A pyramid-based approach to interactive terrain visualization

This paper describes a multiresolution approach to the visualization of surface data. The algorithms discussed allow the generation of arbitrary views of 3-dimensional surfaces. Image processing and texture mapping techniques are combined in a new 3-pass scanline algorithm to achieve smooth and continuous translations, rotations, and scale changes of large data sets. The implementation of the algorithms on a massively parallel SIMD video supercomputer, the Princeton Engine, allows the scenes to be generated interactively at video rates.