Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
2
Attribute
1
Command
Fig. 4
The proposed development in CAD
In ERDAS Imagine the raster was tiled into nine (3
×
3) 256 m
×
256 m tiles
(1 m resolution), each of which was affine reflected across the x-axis then con-
verted to a generic binary format (bit interleaved, 32-bit floating point, Big Endian
ordering). This last group of steps ensured that the terrain matched the necessary
terrain input parameters for the Open Simulator Virtual Environment engine.
However, to bring more geographical cues into the virtual environment, an
orthophotograph tiled similarly was combined tile by tile with the terrain. The results
were stored in OpenSim-ready XML files, generated by a C# script adapted from one
provided by Christa Lopes at the University of California (avatar name Diva Canto).
2.2 Realising the Proposed Development
2.2.1 CAD
With the DEM and subdivision plan as a basis, solid shapes such as cubes, planes and
prisms were used to create house objects (see VR subsection for more on the origin
of these house designs) which were then textured. Figure
4
shows the CAD model.
2.2.2 GIS
The aforementioned house designs (see VR subsection for more details) were
constructed and textured in the Trimble SketchUp 8 3D modeling package.
