Target3D: Interactive visualization over the world wide web

This paper describes a Java application, Target 3D, that creates an interactive VRML model to visualize real terrain configurations. The application requires an input elevation grid and a texture to drape on the elevation framework, which can be provided by the freeware MICRODEM program from a wide variety of grid, raster, and vector map data. The most important feature of this Java application is that users can interactively add target models to the scene, which allows recreating reality in detail. To deliver this interactive landscape visualization, the application uses a client-side architecture with a Java Applet technology, and requires only that the computer have a Java run time environment. The VRML output can be served via a network, and viewing it requires only a web browser with a plug-in to display VRML files.