Parallel algorithm for viewshed analysis on a modern GPU

作     者：Fang Chao Yang Chongjun Chen Zhuo Yao Xiaojing Guo Hantao 

作者机构：State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing ScienceJointly Sponsored by The Institute of Remote Sensing Applications of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Beijing Normal UniversityBeijingChina Department of 3D productBeijing GeoBeans Information Technology Co.LtdBeijingChina 

出 版 物：《International Journal of Digital Earth》 (国际数字地球学报（英文）)

年 卷 期：2011年第4卷第6期

页      面：471-486页

核心收录：

学科分类：08[工学] 0708[理学-地球物理学] 0835[工学-软件工程] 0704[理学-天文学] 0811[工学-控制科学与工程] 0812[工学-计算机科学与技术（可授工学、理学学位）] 

基　　金：This work is supported in part by 863 program grants 2009AA12Z227,2009AA12Z215 also by the MOST Program(Grant No.2008BAH23B04) 

主　　题：viewshed analysis vertex and pixel shader GPU shadow map 3D representation visualization Digital Earth DEM 

摘      要：Spatial analysis,including viewshed analysis,is an important aspect of the Digital Earth *** analysis is usually performed on a large scale,so efficiency is important in any Digital Earth application making these *** this paper,a real-time algorithm for viewshed analysis in 3D scenes is presented by using the parallel computing capabilities of a graphics processing unit(GPU).In contrast to traditional algorithms based on line-of-sight,this algorithm runs completely within the programmable 3D visualization pipeline to render 3D terrains with viewshed *** most important difference is its integration of the viewshed calculation with the rendering *** areas are rendered as shadows in the 3D *** algorithm process is paralleled by rasterizer units in the graphics card and by vertex and pixel shaders executed on the *** have implemented this method in our 3D Digital Earth system with the DirectX 9.0c API and tested on some consumer-level PC platforms with interactive framerates and high image *** algorithm has been widely used in related systems based on Digital Earth.