Efficient occlusion-free visualization for navigation in mountainous areas

In three-dimensional (3D) navigation, if mountainous terrain is displayed based on ordinary perspective projection, viewers often find that the features of interest are occluded, which prevents an overview of the features. This paper presents an approach for the automatic generation of consecutive nonperspective views of mountainous terrain. The proposed method can generate views without occlusions of important features, and allows viewers to navigate the landscape. The ray-tracing technique is employed to detect occlusions. The local elevations that occlude important features are transformed, while the resemblance and realism of the 3D landscape are maintained by solving global optimization problems. The approach maximizes the visibility of the features of interest on the deformed terrain. It also maintains a good balance between the elimination of occlusion and the preservation of resemblance. The occlusion-free visualization framework satisfies the demand for navigation and tour guidance in mountainous areas at interactive frame rates. & 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.