MetaVR North America 3D Metadesic Terrain

MetaVR has applied its Metadesic Compiler to build a seamless 3D terrain of North America which includes high-resolution insets of 59 cities at .5 meter resolution. The Metadesic terrain was constructed with 3 arcsecond elevation data and with .3, 1, 5, and 15 meter imagery covering a 10,480-geocell area. MetaVR updates this 3D terrain on an ongoing basis as new source data become available. The terrain tiles reside in a geocentric coordinate system and are suitable for real-time visualization, simulation, and synthetic vision such as glass-cockpit displays, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) applications and fixed-wing cockpit simulation.

	Images from MetaVR's North America terrain in Metadesic format. Click to swap rendered and wireframe views. Click Zoom to view an enlarged image.

The North America dataset can also serve as a baseline to which you can add higher-fidelity information such as high-resolution aerial imagery or LIDAR elevation data, GPS point surveys, or 3D point features (such as buildings, trees, targets, and runway models), to areas of interest. You can make these additions as they become available, even in real-time if information is provided directly from sensors in the field. The Metadesic architecture automatically signals any listening runtime visualizations that new data is available to be paged into memory. This update flexibility is:

• Efficient - conventional simulations applications do not need to recompile entire databases upon receipt of new data.


• Scalable - independent assets can be applied to both construction and visualization.


• Network-centric - mission rehearsal and battle damage assessment tasks can now include a 3D visualization component that is sensor-data driven.

The Metadesic North America dataset contains high-resolution terrain insets of 59 US cities such as Anchorage, San Francisco, St. Louis, Orlando, and Washington DC. The insets also include several military installations.

The Metadesic (MDS) format requires VRSG version 5 or greater.

Specifications for MetaVR’s North America terrain dataset in Metadesic format (MDS):

		Database size		= 10,480 geocells (1,700,040 sq km) (one geocell = 100 x 100 km nominal)
		Size on disk Terrain post spacing Source imagery Terrain elevation Terrain imagery		= 1,084 GB = 60 mpp = approximately 4.5 TB = 3 arcseconds (70-100 meter) = 15mpp LandSat7 fused color (L7), with high resolution insets of approximately 59 areas of interest with .5, 1, 5, and 15 meter imagery for several US cities and most US military installations.

The dataset contains high-resolution (.5 m) terrain insets of the following cities (sorted by state):

	AL: Birmingham, Huntsville, Mobile, Montgomery AZ: Tucson CA: Fresno, Los Angeles, Modesto, Sacramento, San Bernadino, San Diego, San Francisco, Stockton CO: Colorado Springs, Denver DC: Washington FL: Jacksonville, Miami, Orlando, Tampa GA: Atlanta IL: Chicago IN: Fort Wayne KY: Lexington, Louisville	LA: Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Shreveport MA: Boston, Springfield, Worcester MD: Annapolis, Baltimore MI: Detroit MN: Minneapolis MO: St. Louis MS: Jackson NC: Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham NE: Lincoln NM: Albuquerque NV: Carson City, Reno	OH: Cincinnati, Cleveland-Akron, Columbus OK: Oklahoma City OR: Portland PA: Philadelphia RI: Providence TN: Chattanooga, Knoxville TX: Amarillo, Austin, Dallas, El Paso, Houston, Lubbock UT: Salt Lake City WA: Seattle

The dataset also contains cultural point features of the following military urban training sites: Ft. Benning, Ft. Campbell, and National Training Center (NTC).

Although the North America terrain is comprised of US imagery, with the Metadesic Compiler you could construct a database of the entire earth if low-cost redistributable data were available.

MetaVR’s North America 3D terrain in Metadesic format is delivered with terrain tiles on one 1.6 TB external LaCie hard drive; the terrain was constructed from natural color imagery in .5, 1, 5, and 15 meter resolution.

MetaVR’s North America dataset is available for purchase only by US Government organizations and US Government contractors. The nominal cost covers the processing of large quantities of data into the Metadesic format and the LaCie drive distribution media.

Note that MetaVR is currently migrating its high-resolution MDX databases to its new Metadesic terrain format.

You can order the North American terrain directly from MetaVR.