The virtual Aachen project

The aim of this practical course is the creation of a photo-realistic virtual walk-through of the city of Aachen. This includes the generation of a 3D model of Aachen which is as detailed and as correct as possible from, e.g., digital 2D map data or aerial photographs. For a realistic impression this model needs to be correctly textured and special care has to be taken of landmark buildings like the Aachen cathedral or the city hall. The resulting large amounts of geometry and texture data then have to be handled in an efficient way to allow for real-time visualizations using the latest 3D graphics engine techniques.

Requirements:

• Good knowledge of the CG1 lecture
• Good C++ programming  experience
• Preferable: knowledge of OpenGL, Qt, Linux

Possible topics include:

• 3D model generation from 2D maps
• Integration of 2D maps and aerial photographs (e.g. from Google Earth)
• Texture generation from images or video footage
• Implementation of a modeling system for landmark buildings
• Handling of massive texture and geometry datasets
• Visualization using state-of-the-art Computer Graphics techniques
• etc.