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Wavelet Compression Via JPEG2000.

Summary of Initial Implementation.

V6.70 of the TNT products now supports the direct use, import, and export of rasters using ISO standard JPEG2000 compression in the ISO standard JP2 still image format (*.jp2). As you know, TNT permits you to work with a wide variety of raster data types ranging from 1-bit binary to 128-bit complex numbers and from grayscale images to hyperspectral images. Sorry, the JPEG2000 standard does not support images using floating point numbers.  But, you can now export any signed or unsigned TNT integer or color composite raster object(s) to JP2 files for use in any other system that can use a JP2 file of that data type. For example, images or other rasters that are signed or unsigned integers or color composites can be imported from any external format supported by TNTmips into raster objects in a Project File and then immediately exported to JPEG2000 compressed JP2 files.  It is even easier if the external format is supported for direct use by the TNT products, such as GeoTIFF, ECW, or MrSID, as they can be directly exported to JP2 files with JPEG2000 compression (no import is required).   Images or other rasters created in TNT products in this fashion, or created in some other commercial product can immediately be directly used in TNT products (linking to JP2 files is automatic and transparent).   For example, TNTatlas can use linked JPEG2000 compressed JP2 files.  A JP2 file exported from a georeferenced raster object in a Project File or via a link to a georeferenced external file format (for example, GeoTIFF or MrSID) will automatically be georeferenced when directly used by any TNT process.

An ISO Standard, Not a Proprietary Product.

Is it JPEG2000 or JPEG 2000?  This seems to be a confusing point.  For JPEG2000 Google gets 16,300 hits.  For “JPEG 2000” Google gets 12,700 hits and asks “Did you mean “JPEG2000”?”  So, at this time MicroImages is following Google rules and using JPEG2000, which also relates to and contracts better to JP2, which is how everyone is referring to JPEG2000 compressed still image files.

If you review JPEG2000 compression on the WWW you will find the names and affiliations of those involved in its creation and technical exploitation are widely scattered around the world.  It is not some United States convention, but a widely developed and supported ISO standard based on an international initiative.   The few technical articles sited later in this MEMO represent individuals who are in Greece, Australia, Switzerland, Germany, …  Clearly the wide international adoption of the ISO JPEG2000 standard is very significant to the future use of image materials of all types and, in particular, to remote sensing, which creates the most massive still images. JPEG2000 encoding and decoding chips have already been implemented by the Chinese for use in television and recording devices.  Of course, it will take considerable time for JPEG2000 to gradually replace the widely used JPEG.  Similarly, while immediately useful in TNTmips, it will take some time to fully integrate JPEG2000 concepts seamlessly into all aspects of the TNT products such as TNTsim3D, apply it directly in raster objects, and so on.

Another MicroImages First.

I have carefully reviewed the WWW and believe that this may be the first integration of JPEG2000 support into a full scale geospatial analysis system and a remote sensing image processing system in particular.  In fact, for tests during our initial development we could find only 2 JPEG2000 still images files (*.jp2 files) posted on the WWW.  As a result, microimages.com will soon host a variety of *.jp2 files representing images of varying types for possible test use by others.

When applied properly, JPEG2000 has significant benefits in geospatial analysis and geopublishing.  However, you can not choose to create lossy still images to save storage, to decrease web bandwidth requirements, and so on without giving up something!  Your applications of lossy compression should carefully consider what is happening to your images or rasters and what this will do, if anything, in any possible future application of them.  We certainly do not want a repeat of the past few years where 10s of thousands of orthoimages were heavily compressed via MrSID to save drive space and to speed downloading.  This provided “good to look at” pictures.  But, inexperienced staff and organizations, in an effort to save a few dollars in storage media, often did not archive the lossless source materials and purged them.  Even when the lossless images are archived, they are not easily accessible for more precise applications, such as change detection compared with current images.  Even more insidious are client inquiries as to why multispectral images that have been imported into TNTmips from lossy formats give such strange results when used in the automatic multispectral image classification schemes.  Obviously you can not lossy compress multispectral or hyperspectral images without skewing their statistics.

SVG or Not to Be!

It’s Not a 1-Act Play.

 “Yes raster is faster, but raster is vaster, and vector just seems more correcter.” (Tomlin, 1990).  “Unless instead you plan ahead, use true geospatial analysis to avoid paralysis, and become ambitechuous” (Miller,  2002 or 1992, 1982, …, I forget which it is).

