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An integrated TIN and Grid method for constructing multi-

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International Journal of Geographical Information Science
Vol. 19, No. 10, November 2005, 1019–1038

Research Article

An integrated TIN and Grid method for constructing multi-resolution

digital terrain models

B. YANG*{§, W. SHI{ and Q. LI§

{GIS Divison, Department of Geography, University of Zurich-Irchel, Winterthurerstr.
190, Zurich, Switzerland
{Advanced Research Centre for Spatial Information Technology, Department of Land
Surveying and Geo-Informatics, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
§State Key Lab of Information Engineering in Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing,
Wuhan University, Wuhan, China

(Received 24 October 2004; in final form 12 April 2005 )

Multi-resolution terrain models are an efficient approach to improve the speed of

three-dimensional (3D) visualizations, especially for terrain visualization in
Geographical Information Systems (GIS). As a further development to existing
algorithms and models, a new model is proposed for the construction of multi-
resolution terrain models in a 3D GIS. The new model represents multi-
resolution terrains using two major methods for terrain representation:
Triangulated Irregular Network (TIN) and regular grid (Grid). In this paper,
first, the concepts and formal definitions of the new model are presented. Second,
the methodology for constructing multi-resolution terrain models based on the
new model is proposed. Third, the error of multi-resolution terrain models is
analysed, and a set of rules is proposed to retain the important features (e.g.
boundaries of man-made objects) within the multi-resolution terrain models.
Finally, several experiments are undertaken to test the performance of the new
model. The experimental results demonstrate that the new model can be applied
to construct multi-resolution terrain models with good performance in terms of
time cost and maintenance of the important features. Furthermore, a comparison
with previous algorithms/models shows that the speed of rendering for 3D
walking/flying through has been greatly improved by applying the new model.

Keywords: Grid; TIN; Multi-resolution model; Visualization

1. Introduction
Recent advances in three-dimensimal (3D) spatial data capture, such as high
resolution satellite images and laser scanning, as well as corresponding data
processing and modelling technologies have led to the generation of large amounts
of datasets on terrains, buildings, roads and other features. On the one hand, the
huge amountal data provides the basis for presenting the real world at a very
detailed level. On the other hand, efficient methods for visualizing large data
volumes need to be developed. In fact, the volume of captured terrain data is beyond
the real time rendering capability of a current workstation. For example, a terrain
can be represented by several million triangles. To narrow the gap between the huge

*Corresponding author. Email: bisheng@geo.unizh.ch

International Journal of Geographical Information Science
ISSN 1365-8816 print/ISSN 1362-3087 online # 2005 Taylor & Francis
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
DOI: 10.1080/13658810500391156
1020 B. Yang et al.

data volume from terrain models visualized and the rendering capabilities of current
workstations, the terrain models need to be dynamically represented at different
resolutions. As a result, they can be rapidly visualized at various resolutions on a
currently available workstation.
Since Clark (1976) described the benefits by representing objects within a scene at
several different resolutions, research has been focusing on developing methods for
constructing multi-resolution models in areas such as 3D data compression,
visualization of terrain, simplification of models and progressive transmission.
These have led to various recently developed algorithms and models for multi-
resolution models construction (Mahdi and Chris 1998, Eck et al. 1995, Shi et al. 2003,
Yang et al. 2005a, 2005b), terrain simplification (Gerstner 2003, Bjorke and Nilsen
2003) and progressive transmission over the World Wide Web (Park et al. 2001).
The existing algorithms and models for constructng multi-resolution models can
be divided into two categories: Grid-based multi-resolution algorithms and
Triangulated Irregular Network (TIN)-based multi-resolution algorithms. Figure 1
gives the examples of a TIN model and a Grid model. Grid-based multi-resolution
algorithms include the quad-tree algorithm (Roettger et al. 1998, Lee and Samet
2000) and the triangle bisect algorithm. Many methods have been developed based
on the triangle bisect algorithm, such as the adaptive quad-tree (Lindstrom et al.
1996), the ROAMing algorithm (Duchaineau et al. 1997), Right TIN model (Evans
et al. 1997), the longest edge bisection algorithm (Lindstrom and Pascucci 2002) and
the dynamic adaptive meshes (Cignoni et al. 2003). Moreover, the quad-tree
algorithm constructs multi-resolution models is easy to implement based on a
bottom-up approach, and the triangle bisect algorithm constructs multi-resolution
models based on a top-down approach. The principles of the quad-tree algorithm
and the triangle bisect algorithm are illustrated in figure 2.
There has been extensive research on TIN-based multi-resolution algorithms. A
review and analysis of the existing solutions have been addressed in Heckbert and
Garland (1997). At present, there are three categories of algorithms that pertain to
the multi-resolution TIN models. These are algorithms that (a) simplify a mesh by
removing vertices; (b) simplify a mesh by removing edges; and (c) simplify a mesh by
removing triangles (Ribelles et al. 2002). Other related research includes methods
based on the transformation of wavelets.

Figure 1. Examples of (a) a Grid model; and (b) a TIN model.

 Multi-resolution terrain models 1021

Figure 2. Principles of (a) the quad-tree algorithm; and (b) the triangle bisection algorithm.

De Floriani et al. (2000) developed a system to deliver multi-resolution TINs

based on the multi-triangulation model proposed in Puppo (1998). Algorithms on
hierarchy triangle models were addressed by Heller (1990), Soucy and Laurendeau
(1996), De Floriani et al. (1996), Voigtmann et al. (1997) and Pedrini (2000). The
principle of this category of algorithm is to iteratively insert a vertex into the regions
of a TIN model with the lowest accuracy level based on a Delaunay triangulation
algorithm. However, the speed of performance of these algorithms is relatively low.
Moreover, it is hard to control global errors, and weak triangles (with a long and
thin shape) may be generated during the process. The vertex decimation solution
(Schroeder et al. 1992, Ciampalini et al. 1997) has good performance in speed.
However, it can potentially change the original topology whilst recovering a TIN
model from a lower to a higher resolution. The iterative edge contraction algorithm
(Hoppe 1996, 1998, Garland and Heckbert 1997, Xia et al. 1997, Garland 1999,
EI-Sana and Varsheny 1999, Kim and Lee 2001) is another kind of algorithm to
construct multi-resolution TIN models. The major difference among these
solutions is on the method of the selection of candidate edges and calculation of
errors of models. For example, Hoppe (1996) used the minimum energy cost,
while Garland and Heckbert (1997) employed the quadric error metrics and Kim
and Lee (2001) developed an edge collapses/vertex splits algorithm based on the
concept of dual piece. Wavelet methods provide a fairly clean mathematical
framework for decomposing a surface into a base shape plus a sequence of
successively finer surface details. Approximations can be generated by
discarding the least significant details. Many methods have been developed to
construct multi-resolution TIN models based on the transformation of
wavelets, such as those by Mallat (1989), Gross et al. (1995), Bonneau (1998) and
Wu and Amaratunga (2003). The major principle of this kind of method is to
generate a wavelet decomposition of surfaces with subdivision connectivity.
Consequently, the resulting approximations may be relatively far from the optimal,
because a large number of triangles may be required to preserve subdivision
connectivity.
In light of the above review, the existing algorithms and models are beneficial for
the construction of multi-resolution models and the 3D visualization of large scale
surface models (e.g. terrain models). However, the algorithms and the models only
1022 B. Yang et al.

