RE: 3D Viewer in our future???

[Stuart Nixon]

Title: 3D Viewer in our future???

Leo & others interested in 3D:

 

Given ER Mapper 6.3 and Image Web Server 1.7 are both about to be released, this

is a good time to give us feedback on future development that you would like to see.

 

The issue of a 3D viewer and other 3D enhancements to ER Mapper is an interesting one,

and has been discussed internally.  We are very interested in the increasing 3D power

on PCs, coupled with serving large amounts of imagery via an Image Web Server to users.

 

 

Leaving future ER Mapper development aside, there may already be a solution for you:

 

Over the past year or two, a wide range of companies have added support for the ECW

format. ECW is highly desirable for 3D, which requires large textures, and also the

ability to load the imagery at any resolution - something that ECW does very well. Many

of these toolkits also offer URL ECW support, so the actual images can be served

from an Image Web Server over the web into the 3D viewer.

 

As a result, most of the 3D software providers now include ECW, and many of these

companies offer free 3D viewers.  There is also at least one public domain 3D viewer.

 

Some of the products that come to mind that might do what you want include:

    3D Edge    (native ECW support)

    Manifold GIS (native ECW support, has 3D capabilities)

    Spatial Ace    (native ECW support)

    Geospatial Data Abstraction Library (native ECW, used by PD  3D viewers)

    Terra Vista    (native ECW support)

    World Construction Set (native ECW support)

    Visual Nature Studio (native ECW support)

 

There are least two other 3D terrain programs that are free and use ECW, but

I can't remember their names right now.

 

Anyway, I hope the above gives you a starting point for your 3D requirements.

Note that many of the above have 3D viewers, and also integrate 3D vector objects

into the 3D view.

 

Regards

 

Stuart

 

-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Leo Romeijn
Sent: Saturday, 25 May 2002 6:07 AM
To: ER Mapper List Server
Subject: 3D Viewer in our future???

Mr. Stuart Nixon,

        I would like to know if ER Mapper will ever produce a 3D viewer, similar to ER Viewer, which can be distributed (free), or sold to our clients, so that they can view and interact in a 3D environment with my .ers files? We create a lot of 3D environments for our clients, with the use of a DEM (from digitized vectors, Aster, etc.), and some sort of Image (Landsat, Aster 1B, Ikonos, Aerial, etc.) overlaid. The problem is that we are unable to give this data to our clients, only the 2D image, a Z color map, or contours. My vision for this program is listed below:

1.      Similar to ER Viewer, but with the capabilities to load a DEM, Image, and Vectors at the same time.
2.      View in 2D and 3D mode, with capabilities to switch off the layers.
3.      Data can not be manipulated or changed, just viewed.
4.      Once in 3D mode the client can Pan, Zoom, Fly, and obtain geographic N,E,Z info, by using the same type of cross hair as in ER Mapper Perspective view with Cell Coord.

5.      Save 3D view to Raster format, or print to printer.

I know you guys are very busy, keeping up with ER Mapper updates, and other customer support items, to keeps us all happy, but I believe that this would be a very useful product. Our clients will be able to view their site in a three dimensional world, they are happy with the results and give us more contracts to supply data, we have to hire more employees (additional ER Mapper seats), and the client buys 3D viewers (at a reasonable price) for all employees that use this data. I believe everyone will be happy in our 3D world.

Leo M. Romeijn

Satellite Imaging Corporation

12777 Jones Rd., Suite 370

Houston, TX 77070, USA

832.237.2900 ext.202, 832.237.2910 (Fax)

[EMAIL PROTECTED]

www.satimagingcorp.com