Technology

The 3DIMap technology for the Web

The production process of 3D contents
1. Mesh processing and production of terrain models
2. Image processing for textures
3. Integration with database and custom 3D models
4. Distribution and visualization of 3D scenes

Is there a resolution limit?

Is there a resolution limit?

Theoretically, 3DIMap can be applied to all scales, from planets to atoms. Locally Adaptive Resolution techniques (LAR) are used in order to face off scale change issues: higher resolution textures and models are locally substituted to enhance detail.Technical limitations are mainly represented by the hardware capabilities of PCs, and by the transfer rate through the net:

hardware limitations: modern personal computers can simultaneously display a limited amount of polygons and textures; nevertheless the LAR approach of 3DIMap allows to keep in memory (and hence to show) mainly the portion of world close to the point of view;

band limitations: high resolution textures, although optimised and compressed, can be of considerable sizes; streaming features of 3DIMap help to overcome this limitation.

Of course there is also a limit due to availability of base data (DEMs and images), but this is increasing every day, in both level of detail and world coverage.