For on-site users (having access to all Martian surface data), we are develop an interactive real-time viewer application which provides a smooth fly-over and viewing experience of the Martian surface. VRVis (VRVis Centre for Vitual Reality and Visualisation) build upon its experience in real-time rendering [39] and terrain rendering [42], and on building frameworks for rapid developing of graphics applications (“Aardvark”, Open Inventor, Coin3D) to create such a viewer. For this application it is necessary to research and develop appropriate hierarchical data structures to store the textures and height maps of the Martian surface, i.e. a multi resolution texture representation of the Martian surface is created.
For off-site users (havingonly web-access), a client-server solution is provided, where a server that has access to all Martian surface data, render panoramic images for locations requested by a web-based client. The server is a remote controlled instance of the viewer application developed for an on-site user. Within the web based client, panoramic image viewers can be used to turn around and get the complete visual impression for a specific location on Mars. Specific limitations on what part of the data is accessible to specific off-site users can be implemented on top of the client server protocol.
Figure 14: VRVis (VRVis Centre for Vitual Reality and Visualisation) rendering of 3D reconstruction using ExoMars PanCam (Panoramic Camera) – simulating stereo [71], 20 pairs.
Left: Whole area in viewer.
Right: Close-up at the marked position in the overview. A high resolution video showing real-time rendering of this area is available at: