KR101873566B1 - System and method for terrain authoring based on user-sketch - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a user sketch-based terrain authoring system and method, and in order to easily create a terrain suitable for a user's intention, a terrain contour is generated by a sketch of a user, and a condition constituted by a terrain contour It creates a globally realistic terrain, applies a procedural method, simulates erosion and weathering to add local detail of the terrain, allows the user to control terrain contour information and edit the terrain accordingly By outputting the terrain data, it is possible to shorten the production period of large scale terrain by using automated terrain generation method, and to improve the quality of terrain by improving the reality of the terrain locally or globally, You can instantly create and confirm a terrain that matches your intentions There is so to improve the overall work efficiency.

Description

[0001] The present invention relates to a user-sketch-based terrain authoring system and method,

The present invention relates to a user sketch-based terrain authoring system and method. More particularly, the present invention relates to a user sketch-based terrain authoring system and method, and more particularly, The present invention relates to a user sketch-based topographical authoring system and method for authoring realistic terrains globally and locally.

The movie 'King Kong' is based on the entire city of New York in 1933, and the online map 'World of Warcraft' is about 35km x 35km. The area of space to express in movies, games, and educational contents is getting bigger in the future. However, if all of these large-scale terrains required by the contents are manually produced, the production period becomes longer, which is not desirable. Also, even if the background of the contents is a virtual space, most of the realistic expressions in reality are required. However, if the contents are manually produced, the production period is prolonged for increasing the reality. There is a need for methods to reduce the production period and to produce high quality, high-quality terrains.

To reduce the time required for terrain generation, minimal manual and computerized automated generation is required. Automated generation methods should be designed to generate high quality terrain.

One method of automated terrain generation is procedural terrain generation. This technique is repeatedly applied to certain rules or methods to create complex terrain. More specifically, Perlin Noise and Fractal methods are used. However, this procedural terrain generation method has the advantage of easily generating the terrain with minimal rule generation, while it is difficult to generate the terrain in the user's intended direction and the generated terrain is locally highly realistic, .

In order to overcome the disadvantages of the procedural terrain generation method, it is possible to give the global shape of the terrain by a simple sketch of the user, and to increase the reality of the generated terrain by partially using the procedural terrain generation. The global shape of the generated terrain meets the intention of the user, but it may become unrealistic. There are also technologies that enhance the reality through simulations of erosion and weathering.

Other automated terrain generation methods include the use of the Digital Elevation Model (DEM). A digital elevation model (DEM) is an image data extracted from contours, aerial photographs, satellite images, etc., and represents the altitude of a given area. The digital elevation model (DEM) is very realistic because it extracts the topography of the real world. However, there is no digital elevation model (DEM) that directly expresses a virtual terrain that the user intends. It extracts features of ridges and valleys from a digital elevation model (DEM), cuts out patches according to their characteristics, relocates them along the ridges and gorges that the user intended, and gently connects each of the terrain patches to create realistic terrain There is also a synthetic topography generation method that can be easily generated. Digital Elevation Model (DEM) data is represented by a video image, where each pixel of the image represents tens of meters of actual terrain. Therefore, it is disadvantageous in that it is globally highly realistic but very local in reality.

As described above, there are various methods for automating the terrain generation and enhancing the reality. However, there is a trade-off between the advantages and disadvantages. Although the procedural terrain generation method is locally realistic, it can not generate the terrain desired by the user globally. Creates a terrain that is highly realistic in the global sense but is less realistic locally, and the terrain generation method based on the user sketch is easy to generate the terrain reflecting the intention of the user and intuitive work,

It is an object of the present invention to provide a terrain generation system and method that are developed to solve the above problems and utilize various methods for automating generation of terrain to increase the degree of reality globally or locally while reducing the overall production period .

It is another object of the present invention to provide a terrain generation system and method capable of aggressively controlling a user so as to obtain results in which an automated terrain generation method conforms to a user's intention.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a user sketch-based topographical authoring method, comprising: a sketch-based terrain generation step of receiving terrain contour data by receiving sketch data; A synthetic terrain type generating step of appropriately arranging and synthesizing the terrain patches based on the terrain contour data using the terrain feature data of the terrain patch and a procedural method of adding the terrain detail diagram to the synthesized terrain data through a procedural method The method includes generating a terrain type, simulating terrain data generated by the terrain data generation step, and generating a terrain rendering data by rendering the terrain data and the simulated terrain data together. And a rendering step.

According to the present invention, there is an effect that the production period of a large scale terrain can be shortened by using an automated terrain generation method.

In addition, it has the effect of applying the procedural method locally and increasing the reality of the entire terrain by using the digital elevation model (DEM) data globally.

