Design and Implementation of the High-Performance 3D Digital Landscape Server 'DILAS'
Stephan Nebiker · 2002
Recent advances in the fields of 3D data capturing, storage capacities, database technologies and web-based 3D-visualisation are gradually enabling the establishment and exploitation of large 3D landscape and city models on a regional or even national scale. These landscape models will enable exciting new information and entertainment services in the Internet. However, there is a lack of solutions for managing, updating and serving such large 3D worlds. The research project dilas (Digital Landscape Server) presented in this paper addresses these issues. This paper presents concepts addressing the vastly contrasting requirements of very large spatial objects, on the one side, and large numbers of complex and possibly dynamic 3D objects on the other. The chosen modelling concept for 3D objects combines a versatile 3D object model, multi-representation and object serialisation. This information is managed in a commercial objectrelational DBMS using a hybrid data model. The results of the research project are currently being integrated into the commercial version of dilas – one of the first fully scalable solutions for the management and visualisation of very large 3D landscape models.