3D Engine Design for Virtual Globes

While virtual globes have achieved widespread popularity, from Google Earth to NASA World Wind, no single book covers the topic of globe rendering. Filling this gap, 3D Engine Design for Virtual Globes presents an in-depth treatment of rendering algorithms utilized by virtual globes. The book illustrates how to accurately render real-world data sets through core rendering algorithms for globes, terrain, imagery, and vector data. Example code, the latest book-related news, and other resources are available on a companion website.

Supported with code examples and the authors’ real-world experience, this book offers the first guide to engine design and rendering algorithms for virtual globe applications like Google Earth and NASA World Wind. The content is also useful for general graphics and games, especially planet and massive-world engines. With pragmatic advice throughout, it is essential reading for practitioners, researchers, and hobbyists in these areas, and can be used as a text for a special topics course in computer graphics.

Topics covered include:

• Rendering globes, planet-sized terrain, and vector data
• Multithread resource management
• Out-of-core algorithms
• Shader-based renderer design