Patent Document ID: 9147285
Application ID: 13564276
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method for visualization of three-dimensional (3D) objects and 3D terrains, the method comprising: providing a device having a display and a storage device, the storage device having a plurality of stored levels of detail, the levels of detail representing a detail level of the 3D objects and 3D terrains; and outputting a first 3D terrain of the 3D terrains and a first object of the 3D objects on the display, wherein the outputting comprises: computing, for each vertex of a first geometric representation of the first 3D object, a first plurality of distances from the vertex to each surface of a second geometric representation of the first 3D object, wherein the first geometric representation of the first 3D object and the second geometric representation of the first 3D object have different levels of detail selected from the plurality of stored levels of detail; determining, for each vertex of the first geometric representation of the first 3D object, a first minimal distance of the first plurality of distances; computing, for each vertex included in a first geometric representation of the first 3D terrain, a second plurality of distances from the vertex to each polygon included in a second geometric representation of the first 3D terrain that is covered by the first geometric representation of the first 3D terrain, wherein the first geometric representation of the first 3D terrain and the second geometric representation of the first 3D terrain have different levels of detail selected from the plurality of stored levels of detail; determining, for each vertex included in the first geometric representation of the first 3D terrain, a second minimal distance of the second plurality of distances; outputting the first geometric representation of the first 3D object if a maximum value of the first minimal distances is less than a first threshold, or outputting the second geometric representation of the first 3D object if the maximum value is greater than the first threshold; and outputting the first geometric representation of the first 3D terrain if a root mean square (RMS) value of the second minimal distances is less than a second threshold, or outputting the second geometric representation of the first 3D terrain if the RMS value is greater than the second threshold.