Non-invasive interactive visualization of dynamic architectural environments

We present a system for interactively producing exploded views of 3D architectural environments such as multi-story buildings. These exploded views allow viewers to simultaneously see the internal and external structures of such environments. To create an exploded view we analyze the geometry of the environment to locate individual stories. We then use clipping planes and multipass rendering to separately render each story of the environment in exploded form. Our system operates at the graphics driver level and therefore can be applied to existing OpenGL applications, such as first-person multiplayer video games, without modification. The resulting visualization allows users to understand the global structure of architectural environments and to observe the actions of dynamic characters and objects interacting within such environments.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2003
• Where: SI3D
• Authors: Christopher Niederauer, Mike Houston, Maneesh Agrawala, Greg Humphreys
• Keywords: Architectural Environments, Computer Graphics, Exploded View, SI3D 2003, Views Allow Viewers