Journal: February 2009

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Welcome to the Grand Canyon
Mon 16/2/09 (Link to this entry)

Apart from a few extra non-essential features which I'm planning on implementing, the code for my final-year project is now basically complete. The last major feature I had to implement was the ability to use an alternative source of terrain data (mainly in order to demonstrate the flexibility of my design).

One thing I've wanted to do right from the start is to use aerial photographs like those seen in Google Maps as an overlay for the terrain model. Well, I've managed to source some data for a small section of the Grand Canyon (courtesy of the USGS National Map Seamless Server) and have spent a large chunk of this week working it into my project. I think the results look pretty good:

The area in the screenshot above is the same as that linked in the Google Maps link above, and I feel it's pretty damn recognisable (although the USGS aerial photos seem to be a bit washed out colour-wise compared to the Google photos). Sadly, it was a nightmare getting the terrain model to match up with the photos (since they're provided in completely different projections), so there's a bit of shift which is most noticeable around the river. Despite this, I'm pretty pleased with it - it's fun tearing along the riverbed at 400 knots, I should make it into a game!

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