Webpage - 3D Earthquake Visualization - Silverlight?

Question

I have never written any Silverlight applications, but I want to write a three-dimensional earthquake application and run it from my website.

I would like to create a simple viewer so that the user can change the "camera", i.e. your perspective. A view can contain up to 10,000 objects in three-dimensional space.

I need the ability to quickly view this - I saw this in the Power Basic application and want to do it for the Internet.

I have a current website at http://canterburyquakelive.co.nz for earthquakes in the Canterbury New Zeaalnd, and I want to learn the basics so that it can be more interactive.

I want to say, for example, (to start) to put 2 objects in the “space”, which I can detect and move the camera in real time.

At the end of the day, the system should support up to 10,000 objects.

Each object can be a simple circle - there is no need for special pixel shaders

I'm not sure about the exact functionality of the system at the moment, so if I can find a tutorial that allows me to put someone (circle) in the 3D world (space) and change the camera that would be good.

Any ideas are appreciated - it seems that in 3d and silver light it seems to me that I am lost in the “sparkle” of new functions, where I need some basics, and I can learn and adapt over time.

** Comment + image added ** Mostly I'm waiting to create a page similar to Silverlight. But I am open to any technology.

Answer 1

I have never done 3D in silverlight, so I can’t accurately answer your question as asked, but generally display geographical markers in “real” three-dimensional space. At a minimum, you are probably looking at:

• Getting heights binary data (last time I looked, NASA gives it)
• Reading and interpreting the specified files to obtain data with a bitmap height
• Selection and processing of forecasts (e.g. UTM)
• The decision on how to adjust the bitmap height data.

If you want this to be textured, you also need to get satellite data in order to convert or process it again to account for projection.

You can ignore the height of the landscape, but this cannot simplify the situation depending on how bumpy your landscape is.

For a predefined small enough area, you could pre-create a three-dimensional model of the landscape in some kind of 3D package, but to display your markers you still need a projection from long / lat into your 3D space, and you still need to know the height of the landscape (unless you come across a mesh with a static model).

Rendering markers is pretty easy to compare, choose from:

• Use a three-dimensional model, for example. pin head (simple but not always visible).
• Render is a regular n-gon with polygons facing the viewers (without permission, but possibly ugly)
• Render quad with a circle texture on it (low poly, but what size texture to choose?)

There are probably libraries that do some or all of this for you, so if you are determined to ride on your own, then some of the things that I mentioned may become the basis for your search.

However, given what you described on your site and in some situation, I suspect that you should avoid this work using an existing solution. For instance. Google Earth API .

Answer 2

You may want to consider 3D plugins that tend to distract you from Silverlight, but this can speed up the development process. I mean, in particular, the Blender 3D plugin. I can understand what you need to write your own viewer, but think twice before reinventing the wheel. Good luck