspiele? Welche Bedeutung haben Landschaftsgärten und Nationalparks im Strukturieren von Spielwelten? Wie wird Natur in Zeiten des Klimawandels dargestellt? Insbesondere in den letzten 20 Jahren adaptieren digitale Spielwelten akribischer denn je Merkmale der physisch-realen Welt. Durch aufwändige Produktionsverfahren und komplexe Visualisierungsstrategien wird die Angleichung an unsere übrige Alltagswelt stets in Abhängigkeit von Spielmechanik und Weltlichkeit erzeugt. Wie sich spätestens am Beispiel der Open-World-Spiele zeigt, führt die Übernahme bestimmter Weltbilder und Bildtraditionen zu ideologischen Implikationen, die weit über die bisher im Fokus der Forschung stehenden, aus anderen Medienformaten transferierten Erzählkonventionen hinausgehen. Mit seiner Theorie der Architektur als medialem Scharnier legt der Autor offen, dass digitale Spielwelten medienspezifische Eigenschaften aufweisen, die bisher nicht zu greifen waren und der Erforschung harrten. Durch Verschränken von Konzepten aus u.a. Medienwissenschaft, Game Studies, Philosophie, Architekturtheorie, Humangeografie, Landschaftstheorie und Kunstgeschichte erarbeitet Bonner ein transdisziplinäres Theoriemodell und ermöglicht anhand der daraus entwickelten analytischen Methoden erstmals, die komplexe Struktur heutiger Computerspiele - vom Indie Game bis zur AAA Open World - zu verstehen und zu benennen. Mit "Offene-Welt-Strukturen" wird die Architektonik digitaler Spielwelten umfassend zugänglich

Orometry-based terrain analysis and synthesis

Mountainous digital terrains are an important element of many virtual environments and find application in games, film, simulation and training. Unfortunately, while existing synthesis methods produce locally plausible results they often fail to respect global structure. This is exacerbated by a dearth of automated metrics for assessing terrain properties at a macro level. We address these issues by building on techniques from orometry, a field that involves the measurement of mountains and other relief features. First, we construct a sparse metric computed on the peaks and saddles of a mountain range and show that, when used for classification, this is capable of robustly distinguishing between different mountain ranges. Second, we present a synthesis method that takes a coarse elevation map as input and builds a graph of peaks and saddles respecting a given orometric distribution. This is then expanded into a fully continuous elevation function by deriving a consistent river network and shaping the valley slopes. In terms of authoring, users provide various control maps and are also able to edit, reposition, insert and remove terrain features all while retaining the characteristics of a selected mountain range. The result is a terrain analysis and synthesis method that considers and incorporates orometric properties, and is, on the basis of our perceptual study, more visually plausible than existing terrain generation methods