Grand Canyon 3D

A little fun project which renders a 3D model of the Grand Canyon.

Description | Screenshots | Links

Description

The main idea behind this little experiment was to generate a three-dimensional view of a landscape out of two two-dimensional images reflecting the landscape’s coloring and its profile.

Given an aerial photograph of the Grand Canyon and a grayscale image reflecting the height profile, a simple 3D landscape has been generated using C++ and OpenGL. As the original data was quite detailed, the 3D view consumed a huge amount of memory and CPU resources which gave a good playground for further experiments on optimized and improved rendering.

Finally I had some fun with OpenGL effects like fog and light as well as particle emitters making it possible to let it rain on the Grand Canyon.

Screenshots

Here’s a first impression of what Grand Canyon 3D looks like. It’s only a few static screenshots but it’ll do. Just click an image to see it in full size.

Original Data:

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Basic 3D Rendering:

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Rain (Particle Emitter):

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Fog

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Feature Tracking

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Links

• GLUT – The OpenGL Utility Toolkit [Website]
  • Win32 Binaries [Website]
• The Red Book – OpenGL Programming Guide [Book at Amazon]
  • Online Version [Website]
• NEHE – OpenGL Web Tutorial [Website]