[Qgis-developer] Seamless 3D Landscape Explorer...for QGIS

[MORREALE Jean Roc]

Hi,

I would like to point out the existence of a 3D visualization software 
using OGRE [1] and Quantum GIS, it is called Seamless Landscape Explorer 
(SLE). It has been in development since at last 2008 [3] by Sébastien 
Griffon and Daniel Auclair, both from a french public research 
department [2].

This is a virtual visualization tool aiming to help to represent the 
evolution of an existing landscape [5] using land use layers, DEM and 
orthophotos. These data are manipulated and prepared under QGIS [4] 
(selection of the sources, display area, choice of the attributes) and 
once ready, are exported to SLE for the 3D part. Each attribute can be 
associated to a texture or a 3D model. One should not see it as an 
nviz-like but it still is an awesome tool.

The dependencies are Ogre / Qt / Caelum for skys&clouds/ Paged Geometry 
/ GDAL / Libnoise / QGIS

I found out about this software only today via a qgis'user on a french 
gis board and a quick search had led me to conclude that it could also 
be a pleasant surprise for some of you around here. I'll contact these 
researchers to get more informations (availability, license, etc.) and 
will report it here. Don't forget to watch out the videos [6]!

Regards,
MORREALE Jean Roc

[1] OGRE3D is a 3D C++ engine, more at http://www.ogre3d.org/about
[2] botanic and bioinformatic research unit http://amap.cirad.fr
[4] 
http://umramap.cirad.fr/amap2/logiciels_amap/uploads/Documents/griffon/SLE_User_Manual_Final.pdf
[5] http://www.springerlink.com/content/h358804815884241/
[6] http://umramap.cirad.fr/amap3/cm/index.php?page=videos