ALIEN landscapes kitted out with cliffs dropping away into an abyss hundreds
of kilometres below may be fine for science fiction blockbusters, but military
simulations demand more realism. They need their artificial terrain to look just
like the Black Forest or Afghanistan, not the surface of another planet.
Digital maps鈥攅lectronic representations of real terrain鈥攁re
extremely expensive and are unavailable for many areas of the world. For some
purposes, such as army training, a map of imaginary terrain, based on real
geographical characteristics, is perfectly acceptable. RED Scientific of
Midhurst, West Sussex, is working with the MoD鈥檚 Defence Evaluation Research
Agency to develop a system that will allow people to 鈥渄ial-up鈥� a region and get
an artificial map that is statistically the same as a real one, with the same
distribution of rivers, hills and settlements.
The package is called Geoform. It contains rules for topography, hydrology,
urbanisation, transport and vegetation. The rules vary from simple constraints,
such as 鈥渞ivers cannot flow uphill鈥�, to the subtle mechanics of complex river
valley development. These geomorphological aspects of the program are based on
the work of Mark Griffin, one of the earth scientists that is advising RED.
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Similar techniques are then applied to the human landscape. For example, a
technique known as Nearest Neighbour Analysis, which is normally used by
geographers to explain the position of real buildings and towns, is used in
reverse to position virtual towns in the simulation. 鈥淥nly the place name
generator needs considerably more work for authenticity,鈥� says Griffin.
The resulting terrain can be turned into an electronic map for simulators, or
a conventional cartographic map, either on paper or in a geographic information
system. A GIS might present the information as a 3D panorama, a map, a
simplified sketch, or in statistical formats such as graphs. If an approach like
an arcade game is needed, successive 3D images can be strung together to
generate a 鈥渇ly-through鈥� effect.