focus on a specific method of representation: either Grid-based or TIN-based

representation. In fact, a terrain surface in the real world is rather complex. For
example, it may include man-made objects. If the terrain is represented by a Grid-
based model, corresponding Grid-based multi-resolution algorithms will be used to
construct the multi-resolution models. However, the features (e.g. boundaries of
man-made objects) can not be well retained. This drawback can be visually noticed.
Compared with the Grid-based multi-resolution algorithms, TIN-based multi-
resolution algorithms have better ability to retain these features. However, a TIN-
based multi-resolution model may occupy a large amount of data storage, and speed
performance may be lower because of the large data volume. Consequently, it is
more reasonable to represent a terrain by applying the Grid-based model for flat
areas and applying the TIN-based model for rough areas and man-made objects. In
principle, such an integrated model can potentially be much more promising,
compared with a single type of model (either TIN-based or Grid-based model), for
the terrain representation. Therefore, an integrated terrain representation, which
combines both Grid-based and TIN-based models, has the potential to reach this
aim. However, there exist no algorithms or models for constructing such models.
The aim of the paper is to propose a corresponding method to construct multi-
resolution models for the integrated terrain representation. The contents include (a)
the representation of integrated terrain models, (b) a methodology for the multi-
resolution construction of integrated terrain models, and (c) rules for topological
validity checking and feature preservation within a multi-resolution terrain model.
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2 proposes the rules
and method for representing the terrain models with integrated TINs and Grids.
Section 3 presents the methodology for constructing the multi-resolution terrain
models. Section 4 presents a concise data structure and an efficient encoding method
for representing the multi-resolution terrain models and a set of rules for topological
validity checking and features preservation. The experimental results and the
evaluation of the new method are illustrated in section 5. Finally, section 6 draws
conclusions for this paper.

2. Integrated TINs and Grids method for modeling digital terrain

2.1 The rules for integrating TINs and Grids
Both TIN-based and Grid-based models are used for representing the terrain
models. Here, a Grid-based model is used to minimize data storage and also because
of the simplicity of the data structure. This model is efficient, especially for the
terrains with small slope changes. However, the features (e.g. boundaries of man-
made objects) can not be well described if only a Grid-based model is applied. TIN-
based models are able to describe features very well because of the characteristics of
Delaunay triangles. However, a TIN-based model may occupy relatively larger data
storage and has a complex data structure. Therefore, an efficient solution for terrain
representation can be achieved by applying a TIN-based model to represent rough
areas and man-made objects and a Grid-based model to represent relatively plain
areas. Thus, the merits of both TIN-based and Grid-based models will be retained in
the solution.
To represent a terrain with a TIN and a Grid, the terrain is firstly described by a
Grid-based surface model (M0). Following this, features are inserted in the M0. The
areas that the features cross are represented by TIN-based models. Otherwise, the
 Multi-resolution terrain models 1023

areas are represented only by Grid-based models. The following rules are proposed
for the formal definitions of terrain models with TIN-based and Grid-based models.
N Rule 1: The number of rows and columns of the base Grid (M0) are 2n + 1.
N Rule 2: The number of rows and columns of tiles (mi) are 2k + 1 (k,n) if the
tiles are in the Grid representation, and the union of all tiles is the
S
n
whole terrain model, mi ~M0 .
N i~0
Rule 3: The representation of each tile is either a Grid or a TIN,
mi5(Grid|TIN).
N Rule 4: The intersection of two tiles minmj is either their boundary or Ø.
N Rule 5: If the triangle (Ai) exists, there is one and only one tile that contains it.
That is to say, if Ai [ mk and Ai [ mj , then k5j.
Rules 1 to 5 give strictly mathematical definitions for the terrain models
represented by TINs and Grids. According to rules 1 to 5, it is clear that a terrain is
divided into many tiles and the spatial relationships among the tiles conform to the
above rules. Hence, a terrain (M) can be represented as:
[
n
M~ mi , mi ~ðV , F ÞjðLx, Ly, Z, rowsize, columnsize, row, col Þ
i~0

V ~ðv1 , v2 , . . . , vn Þ, F ~ðf1 , f2 , ::, fn Þ, Z~ðz1 , z2 , ::, zn Þ

Where mi, a sub-region of the whole region, is either a Grid-based tile or a TIN-
based tile, vi5(xi, yi, zi) and fi is the triangle of <vi, vj, vk>, rowsize and columnsize
are the resolution of grid (the width and height of minimum unit grid tile), and row
and col are the numbers of row and column grid tiles. zi is the elevation of vertex in
Grid tiles, and Lx and Ly are the coordinates of the left-down corner of Grid tiles.

