Virtual Huanghe River System: Key technologies and their applications - art. no. 674931

Virtual Reality provides a new approach for geographical research. In this paper, a framework of the Virtual Huanghe River System was first presented, including four main modules - data sources module, 3D terrain database module, 3D model database module and 3D simulation implementation module. Then the key technologies of Virtual Huanghe River System and their applications were discussed in detail: 1) OpenGL technology, the 3D graphics developing tool, was employed in Virtual Huanghe River System to realize the function of dynamic real-time navigation. 2) MultiGen Creator was used to create the 3D model with real texture. 3) OpenGL and MO were used to make the mutual response between 3D scene and 2D electronic map available. The advantages of visualization, reality and locality in 3D scene and macroscopic view, integrality and conciseness in 2D electronic map were integrated. And at the same time the disadvantages of the losing direction in 3D scene and abstract and ambiguity in 2D electronic map were overcome