Ecoinformatics, Biometrics and Forest Growth

PhD topic D9


Extension of the 3-d modelling software GroIMP to a multi-user virtual reality environment for e-training in forestry


Description:


In a preceding Ph.D. project (Lanwert 2007), a multi-client virtual reality system has been implemented which enables several users to interact with a virtual forest stand, to communicate with each other and to trigger a growth simulation, remotely executed by the rule-based simulator GroIMP (Kniemeyer 2008). Visualization of terrain, trees and avatars was realized as an extra software, interconnecting with GroIMP via an http interface. This compound system was designed for e-learning tasks, particularly for training students of forest science in silvicultural practices and resource management. However, due to remaining instabilities of the realized implementation and also due to the complex configuration of the system, it was never used on a full scale.


With the recently implemented, new capabilities of GroIMP (improved OpenGL interactive rendering (Hartmann 2010), support for billboard generation (Rogge 2007)), it should now be possible to implement the full functionality of the mentioned multi-client system solely in the framework of the open-source software GroIMP. This should lead to an improved performance, stability, and easier initialization of the system for use in practice.


New features which are to be designed and implemented are features for a multi-user mode of GroIMP, for communication between concurrent instances relying on the same virtual scene, for avatars and standardized billboard arrangements for trees. The representation of trees and forest stands shall furthermore be improved following some of the suggestions given by Seifert (2009).


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