2.2 Representing terrain models with integrated TINs and Grids

The above formal definitions lay a mathematical foundation for the representation
of terrain models. The integration of a Grid-based and a TIN-based model is a key
issue for representing terrain. According to the above formal definitions, the base
Grid (M0) is divided into many Grid tiles before features (e.g. boundaries of man-
made objects) are integrated into the M0. When features are integrated into the M0,
the tiles that the features cross will be triangulated according to a Delaunay
triangulation algorithm. Moreover, the boundaries of the tiles are treated as the
constraint edges. This is to maintain the integrity of boundaries and to overcome the
gap between the common boundaries of adjacent tiles. The following pseudocode
outlines the integration procedure of TIN-based and Grid-based tiles.

/* Integration of Grids and TINs, basedgrid is the base Grid, features are boundaries of
man-made objects */
void IntegrationGridandTin(Grid basedgrid, Features features){
for(int i50; i,features.size(); i + + ){
if (feature[i].type55point)
InsertpointinGrid(feature[i]);/* insert a point into a grid and triangulate the grid */
if(feature[i].type55line)
InsertedgeinGrid(feature[i]);/* insert an edge into a grid and triangulate the grid */
}
}
1024 B. Yang et al.

The above pseudocode algorithm illustrates the key steps for integrating Grid-
based and TIN-based models. Once all the features are integrated into the base Grid
(M0), a terrain model with representation of TIN and Grid will be generated.
Figure 3 shows an example of a terrain represented by TINs and Grids.

3. Constructing multi-resolution terrain models

The integrated terrain model consists of many tiles, and each tile is either a TIN-
based or a Grid-based model. To generate the multi-resolution terrain, we have
developed algorithms to a) construct the multi-resolution model for each tile; b)
combine the multi-resolution models of all tiles.

3.1 Constructing multi-resolution Grid models

We adopt the longest edge bisection algorithm to construct multi-resolution Grid
models for Grid-based tiles. This algorithm has been widely used in terrain
visualization because the results generated by the longest edge bisection algorithm
are more flexible than those generated by the quadtree algorithm (Lindstrom and
Pascucci 2002). According to the formal definitions of the integrated model, each
Grid tile in the integrated model has 2l + 1 points in vertical and horizontal
directions, which conforms to the conditions of the longest edge bisection algorithm.
This algorithm recursively splits a coarser triangle into two to construct finer
triangles (figure 4(a)). The rule for splitting a triangle is that the distance from the
middle point of the longest edge to the plane of the triangle is less than a threshold.

Figure 3. A terrain example represented by TINs and Grids.

 Multi-resolution terrain models 1025

The lowest resolution Grid tile consists of four points (two triangles). A finer
resolution Grid tile can be achieved by splitting the coarser triangle. Therefore, the
longest edge bisection algorithm is a top-down approach. Moreover, a binary tree is
generated during the procedure (figure 4(b)).

3.2 Constructing multi-resolution TIN models

The iterative edge contraction algorithm is used to construct multi-resolution TIN
models. Figure 5(a) illustrates the concept of the algorithm and figure 5(b) shows a
binary tree, which records the operation of each edge contraction. The main benefit
of the algorithm is the hierarchical structure it creates. The hierarchy is a
precondition to retain the topological relationships of the original model and its
storage has a significant impact on the visualization speed. The principle of the
iterative edge contraction algorithm is to first select candidate edges; the second step
is to judge the validity of the operation of a particular edge collapse/vertex split. A
candidate edge is then chosen according to the distance to the average plane. The
average plane can be easily constructed according to the method of Schroeder et al.
(1992). For one edge <p1, p2>, suppose d1 and d2 be the distance of vertices p1 and
p2 to the average plane. respectively. The distance of the edge <p1, p2> to its
average plane is (d1 + d2)/2. Using this method, the distances of all of the edges to
their average planes can be ranked based on the distance values stored in a stack.

Figure 4. The longest edge bisection algorithm: (a) the concept of the algorithm; and (b) the
binary tree.

Figure 5. The iterative edge contraction algorithm: (a) the concept of the algorithm; and (b)
the binary tree.
1026 B. Yang et al.

The edge with the minimum distance to the average plane will be firstly popped from
the stack for potential collapse.
As the integrated terrain model consists of many tiles, the multi-resolution model
of each tile is constructed based on either the longest edge bisection algorithm or the
iterative edge contraction algorithm. According to the workflow of constructing the
multi-resolution terrain models, an overall multi-resolution terrain model can be
represented as
[n
M~ m0i
i~0

where m9i is a Grid-based or TIN-based multi-resolution model.