Tomlin, Dana (1990).  Geographic information Systems and Cartographic Modeling, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

Miller, Lee D. (2002).  Created on the spur of the moment in reaction to reading this statement and after 15 years of trying to prove that neither alone is better.

All this reminds me of the often quoted statement that the “best GIS is one which will represent every raster cell as a vector polygon.”

Or, the newly exposed position being taken by the IT czars responsible for major corporate databases who insist that everything has to be embedded in their database for security reasons.

Setting the Stage.  

There is a very good 19 page, succinct, layman’s discussion entitled

Vector-based Web Cartography: Enabler SVG in German, French, and English with follow-up contributions (alas only in German) at www.carto.net. 

This synoptic paper by Andre M. Winter, Institute for Geography and Regional Studies, University of Vienna and Andreas Neumann, Institute of Cartography, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich summarizes the many competing WWW vector formats:  Flash, DWF, PDF, VRML, HGML, WebCGM, and others.  This is a preamble for their explanation of why the SVG subset of XML is the most current and suitable format for cartography and web cartography in particular including animation, metadata, and extensibility.  This review, published in November of 2001 (9 months ago) finishes with a discussion of the export to SVG from other products as follows:

“Exporting from a graphical or DTP program is a way to directly obtain displayable results.  You need a program supporting SVG export; to this day, that is the case with the latest versions of Adobe Illustrator and CorelDRAW, and with a number of drawing programs for the open source domain (Sketch, Killustrator, etc.).  Adobe is planning to integrate SVG into its whole range of products.  Macromedia, whose Freehand is widely spread amongst cartographs, does not follow this lead yet.  In this context we must mention that Macromedia supports the Flash format described above, which is a concurrence product to SVG.  Macromedia nevertheless participates in the SVG specification, which lets us suppose that sooner or later it will be supported.

“Just as the case with every export out of a graphical program, if you save a file, it is written out in the target format, SVG.  At this occasion, details are asked as to modi wished (e.g. embedding fonts, resolution of the drawing grid or mode of depositing style data).  Names of drawing levels and objects are preserved.  With Illustrator, there is an option to assign links to SVG objects, and to include simple JavaScript functions.  As we know from similar export possibilities for image maps, this will not be enough for demanding applications.  Therefore, ‘manual’ editing of the code will be necessary.

“Frequently, data is directly available in GIS.  There, too, you have the possibility to generate SVG data.  Since at present there is no export option implemented, you will need to export the data (usually vector data) into a readable text format.  Thus you have to rewrite the data using pattern matching (e.g. PERL) to get SVG capable code.  Finally, the SVG objects thus created will be surrounded by the remaining information (attribute data) essential to a cartographic SVG project.

“As we have stated, SVG supports Bezier curves.  GIS applications frequently won’t [as it seriously complicates maintaining topology].  Given that SVG was created with the Internet in mind, file size needs to be limited.  Complicated curves, which are over defined for SVG, can be converted to Bezier curves quite easily in a graphical program, resp. number of vertices can be reduced.  For this reason, at times using a common graphics software is preferable to generating directly in GIS.

“In order to work with optimal file size, it is possible to compress an entire SVG file before sending it to the WWW browser.  In this case it must be correctly referenced and embedded into the HTML file.”

For the Current Act.

V6.70 of the TNT analysis products now sets the stage for the next act in the GIS rollout of SVG.  Based on the statement of the GIS versus common graphics software situation outlined in the paragraphs above by Andre and Andreas, TNT is the first commercial geospatial analysis system (call it GIS if you are old-fashioned or narrow-minded) to convert complete, complex GIS derived cartographic layouts into an SVG format for use elsewhere.

As usual, converting TNT layouts to SVG is available as an identical operation on all common platforms: Windows, Mac, UNIX, and Linux. At the moment, TNTmips seems to be standing alone as the only advanced topologically vector oriented GIS for Mac OS X – even though it is the platform preferred by many cartographers.  Assembling complex map layouts from all kinds of source materials and converting them to SVG, PDF, EPS, TIFF, and others provides a significant new capability for cartographers using Mac OS X.  

Overall, from my chair, this capability has been added to the TNT analysis products on all platforms with some hard work, but without particular difficulty.  What was key to this was the 18 years of effort MicroImages has already invested in gradually adding many features into the TNT products to make complex maps combining all kinds of cartographic, CAD, GIS, and image data on all platforms.  Converting a TNT layout to SVG (export is really too weak a term to apply to converting layouts) including specialized content, such as CartoScripts, TrueType fonts, linked rasters, and relational attributes was primarily a long series of questions of where to put everything in the SVG XML format. 

