Automatic simplification and visualization of 3D urban building models

A high-fidelity and real-time rendering urban building model was implemented through the simplification of 3D building groups. An approach to simplify a single 3D building has been addressed for generating a levels-of-detail (LOD) building model in nearby urban regions. In farther regions, a single-chain cluster was used to collect footprints of neighboring building groups. To effectively merge footprints, the Delaunay triangulation and line simplification were employed. As a result, a coarse LOD model was created based on generalized footprints and building heights. Our approach not only preserved urban legibility (Lynch, 1960), which is effective for viewers visually navigating through an urban environment, but also implemented dynamic visualization of 3D city models. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.