The above formula states that the overall multi-resolution terrain model can be
achieved by a combination of the multi-resolution model of each tile.

3.3 Combination of multi-resolution Grid models and TIN models

As the multi-resolution model of each tile is handled individually, a ‘gap’ in the
vertical (z) direction, leading to an undesirable artifact may emerge in the area
around the common boundaries of adjacent tiles. This is because of different
resolutions of adjacent tiles at the common boundaries. Figure 6 shows an example
of gap in the common boundaries. In figure 6, the tile A1 and tile A2 are two
adjacent tiles and the sets of ‘active vertices’ for the common boundary are
A1active5{a1, a2, a3, a5} and A2active5{a1, a3, a4, a5}, respectively. The ‘active’
vertices are the vertices of triangles of a multi-resolution terrain model. The rule for
judging the gap between the common boundaries of adjacent tiles is defined as
follows:
IF A1active ~A2active ðthe number of vertices in A1active and A2active and the values are identicalÞ

Then there is no ‘gap’ between the common boundaries. Otherwise, a gap will have
been created, leading to visual artifacts.
In this study, a viable solution is proposed to seal the ‘gap’ between the common
boundaries of adjacent tiles.
N Find the parent vertices of the inactive vertices;
N Split the parent vertices to make the child vertices active.

Figure 6. Active vertices and inactive vertices in the common boundaries of adjacent tiles.
 Multi-resolution terrain models 1027

Take figure 6 as example, let the union of A1active and A2active be Aactive,
Aactive5A1active<A2active5{a1, a2, a3, a4, a5}. Thus, the inactive vertices in the
common boundaries of tile A1 and tile A2 are Aactive2A1active5{a4} and
Aactive2A2active5{a2}, respectively. According to the above solution, the parent
vertices of a4 and a1 will be split to active them.
Once an inactive vertex is active, it will be a vertex of one triangle in a multi-
resolution model. After all the inactive vertices are active, the set of active vertices in
the common boundaries of adjacent tiles are identical. Thus, the ‘gap’ will be sealed,
and a multi-resolution terrain model can be achieved. Figure 7 illustrates an example
after sealing the gap between the common boundaries of adjacent tiles.
In light of the methodology for constructing multi-resolution Grid and TIN
models, both the individual multi-resolution Grid models and TIN models generate
their own binary trees either when a triangle is split or an edge is collapsed during
their generation. These binary trees should be stored and managed for generating
the integrated models at various resolutions. To fulfil the requirement, a vertex tree
is proposed to manage all the binary trees generated from each TIN and Grid-based
tiles. Figure 8 illustrates an example of the vertex tree. Here, a virtual vertex is
inserted as the root node of the vertex tree. The vertices at the first level of the vertex
tree are marked with the vertex id (e.g. V1, V2,….Vn) and the vertex category (Grid
or TIN), which indicates the type of tile that the vertex belongs to. The vertices at
the other levels of the vertex tree are only marked with the vertex id.
Each binary tree in the vertex tree represents an operation of vertex split/edge
collapse. These binary trees record the topology among vertices, edges and
triangles, called vertex topological relationships. Vertex topological relationships
have an essential impact on data storage and speed efficiency in constructing a

Figure 7. Sealing the gap between adjacent tiles.

Figure 8. Example of a vertex tree for storage of vertex topological relationships.

1028 B. Yang et al.

multi-resolution terrain model. Xia et al. (1997) stored vertex topological relation-
ships explicitly, and Ei-Sana and Varshney (1999) improved storage by storing them
implicitly. In fact, Ei-Sana and Varshney’s approach is unnecessarily restrictive for
half-edge collapsing (De Floriani and Magillo 2001), and can prevent further
simplification of the original model.
To store vertex topological relationships with less memory space, uniform data
structure is proposed in this study according to the general bracket method
(Donaghey 1980). The data structure is detailed in the following section.