In addition, by generating the conditions using the interface that controls the characteristic lines and the characteristic parameters and generating the terrain in a form satisfying these conditions, the terrain suitable for the user's intention can be instantly generated, confirmed and corrected, .

1 is a block diagram illustrating a user sketch-based terrain authoring system in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a flowchart illustrating a user sketch-based terrain generation and editing method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The configuration of the present invention and the operation and effect thereof will be clearly understood through the following detailed description. Before describing the present invention in detail, the same components are denoted by the same reference symbols as possible even if they are displayed on different drawings. In the case where it is judged that the gist of the present invention may be blurred to a known configuration, do.

The user sketch-based topographical authoring system and method of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a user sketch-based topographical authoring system according to the present invention. The user sketch-based terrain storage system includes a user sketch input device 100, a authoring device 200 for processing the terrain generation and editing, and a terrain image output device 300 for outputting the finally rendered terrain image .

The authoring apparatus 200 includes a sketch-based terrain generating unit 210, an example-based terrain feature extracting unit 220, a synthesized terrain generating unit 230, a procedural terrain generating unit 240, a simulation terrain generating unit 250 And a topographical visualization unit 260.

The sketch-based terrain generation unit 210 receives the sketch information from the user sketch input device 100, generates terrain contour data, and generates a terrain satisfying the terrain contour data.

The sketch-based terrain generation unit 210 includes an interface for allowing the user to define terrain contour data including characteristic lines and characteristic parameters for control of future terrain generation.

In addition, the sketch-based terrain generation unit 210 generates a terrain satisfying conditions formed by the terrain contour data defined through the interface.

The feature-based feature extraction unit 220 extracts feature lines representing ridges or valleys from an exemplary digital elevation model (DEM) data, and extracts single or continuous topographic patches matched to the feature lines.

The synthetic terrain generation unit 230 arranges the terrain patches extracted from the example-based terrain feature extraction unit 220 in a form satisfying the condition formed by the terrain contour data defined through the interface of the sketch-based terrain generation unit 210 And automatically creates global synthetic terrain with highly realistic synthesis method by image warping or image merging.

The procedural terrain generation unit 240 adds detailed topographic detail to the combined terrain generated by the combined terrain generation unit 230 through a procedural method to supplement the geographical reality with the synthetic terrain having excellent global reality .

The simulation terrain generation unit 250 enhances the realism by changing the terrain by performing erosion or weathering simulations on the inputted terrain.

The terrain visualization unit 260 generates the terrain image information by rendering the finally generated terrain. The terrain visualization unit 260 can refer to the visualized terrain and re-create the feature lines and the characteristic parameters that are already defined through the interface to generate a new terrain according to the changed conditions, and re-visualize the terrain.

The generated terrain image information is output through the terrain image output device 300.

2 is a flowchart illustrating a topographical authoring method using a user sketch-based topographical authoring system according to the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 2, the user inputs sketch data sketched by the user from the user sketch input device 100 (S100). The sketch data is composed of characteristic lines and characteristic parameters.

The terrain contour data constituting the contour of the terrain is generated from the input sketch data, and the sketch-based terrain data satisfying the conditions constituting the terrain contour data is directly generated (S110).

In this process, the user specifies what the characteristic line sketched by the user means. At this time, the characteristic line sketched by the user using the interface is designated to be represented by the ridge or valley, or the characteristic parameter is designated so that the characteristic line is designated as the ridge line or the valley. In addition, the height of the terrain can be specified through a new feature line sharing a vertical position along a feature line represented by a ridge or valley. It is possible to newly designate a characteristic line for determining the width of the terrain represented by the two characteristic lines described above. In addition, if the terrain generated from the feature lines does not exactly satisfy the feature lines, the error tolerance can be designated as the feature parameter for each feature line. The terrain contour data includes the feature lines and feature parameters described above.

On the other hand, topographical feature data consisting of terrain patches that match feature lines are extracted by extracting single or continuous terrain patches that match ridges, valleys, and feature lines from the example DEM data, And the terrain patches are appropriately arranged and synthesized with reference to the terrain characteristic data so as to satisfy the conditions of the terrain contour data generated in step S100 to generate combined terrain data (S120).

Example When extracting terrain patches from DEM data, lines representing ridges or valleys in the example DEM data use one or more diverging points or ending points that end at some point. In other words, by analyzing the DEM data of the example, we extract the lines connecting the bifurcation points and end points and these points as feature information. In this feature information, a dot-unit topographic patch with a circular or rectangular shape in which a digital elevation model (DEM) is fragmented by a predetermined size around the corresponding point is extracted. Also, it is possible to extract a line-shaped terrain patch having a strip shape cut out of the digital elevation model (DEM) by a certain distance around the corresponding line existing in the feature information.