As always, when developing a complete new TNT process, a couple of pesky artifacts in our earlier design of TNTmips surfaced that do not interface well with SVG (or previously with Illustrator or PDF).  These are being addressed now (post V6.70) and include the need to support embedded fonts and to save hatch patterns as styles using line descriptions.  Embedded fonts can now be used (post V6.70) during conversions of a TNT map layout to a PDF file.  This is a precursor to providing an embedded font approach for conversion of a TNT map layout to an SVG file.  Better support of hatch patterns is also being designed now.  The corresponding technical sections below discuss the approach and status of these improvements in more detail and you can obtain them as patches to V6.70.

The Next Act.

A hint of where SVG leads is revealed in PCWeek news magazine July 1, 2002, page 7.  Canada’s Research in Motion Ltd. sequel product to the BlackBerry wireless device is reviewed under the title RIM Takes Global Route.  See the full article at www.eweek. com for more information on this new GSM/GPRS wireless smart phone due this fall with PDA, full keyboard, and web access capabilities.  For SVG use in other PDAs see http://research.bitflash.com.

Nothing is said in this article about the OS being used, any browser, or any other software specifics. However, the 1 thing that the RIM CEO revealed is that  “By the end of the year, RIM’s BlackBerry devices will also feature color screens and an enhanced media engine that supports scalable vector graphics, officials said.”  A cursory internet search reveals that there is now something called “SVG Tiny” and “SVG Basic,” which are designed for cell phone (Tiny) and PDA (Basic) applications (www.w3.org).  How SVG relates to SVG Tiny and Basic and MicroImages’ conversions to SVG is yet to be determined.  However, as we have already experienced, Tiny usually means some features are not supported as in the use of “Pocket Explorer 3.0” (for example, no dynamic HTML).

Clearly, as will be discussed in the TNTmips section of this MEMO entitled Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), the delivery of complex electronic maps over the web will use SVG in standard browsers, specialized devices, self contained programs, and other approaches.  MicroImages is again pleased to equip you in this upgrade with the first known system to combine its many advanced geospatial analysis capabilities with the ability to create complex SVG products for subsequent use in many diverse applications.

National Mapping Programs.

We have gradually implemented, via several releases, your requests for more complex map layout tools, especially for legends.  This release provides more in the form of improved label placement and position editing, interactive insertion of samples into legends, and legends for your unique features rendered by CartoScripts (requested by many of you).  While we still have more ideas and improvements in store, TNTmips layout capabilities, backed up by our spatial data editor, have matured into full scale paper and electronic map production and publishing tools.

To illustrate how these tools can be used, I have initiated a new booklet series showing how TNTmips can be used to make high quality maps of various types. Two preliminary booklets on Making Geological Maps and Making Topographic Maps are available as part of V6.70. It is our plan to expand these booklets and prepare others related to making other types of maps such as planimetric, highway, image, tourist, and so on.

Coincidentally, after this series of booklets was initiated, several new map making activities using TNTmips have emerged and some aspects of these can be discussed here.

NIMA.

Background.

The following was extracted from a short CIA summary about the creation of NIMA at www.cia.gov/ic/nima.html.

“NIMA was established on October 1, 1996 as a Department of Defense (DOD) combat support agency. It is a member of the Intelligence Community and has been assigned, by statute, the additional mission of providing support to national-level customers and other government agencies. NIMA provides ready access to the best-available imagery and geospatial information, supports national decision making, and contributes to the operational readiness of America's military forces.

“Since its standup, NIMA has emerged the previously separate disciplines of imagery and mapping has assumed leadership of the imagery and geospatial community. Through its management of the U.S. Imagery and Geospatial Information System (USIGS), NIMA provides customers the critical data necessary to achieve a dominant awareness of the mission space in which they operate.

“NIMA is committed to attaining information superiority in the mission space of the next century, as well as to addressing civil issues critical to U.S. national interest, and improving the decision and cycle times for those who make and execute national security policy. The Agency’s focus is on providing high-value information and laying the foundation for the more efficient exchange of data and integration of products and services.”