4. Data structure for representation of a vertex tree

4.1 General bracket method
Figure 9 illustrates the result of encoding an original graph. In accordance with the
general bracket method, the graph can be represented with a nested pair of brackets.
The left bracket can be denoted as 0, and the right bracket as 1. The tree structure,
including vertex, connectivity and level relationship, can be decomposed into a set of
nested brackets. The connectivity and level relationship of the vertices in the tree can
be recovered from the bracket sets. The encoded result consists of a set of brackets
(bitstream of 0 and 1) and vertices reordered. Moreover, the connectivity of the
vertex can be encoded with 2 bits per vertex (Park et al. 2001). Based on binary tree
based data structures, the connectivity among parent, left-child, and right-child (a
minimum subtree) is represented with pointer (4 bits per vertex). Thus, the general
bracket method reduces storage space a lot, and it is helpful for improving speed
performance during constructing a multi-resolution model.

4.2 Encoding the vertex tree

Because vertex splits/edge collapses in TIN-based tiles and triangle splits in Grid-
based tiles continuously occur during the construction of an integrated multi-
resolution model, large numbers of vertex topological relationships in the vertex tree
need to be stored. For example, when one edge collapses, the relationship between
one vertex (parent) with two sub-vertex (children) is generated. According to the

Figure 9. A graph encoded according to the general bracket method.

 Multi-resolution terrain models 1029

general bracket method, the vertex tree can be encoded by a set of recorded vertices
and a set of brackets (bitstream of 0 and 1). The bracket set records the implicit
connectivity and levels among the recorded vertices in the vertex tree. The
connectivity and levels among the vertices in the vertex tree can be dynamically
encoded by traversing the bracket sets with a depth first algorithm. Figure 10
demonstrates the encoding result at a specific running time.
Various resolution models can be dynamically generated by splitting/collapsing
different numbers of vertices in the vertex tree. However, randomly splitting the
vertex or collapsing the edge may cause an invalid topology (triangle foldovers) in
the multi-resolution model, especially in the TIN-based tiles. Therefore, the edge
collapses or the vertex splits during a running time must conform to certain rules.
Xia et al. (1997) proposed the following validity rules on vertex split and edge
collapse: vertex c can be collapsed to vertex p, only when the vertices p0,..,pn are
presented as the neighbours of p and c for display (see figure 11(a)). However, the
rigorousness of the rules needs to be further investigated. Although the vertex
neighbourhood relationship conforms to the above rule, triangle foldovers are still
inevitable when vertex c is collapsed to vertex p (as illustrated in figure 11(b)).
Yang et al. (2005b) proposed a set of constraint rules to overcome the deficiency
of the existing rules and avoid the problem of triangle foldovers. The new constraint
rules are as follows:

Constraint -1: Only when the influent region of vertex vb is a convex polygon, can vertex vb be
collapsed to vertex va. (The concept of influent region is illustrated in figure 12(a)).
Constraint-2: The vertex vb can be split safely only if the vertices of the influent region are in a
lower position level in the vertex tree compared with that of vertex vb.

Figure 10. Encoding the vertex tree according to the general bracket method.
1030 B. Yang et al.

Figure 11. Invalid operation of the edge collapse: (a) An axample of edge collapse; and (b)
invalid edge collapse

Figure 12. Triangle influence region and judgment of features: (a) The influent region of a
vertex; and (b) judging a feature edge.

The proofs of above constraint rules are detailed in Yang et al. (2005b). To
enhance feature preservation abilities of the multi-resolution models, an additional
rule is proposed as follows:

Constraint -3: An edge shared by two triangles is defined as a feature edge if the angle between
the two triangles is over a specified value, for example 45u. If one edge is a feature edge, it does
not allow contracting. Figure 12(b) illustrates an example of judging a feature edge.

When one operation is invoked to collapse on edge or to split one vertex, the
operation must conform to the above rules to overcome surface foldovers and retain
features in multi-resolution models. Therefore, the multi-resolution models with
various errors can be generated by collapsing different numbers of edges and
splitting triangles. The error has an important effect on the accuracy and
visualization effect of the multi-resolution terrain models.

