RE: Terrain, geoVRML, DOQ's, DEM's....

["Crispen, Bob" <Robert.Crispen@HSV.Boeing.com>]

> John F. Richardson[SMTP:richards@nosc.mil] asks:
> 
> I am interested in taking DEM's and overlaying orthorectified images
> and
> displaying the results in VRML.
> 
> Is there a DEM to DXF tool? DEM to VRML?
> 
I've got a little program (that could use some
improvement) called dem2wrl:
http://hiwaay.net/~crispen/src/#dem2wrl
It comes in C source and Win95 executable
(probably runs on NT) that runs in a DOS
shell.

> I assume that the straightforward method is to use the ElevationGrid
> in
> combination with the Appearance, Material and ImageTexture nodes. Is
> there
> a better way?
> 
That's the way we did it at
http://ece.uwaterloo.ca/vrml98/vrml/monterey.wrl
Don't know if it's in any way optimal, and I
know for sure that it isn't highly detailed,
but it worked in the sense that (a) on a medium
quality PC the frame rate wasn't too awful, and
(b) Sunday before the conference in Monterey, I
was looking out the window at the bay and
suddenly it grabbed me: I've *been* here.  A
shock of recognition from the VRML world to
the real world.

> Is geoVRML a working group, mailing list, newsgroup?
> 
A Working Group of the VRML Consortium and a
mailing list.

> I sent a subscribe email to geoVRML.
> 
And we all read it with considerable amusement ;-)

http://www.ai.sri.com/~leei/geovrml is the homepage
for the group and instructions for getting onto the
list are there.

To save you the trip, sign up by sending email to
geovrml-request@ai.sri.com

Bob Crispen
bob.crispen@boeing.com