Terrain patches of feature information that match well in the topographic feature data are arranged along feature lines representing ridges or valleys of the topographic outline data. In the case of the line unit terrain patch, since the referenced characteristic line itself is deformed, it is necessary to deform and arrange the terrain patch by a method such as image warping.

Sketch-based terrain data or synthetic terrain data is added procedurally to the terrain detail to generate more realistic procedural terrain data locally (S130).

More realistic simulated terrain data is generated through the erosion or weathering simulation on the procedural terrain data (S140).

The terrain contour data and the simulation terrain data are rendered together to generate terrain rendering data (S150).

The sketch-based terrain data generated in the sketch-based terrain generation step (S110) or the synthesized terrain data generated in the synthesized terrain generation step (S120) are expressed in a low-level resolution because they represent globally realistic terrains, Since the procedural terrain data generated in step S130 or the simulated terrain data generated in the simulating terrain generating step S140 expresses geographically real terrain, a high-level resolution representation is required, so that the terrain data has multiple resolutions desirable.

The terrain image output device 300 outputs the result of visualizing the terrain contour data and the terrain rendering data together (S160).

The output is checked to confirm whether the terrain is suitable for the user's intention, and the portion that does not fit the intention is corrected immediately (S170). In the modification process, the user views the result of visualization of the terrain contour data and the simulated terrain data, modifies characteristic lines and feature parameters, which are components of the terrain contour data, and changes the terrain contour data, In a time-consuming manner.

The terrain contour data includes not only the contour information of one terrain but also contour information of various independent or partially connected terrains. In the sketch-based terrain data generation step (S110), characteristic lines or characteristic parameters In addition to editing, it is desirable to provide editing operations such as connecting or disconnecting between independent or partially connected terrain contour data.

Finally, the generated terrain data has a data structure of a digital elevation model (DEM) having multiple resolutions and is preferably stored as a file at all stages related to terrain generation.

The foregoing description is merely illustrative of the present invention, and various modifications may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the present invention. Accordingly, the embodiments disclosed in the specification of the present invention are not intended to limit the present invention. The scope of the present invention should be construed according to the following claims, and all the techniques within the scope of equivalents should be construed as being included in the scope of the present invention.

By using the present invention, it is possible to further enhance the film, game, and educational content production industries that require background landforms because the productivity of the terrain can be increased and the work time can be reduced.

100: User sketch input device
200:
210: a sketch-based terrain generating unit
220: Example-based terrain feature extraction unit
230: Synthetic terrain generation unit
240: procedural terrain generation unit
250: Simulation Terrain Generation Unit
260: terrain visualization part
300: terrain image output device

Claims (8)

Receiving sketch information including feature lines and feature parameters, receiving inputs relating to the feature lines and geographic conditions of the feature parameters, generating input relating to the geographical conditions and terrain contour data satisfying the sketch information A sketch-based terrain generation unit;
An example - based terrain feature extraction unit that extracts terrain patches containing feature lines from model elevation model data;
A synthesized terrain generation unit for generating the synthesized terrain by arranging the terrain patches in correspondence with the terrain contour data; And
And a terrain visualization unit for rendering the synthesized terrain to generate the terrain image information,
Wherein the terrain visualization unit modifies the feature line and the feature parameters based on the synthesized terrain and modifies the synthesized terrain by reflecting the changed geographical condition as generating the synthesized terrain,
User sketch based terrain authoring system. The method according to claim 1,
And a procedural terrain generator for adding the terrain detail to the synthesized terrain. The method according to claim 1,
And a simulation terrain generating unit for performing an erosion action simulation or a weathering action simulation on the synthetic terrain. The method of claim 3,
A terrain visualization unit for rendering the terrain contour data and the simulated synthetic terrain; A user sketch-based topographical authoring system. Receiving sketch information including feature lines and feature parameters, receiving inputs relating to the feature lines and geographic conditions of the feature parameters, generating input relating to the geographical conditions and terrain contour data satisfying the sketch information step;
Extracting terrain patches including feature lines from the example digital elevation model data;
Arranging the terrain patches in response to the terrain contour data to generate a composite terrain;
Rendering the composite terrain to generate terrain image information;
Modifying the feature line and the feature parameters based on the synthesized terrain; And
Modifying the synthetic terrain by reflecting the changed geographical condition as generating the synthesized terrain;
A user sketch-based topographical authoring method. 6. The method of claim 5,
And adding a terrain detail to the composite terrain. 6. The method of claim 5,
And performing an erosion simulation or a weathering simulation on the synthetic terrain.  8. The method of claim 7, further comprising: rendering the terrain contour data and the simulated synthetic terrain; And a user sketch-based topographical authoring method.

Images