4.3 The error analysis of multi-resolution terrain models

The triangle splits and edge collapses play a vital role in the construction of multi-
resolution terrain models. It is clear that the error of the multi-resolution terrain
 Multi-resolution terrain models 1031

models is related to the resolution of models. Screen space error metric (Lindstrom
et al. 1995) proves to be an effective way to control the error of multi-resolution
models. According to the screen space error metric, the error of a multi-resolution
model is brought about by the change in z direction (height error) of different
resolution models. When a triangle is split or an edge is collapsed, a height error is
generated. Figure 13 illustrates the height error in the Grid tiles and TIN tiles. For
Grid tiles (figure 13(b)), the height error h is


h~hi, j {ðhm,n zhs,t Þ 2, i~ðmzsÞ=2, j~ðnztÞ=2

When one edge is collapsed to a vertex in TIN tiles (figure 13(a)), the difference
between the distances of the edge and vertex to the average plane is calculated as the
height error.
As constructing multi-resolution models of each tile, the vertex with the minimum
height error in the Grid tiles and TIN tiles will be split and collapsed, respectively.
Thus, terrain models at various resolutions can be achieved by specifying different
height error thresholds. On the other hand, view-dependent multi-resolution models
can be generated by specifying lower height error thresholds for vertices near to the
viewer and higher error thresholds for vertices far to the viewer.

5. Experiment studies and analysis

To test the performance of the new method for constructing multi-resolution models
in terms of speed performance, features preservation and visualization speed
improvement, the new method was implemented to generate multi-resolution
models for a region with man-made objects (road network). All the experiments
were undertaken on the computer with CPU Pentium IV 2G, RAM 256Mb, video
memory 32Mb and screen resolution 1024X768.
Figure 14 illustrates a snap shot of the study area. The study area was represented
with the integrated model with 67,648 vertices and 134,270 triangles. The regions
that the road (a feature line) crosses were described with a set of TIN-based models;
other regions were described with the Grid-based models.

5.1 Comparison between the new method and the quadric error metrics based
iterative edge contraction algorithm
To test speed performance in constructing the multi-resolution terrain models,
various resolutions models of the study area were generated with the quadric error
metrics based iterative edge contraction algorithm (Garland 1999) and the new

Figure 13. Height error in the integrated multi-resolution model: (a) height error in a TIN
tile; and (b) height error in a Grid tile.
1032 B. Yang et al.

Figure 14. A snap shot of the study area.

method respectively. Table 1 illustrates a comparison between speed performance

and the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) of the two methods. Here, the running
time in table 1 is the time cost from data loading to result output.
As illustrated in table 1, the new method has a better speed performance. This
indicates that the new method is more efficient for constructing multi-resolution
terrain models compared with the quadric error metrics based iterative edge
contraction algorithm. As many tiles in the terrain model are described by Grid-
based models, and the time performance of constructing multi-resolution Grid
models is better than that of constructing multi-resolution TIN models, constructing
multi-resolution terrain models based on the new method has better speed
performance. Table 1 also shows the RMSEs of the models generated by the new
method are less than those of the models generated by the quadric error metrics
based iterative edge contraction algorithm. For example, the RMSEs of Level_3
generated by the iterative edge contraction algorithm and the new method are

Table 1. A comparison between the new method and the quadric error metrics based iterative
edge contraction algorithm.

The quadric error metrics

based Iterative edge
contraction algorithm The new method
The number of Running Running
Levels triangles time (s) RMSE (m) time (s) RMSE (m)
Level_1 100,000 (75%) 3.7955 0.491 3.0492 0.413
Level_2 50,000 (37.5%) 3.9975 0.587 3.4182 0.522
Level_3 10,000 (7.5%) 4.0358 1.107 3.6146 1.036
Level_4 5,000 (3.25%) 4.1159 1.298 3.8427 1.144
 Multi-resolution terrain models 1033

1.107 m and 1.036 m, respectively. Therefore, the new method can achieve a higher
accuracy for a multi-resolution terrain model compared with the quadric error
metrics based iterative edge contraction algorithm.

