What's New in VirtualGeo 7.0
The latest release of VirtualGeo brings you many enhancements and technical innovations and is centered around four major capabilities:
- Performance and stability on all platforms supported by VirtualGeo
- Interoperability : Marine chart, MetaFlight, APP6-C symbology, etc.
VirtualGeo 7.0 offers also many other enhancements : see here for more details.
Performance and stability
VirtualGeo support many different devices with different computing and graphics power for many years. The focus of this release has been to improve the performance for the whole “spectrum” from smartphone to graphics workstation. Gain varies from at minimum 30% to 300% depending on the workload and feature uses. The efforts have been made on removing completely the fixed pipeline and improving the shader pipeline for low-level stuff. Moreover, a rework has also been done on terrain rendering pipeline, which improves in particular workload such as intervsibility.
Performance is a key point for VirtualGeo, but we should not sacrifice stability. Our test framework has been reworked from the ground before doing any performance work to avoid any regressions on all devices, OS, and windowing system supported by VirtualGeo.
Interoperability : Marine chart, MetaFlight, APP6-C symbology, etc.
A strong point of VirtualGeo is its support of different formats in different domains. This release brings its share of new features to this level:
- S52 symbology for marine chart integration into your geospatial applications. The S52 symbology describes precisely how to represent the S57 data, the standard format for marine chart.
- Support for MetaFight format used in simulation domain for complex 3D synthetic environment
- The addition of the APP6-C symbology which complements the existing support of the APP6-B
- A first preview of OGC CDB support, a standard used in simulation 3D domain to describe the 3D synthetic environment
In details
VirtualGeo SDK
- Performance : Improvements on feature element batching
- Performance : rework on terrain rendering with gain form 30% to 300%
- Performance : rework on shader pipeline and removal of fixed pipeline with gain from 20% to 70%
- No more dependencies on Qt for Java and C# version
- Qt dependencies is now clearly separated for C++ application in its own module, the core is free from any Qt dependencies
- C# interoperability is improved with the native support of WPF windowing system through a directx backend
- Loading of data from disk is much more faster thanks to a new cache system for GenuineLayer
- The addition of the APP6-C symbology which complements the existing support of the APP6-B
- Better performance and support for SVG icon for IconStyle
- New styling features :
- Anchors and label decoration on center and top
- Color mask on texture for Surface Style
- Improvemenent on feature editors to better work with touch screen
VirtualGeo Studio
- CDB and marine chart import
- Connection to secured external web services
- Refresh of network layers cache data
- Support of ED50 projection
- A new server view to manage data on VirtualGeo Server
VirtualGeo Server
- Upgrade to latest version : OS, database
- Improvement for huge vector import with a new import pipeline
- Performance improvements for huge vector database visualisation
VirtualGeo Web
- All performance improvements from SDK, especially on OpenGL ES support
- A new backend for visualisation based on Leaflet to support older devices
- Performance improvements on data loading for Web Assembly
What's New in VirtualGeo 5.0
The latest release of VirtualGeo brings you many enhancements and technical innovations and is centered around four major capabilities:
- Easy and intuitive server data management : populate a VirtualGeo Server with your geospatial data in a few clicks
- Advanced Web visualization without plugin : VirtualGeo is now on the Web as a pure HTML5 and plugin-less solution
- Interactive tools for large 3D textured mesh : visualize, edit measure, and draw on massive 3D textured city
- New defence extension in Studio : support for a large sets of military formats
VirtualGeo 5.0 offers also many other enhancements : see here for more details.
Easy and intuitive server data management
VirtualGeo Server is a new and out-of-the-box component to stream and publish your geospatial data on your intranet or on the Web, with full integration into our VirtualGeo solution. Server is an OGC-compliant solution to facilitate integration into an existing infrastructure.
A key benefit is how easily you manage your data on Server. Using VirtualGeo Studio, it is very straightforward to add your data originating from any source in the Studio, visualize it, edit its parameters and then publish it on the server. All the publishing process is completed in just a few clicks.
And finally to customize your workflow with the Server, SDK also provides a processing module to build your own tools to upload and configure data.
Advanced Web visualization without plugin
Now you can use VirtualGeo Web using a pure HTML5 solution without the need for any plug-in installation. Using the latest Web technologies (WebGL, Web Worker), data can be accessible via your Web application to explore, analyse, and annotate high-resolution, interactive geospatial 2D & 3D environment.
VirtualGeo provides a high-level API to facilitate the integration of the 2D/3D cartographic view into your Web application, and is packaged with out-of-the-box graphical controls, fully customisable via CSS.
Interactive tools for large 3D textured mesh
VirtualGeo makes it straightforward to manipulate and edit massive 3D textured mesh, often used for large city visualisation. A number of new features and improvements have been introduced:
- Draw lines and polygon directly on top of 3D mesh to annotate the data, or mix conventional SIG 2D data on the 3D mesh
- Use improved 3D measure tools and viewshed to analyse 3D mesh
- Edit 3D mesh interactively: remove and flatten areas using intuitive editing tools
- Export a small area as a 3D standard model which may be reused in any 3D modeling software
New defence extension in Studio
With the new defence extension you can now drag'n'drop a large set of military formats (DTED0/1/2, ORTHO-0/1/2/3, USRP/ASRP, VMAP, etc.) directly into the Studio to prepare and visualise your geospatial environment.