After 6 years, the existence of and mandate of NIMA is not yet commonly known to the public in the United States or elsewhere (it does not have a high profile mission like NASA).  However, NIMA was assembled by this legislation from some previously well known, and some not so well known, components of other departments and agencies as follows:

• Department of Defense’s (DOD) big Defense Mapping Agency (makes all military maps),

• Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA’s) Central Imagery Office (CIO), which was their National Photographic Interpretation Center,

• DOD’s Defense Dissemination Program Office (DDPO), and the

• CIA’s National Photographic Interpretation Center.

To these the law added in the imagery exploitation and dissemination elements of the:

• DOD’s Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA),

• National Reconnaissance Office (NRO),

• DOD’s Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office (DARO), and

• other smaller Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) components.

You can imagine the complexity of melding together the bureaucracies and culture of these various secretive groups. As with all new U.S. Government entities assembled from other agencies, it takes time and prodding to get things properly rolling together.  Thus, to support this complex undertaking, Congress requested that an Independent Commission be formed to review the startup of NIMA and its needs and objectives.  This Commission’s report was published in December of 2000 (18 months ago and prior to 11 September). This investigation and its report was managed by a 9 member commission made up from appointees from the CIA, NRO, Defense Science Board, and others.  It may also be of interest to note that 1 of these 9 Commission members was Jack Dangermond, President and owner of ESRI (Environmental Systems Research, Inc.) the source of the ArcINFO ArcGIS, ArcView, and so on.

This Independent Commission’s external review of the tasks and needs of NIMA is entitled The Information Edge: Imagery Intelligence and Geospatial information in an Evolving National Security Environment.  This complete 163 page Commission report has been made publicly available at www.fas.org/irp/agency/nima by the Federation of American Scientists.  The FAS was founded by the scientists of the Manhattan Project, creators of the atom bomb, acts as a United States national science conscience, and is endorsed by 60 Nobel Laureates. Their web publication of this Independent Commission’s Report provides a good overview of NIMA and its activities and future needs.

I believe you will find from their report that this Commission primarily concludes in 163 pages that what is needed is a single, well integrated geospatial analysis system for image and GIS analysis coupled with motivated professionals who know how to use it.

The commission’s clearest observation of our national initiatives in mapping and image use is on the first page of the Executive Summary and Key Judgments and is repeated in many ways and themes throughout the report.

“The Commission validates the charge that the Intelligence Community is ‘collection centric,’ thinking first of developing and operating sophisticated technical collection systems such as reconnaissance satellites, and only as an afterthought preparing to properly task the systems and to process, exploit, and disseminate the collected products.”

Throughout the body of the report you will find many very clear observations that this exploitation will require much closer integration between NIMA’s Image Analysts (IAs) and Photointerpreters (PIs) and its smaller group of GISers.

Just a few samples of a theme that is widely expanded upon in this report:

“By whatever name, IAs and PIs historically have seen themselves as distinct from geographers and cartographers – the stuff of Geospatial Information Systems (GIS).

“Despite some encouraging experiments with collocation of the two disciplines, and encouraging examples such as recounted below in the Tale of Two Cities, the Commission has looked largely in vain for real convergence.”

The Tale of Two Cities is a caustic review showing how an IA team and a GIS team would quite differently approach a battlefield intelligence collection activity and outlines the synergism that would result if they closely collaborated and integrated their efforts.  Referring again later to the Tale of Two Cities is the bottom line.

“Or, does it presage the next generation of intelligence professional, schooled in both imagery and geospatial analysis disciplines.”

The report’s terminology varies a bit here as throughout the entire report the term geospatial analysis is widely used to refer to the objective of integrating IA and GIS activities.  However, it is clear that those well versed in the use of TNTmips would already fit this requirement.

The latest news on this subject is in this Northrup Grumman Press Release, which can be read in its entirety at www.irconnect.com.

“HERNDON, Va. -- July 9, 2002 -- A team led by Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) has been selected by the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) to develop its Commercial Joint Mapping Toolkit (C/JMTK). The contract is worth $72 million to Northrop Grumman's Information Technology (IT) sector, and will add approximately 30 jobs to the company's offices in Chantilly, Va.”   …

“The program will focus on the development of a commercial version of NIMA’s Joint Mapping Toolkit, which provides military and intelligence agencies with a common suite of imagery software versus independent versions produced by various organizations.