5.2 The performance of the constraint rule

In addition to the rules for the improvement of the topological validity checking
(Constraint-1, 2), Constraint-3 is further proposed as a constraint to retain features
in a multi-resolution terrain model. To test the validity of constraint-3 for feature
preservation in a multi-resolution terrain model, multi-resolution terrain models
were generated with and without the constraint rule, respectively. Figure 15 and
figure 16 illustrate two-dimensimal (2D) and 3D visualization results generated by
the new method with the two different cases: (a) with and (b) without the constraint
rule, respectively.
In figure 16, the boundaries of the road are almost completely lost in the multi-
resolution model generated without applying the constraint rule. Thus, a poor visual
effect is generated because of the loss of features in the multi-resolution model.
However, the multi-resolution model generated by applying the constraint rule
retains most boundaries of the road (figure 15), although it has a lower resolution —
the number of triangles is only about 3.25% of the number of the original triangles.
The result demonstrates it is possible to retain features in the multi-resolution
terrain models with the constraint rule.

5.3 The performance of visualization speed

Rapid visualization speed particularly for flying/walking through is of vital
importance for visualizing large scale terrains. Figure 17 shows a comparison
between the visualization speeds of the terrain model with/without the multi-
resolution representation. The multi-resolution model of the terrain model was
generated by the new method with a height error threshold of 0.05 m. As the height
error threshold is quite low, the similarity between the multi-resolution model and
original model is high. This can maintain a better visualization effect.
The red curve illustrates the visualization speed (frames/s) of the terrain model
with the multi-resolution representation generated by the new method as performing
a walk through a routine, and the black curve illustrates the visualization speed of
the terrain model without the multi-resolution representation. Figure 17 demon-
strates that the new method can drastically improve the speed of walking and flying
through visualizations — it improves the visualization speed by about 4.0 times.
This is essential, especially for the visualization of large scale terrains.

6. Conclusions
As a further development to the existing single model-based multi-resolution
representations: either Grid-based or TIN-based models, this paper has presented a
new method for constructing multi-resolution terrain models with both TIN and
Grid representations.
To construct multi-resolution terrain models combining TIN-based and Grid-
based multi-resolution algorithms, we have presented a set of rules for the formal
definitions of terrains with TINs and Grids and have developed a new and efficient
method for encoding and storing vertex topological relationships in multi-resolution
terrain models. Moreover, a set of new rules is defined to overcome invalid topology
1034 B. Yang et al.

Figure 15. The multi-resolution model generated by the new method with constraint rules
(height error51.2 m, triangle55000): (a) 3D visualization; and (b) 2D visualization (the red
lines denote the boundary of the road).
 Multi-resolution terrain models 1035

Figure 16. The multi-resolution model generated by the new method without constraint
rules (height error51.2 m, triangle54809): (a) 3D visualization; and (b) 2D visualization (the
red lines denote the boundary of the road).
1036 B. Yang et al.

Figure 17. Comparison of visualization speed with/without multi-resolution representation.

and retain features in a multi-resolution terrain model. Finally, several experiments

were undertaken to test the performance of constructing multi-resolution terrain
models based on the new method. The experimental results demonstrate that the
new method can be applied to construct multi-resolution terrain models in terms of
better speed performance, maintenance of features at various resolution models and
improvement of walking/flying through visualization speed.
Compared with existing algorithms and models, this study has made progress in
the following areas:
(a) Integrating both TIN-based and Grid-based models for multi-resolution
terrain representation;
(b) A concise data structure — vertex tree, for representing vertex topological
relationships of the multi-resolution terrain models. The data structure
encodes vertex topological relationships with 2 bits/vertex.
(c) A set of rules for topological validity checking and features preservation in
the multi-resolution terrain models; and
(d) The multi-resolution terrain models constructed by the new method have
higher accuracy and can greatly improve the speed of walking/flying through
visualization.
In this paper, we only investigated the integration of roads and terrains. The
integration of man-made objects (e.g. buildings) and terrains will be the further
studied. Moreover, the performance of generating view-dependent multi-resolution
model by the new method needs to be further improved.

Acknowledgement
The work described in this paper was substantially supported by grants from the
National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 40401051), the Research
Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (Project
No. PolyU 3-ZB40) and The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (1.34.9709). The
constructive comments of three anonymous reviewers are greatly appreciated.
 Multi-resolution terrain models 1037

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