Method of rendering a terrain stored in a massive database

Abstract

A method of rendering a terrain stored in a massive database the said terrain rendering being displayed for an observer by a display device comprising at least one graphics card comprising a cache memory, comprises at least: a step of generating several regular grids of different resolution level terrain patches so as to represent the terrain data of the massive database; a step of extracting terrain data from the massive database for several resolution levels, the extracted terrain data forming an extraction pyramid, composed of an extraction window for each level of detail, placed in cache memory. Each window comprises an active zone intended to be displayed, and a preloading zone which makes it possible to anticipate the transfers of data; a step of selecting the patches of the extraction pyramid which contribute to the image; and a step of plotting the rendering on the basis of the selected patches.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.