For VMAP data, Studio provides a new dedicated wizard to select layers to be imported.
Also, VirtualGeo offers much better performance for JPEG2000 format (ORTHO-3 Geobase Defense) : gyga-bytes JEPG2000 images can now be visualised in real-time without any pre-processing.
In details
VirtualGeo Studio
- Manage VirtualGeo Server data
- Populate a VirtualGeo Server with your local data
- Support all sources : raster, elevation, features and 3D mesh
- Import Server layer, edit data and then validate your modifications
- View and manage Server data : rename and delete layers
- Annotation bar
- A toolbar to quickly annotate your environment
- Add point annotations using simple drag'n'drop
- Quick access to create, edite and delete tool
- Quick access to line width, arrow, fill and stroke colour during feature creation
- 3D export
- Export a small area to standard 3D format
- Compatible with terrain and 3D textured mesh
- Raster and elevation export
- Merge all your project data into a single raster (or elevation)
- Recognizes all data formats: 3D models, vectors, network, etc.
- Data source edition
- Add, remove or replace data sources used by a raster or feature layer
- Provide improved fine-grained control to your layer content
- New Defence extension
- Access to many military formats (DTED0/1/2, ORTHO 0/1/2, USRP/ASRP, etc.)
- Better compatibility with JPEG2000 (ORTHO3)
- Dedicated Wizard to import VMAP data
- 3D annotation improvement
- Draw lines and polygons draped on a 3D mesh
- Arrows and dash now available in 3D annotations library
- Measuring tool improvement
- Linear measurement available in terrain or 3D mode
- Intervisibility tool now integrated into the Studio
- Out-of-the-box Linux version
- RPM package for RHEL compatible distribution
- DEB package for Debian compatible distribution
VirtualGeo SDK
- Server publication
- Create your own tool to process and upload local data to a VirtualGeo Server
- Automate your data transfer on the Server
- Raster improvement
- Better visualisation performance for all genuine raster format
- 10-fold improvement in JPEG2000 performance
- HDR available with automatic scaling (JPEG2000 12-bit mode)
- Secured network request
- Authentification negotiations available
- Kherberos available
- Improved compatibility with HTTPS
- Surface modifications
- Real-time adjustment on 3D mesh
- Flatten or remove 3D mesh to replace terrain areas with new buildings
- New primitive
- 2D : radarc, orbit, polyarc, track, bearing
- 3D : box, sphere
- New style parameters
- 3D Arrows
- 3D Dash line
- Smooth line
- Texture animation
- Draping on 3D mesh
- Overlay improvement
- Nautical miles and MGRS formatted in standard measurements
- New Georef graticule
- New scale bar
- Platform support
- Visual C++ 2013 is now supported on Windows
VirtualGeo Web
- Pure HTML5 solution
- WebGL and Web Worker
- WebAssembly coming soon !
- Raster
- Compatible with OGC standards (WMS, WMTS)
- Fast-tile based access (OSM, VirtualGeo, etc.)
- On-the-fly reprojection to combine sources from multiple projections (Web Mercator and Geographic)
- Terrain
- Combine multiple elevation sources with different resolution levels
- Drap vectors on terrain at no cost
- Vector
- Compatible with KML and GPX
- Drawing and editing tools
- Rich styling (extrusion, label, icon, texture, 3D model, etc.)
- Rich geometry (circle, rectangle, ellipse, radarac, orbit, etc.)
- Measurement tools
- Measurement unit display customisable
- Distance, azimuth, area and point tools available
- Drawing and editing tools
- Draw point, line, polygons interactively on the terrain
- Edit control points after creation interactively
- Graphical Control
- Navigation, Scale Bar, IPR, MiniMap, Layer List
- Fully configurable via simple CSS
VirtualGeo Server
- Layer management
- Add raster, elevation, vector and 3D mesh layers
- Obtain all available layers via a single interface
- Delete layers and their content (files)
- Update layer content
- Rename layer
- Vector
- Can be rasterized and cached on server
- Apply complex styles
- Support 3D models for point
- SLD support
- Authentification and security
- Centralised via LDAP
- Manage various workspaces within your server
- OGC-compliant
- Raster/Elevation : WMS/WMTS
- Vector : WFS
- Geocoding service
- JSON based REST service
- Based on Geodata
- Includes autocorrection and autocompletion
DIGINEXT has delivered to EUROCONTROL its VirtualGeo solution to produce high-quality video for air traffic animation. Through the projet, VirtualGeo has been enhanced to support specific air traffic formats used internally at EUROCONTROL, and also to add some special effects to display air traffic animation. Now EUROCONTROL is able to display in real-time the air traffic on a busy day (more than 30 000 paths) with high quality graphical effects.
Marine chart visualization in VirtualGeo
VirtualGeo now supports the S52 symbology for marine chart integration into your geospatial applications. The S52 symbology describes precisely how to represent the S57 data, the standard format for marine chart.
This new feature is coming in the next 7.0 release due in Q1 2019.
The H2020 RANGER European project already benefits from this advanced user interface based on VirtualGeo technology. RANGER innovates by combining groundbreaking Radar technologies with innovative supporting technological solutions for early warnings, in view of delivering a surveillance platform that will offer tracking as well as detection, recognition, and identification of vessels far beyond existing legacy radar systems.
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