A case study on procedural modeling of geo-typical southern afghanistan terrain

A cost-effective method of military training is game-based training, for which custom geo-typical terrain models are often most suitable. However, for training instructors, scenario preparation is seriously slowed down by the complexity of current terrain modeling tools and methods. They would benefit from a quick and easy to use automated terrain modeler. The purpose of our declarative modeling framework is to offer an intuitive and fast way for instructors to model geo-typical terrain. We investigated how procedural methods can be developed and applied to quickly generate specific types of geo-typical terrain models. In this case study, we focused on generating terrain models that contain the typical natural and man-made features of southern Afghanistan. By analyzing these features and by developing and integrating procedural methods in our sketch-based terrain modeling framework, we found that one can quickly achieve convincing results. We present new and tailored methods that are fast and effective and that can generate a complete and consistent geo-typical Afghanistan-like terrain model. The results strengthen our belief that the framework is a firm step towards a declarative, automated terrain modeling process. Moreover, these procedural methods can be tailored to generate other types of geo-typical terrain.

@InProceedings { STDB09a,
  author       = "Smelik, Ruben M. and Tutenel, Tim and Kraker, Klaas Jan de  and Bidarra, Rafael",
  title        = "A case study on procedural modeling of geo-typical southern afghanistan terrain",
  booktitle    = "Proceedings of IMAGE 2009",
  month        = "jul",
  year         = "2009",
  address      = "St.Louis, Missouri",
  url          = "http://graphics.tudelft.nl/Publications-new/2009/STDB09a"
}