[OSGeo-Discuss] Open Source Viewer for 3D Maps

[Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo)]

Brent Fraser wrote:
>   We've used VTP (vterrain.org) and modified the GUI of it's Enviro
> viewer to be a little more end-user friendly.  VTP does a good job of
> providing an interactive 3d environment of DEM and texture (e.g 
> satellite image), and optionally 3d structure models.  On the downside,
> you have to author your datasets carefully (using VTBuilder) to get good
> performance, and you have to limit your map/model to an extent (it
> doesn't model a globe, only a projection).  There's a ton of 3d modeling
> info on the VTP web site.

You're bringing back some good old memories for me Brent!  I used VTP a
lot in my last job and it produced some wildly beautiful product and
exciting fly over animation abilities (among other things).  Ecologists
especially liked the function allowing you to draw/digitise onto the
terrain in 3D mode.

We had Python scripts that did all our dataset prep for us, and if my
memory serves me right, we even had ways of converting the digitised
stuff back into a shapefile for use in our other apps.

>   Ossim (www.ossim.org) has OssimPlanet which DOES model a globe but it
> can be an effort to set up (I've never tried it).

Binaries are available for download for most platforms.  Then you
probably want to get a terrain model (just one big download) and put it
in the right folder.  Other than that it's pretty easy to get started
with WMS or file datasources.

Thanks for the memories :)

Tyler