“The C/JMTK program will insert COTS geographic information systems (GIS) components into the DII COE and associated Joint and Service C4ISR systems using ESRI's ArcGIS software as a foundation. This system will provide the warfighter with a comprehensive range of mapping utilities, analysis tools, and visualization to support real-time situational awareness, track management, terrain analysis, multi-intelligence fusion, and other important geographically based functions. The C/JMTK program will use a common spatial information infrastructure and open software application framework.”   …

“In addition to ESRI, other members of the Northrop Grumman IT team for C/JTMK include Analytical Graphics, Inc., Malvern, Pa., and ERDAS/Leica Geosystems, Atlanta, Ga.”  …

For more information on this subject see the NIMA Press Release, which can be read in its entirety at www.nima.mil.

IEC

Imagery Exploitation Capabilities (IEC) is a major production program of NIMA, which creates highly accurate digital terrain models using British Aerospace Electronics’ (BAE) Socet Set soft photogrammetry product, RemoteView for image interpretation, and so on.  The NIMA IEC staff uses a mix of UNIX and Windows 2000 analyst stations.  These stations draw upon imagery in a huge centralized classified image base.

A fixed number of carefully orchestrated, qualified software products make up the IEC station’s production tools and must all be carefully tested to work together.  About 25 products in all are involved and 85% of them are unclassified Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) products and 15% of them are Government-Off-The-Shelf products (GOTS), which usually have narrow, specialized classified objectives.  Many of these products have a specific purpose – for example, one COTS software product is used just to make the color CD labels, another COTS to interface to a specific printing plant format.  One GOTS package de-resolves (degrades) image resolution from classified to unclassified for use in situations where the product that contains the image may be compromised. 

The current V2.x software mix for the IEC workstations makes several major products available to the analyst’s.  These include BAE’s Socet Set for subpixel soft photogrammetry, some specialized 2D and 3D image viewing and mensuration tools, Leica’s ERDAS Imagine for more specialized image interpretation, and a suite of ERSI’s Arc products for GIS operations.  MicroImages is pleased to announce that TNTmips 6.8 will be a new addition to V3.0 of the IEC software collection scheduled for release in 2003.  TNTmips 6.6 and 6.7 are already in use at BAE, Lockheed, and NIMA sites for their tedious qualification procedures to insure that all 25 software products are reliable and can be used on the IEC station in any combination.  

Lockheed is the prime contractor on the current 7 year IEC equipment, software, and training program initiated in 2000.  Additionally, they are responsible for the Image Analyst (IA) software on these stations.  BAE is a major subcontractor responsible for the soft photogrammetry via Socet Set now sold by Taliesin, a BAE wholly owned commercial subsidiary.  They are also responsible for the GIS oriented activities on the IEC station.  The IEC workstation is used to produce about 100 NIMA products.  It is through BAE, and to meet requirements to rapidly produce new specific Image Map Products that TNTmips will be deployed.  Once authorized and deployed, TNTmips can float to any IEC station for whatever other uses of it may be discovered.  The Image City Map product is unclassified but restricted in its distribution.  It has previously been distributed as a very large format paper map, but will now also be made available as an electronic “smart” map using a TNTatlas CD or DVD.

This MicroImages activity in connection with BAE and NIMA is totally unclassified as is all our facility and all our activities.  The IEC program will be using our standard TNTmips product and we have not contracted to anyone for any special modifications to any TNT product for this IEC release.  Any software features that might be added to TNTmips to support this client’s activities, will be generic in nature, of use to you, and available to all as part of our normal annual maintenance contract.

Providing further information here about NIMA’s objectives, the IEC station, the Image City Map, Lockheed’s and BAE’s contract activities might be touchy subjects.  So, for more information, I would like to refer you to the public world wide web to learn more about NIMA and their current IEC program and ICM products in particular.

I will conclude here by noting that at present there is great pressure from congress on NIMA, with roots in the highly classified world, to expand the of use commercial unclassified image sources, primarily from satellite since it maps the world, for many of its map products.  This would remove the principle reason that such activities are classified.  The Directors of NIMA and Homeland Security agreed in public statements with this idea several months ago.  However, it is not clear how this will actually resolve itself in the light of our United States and your nations’ homeland security.  Using public, low bidder production of these electronically based, unclassified materials can mean they can be easily moved out from any control in electronic form into the public domain via the Internet and be available to anyone.  As discussed elsewhere in this MEMO the W3C’s open Scalable Vector Graphics XML structure is an excellent means of moving complete maps anywhere, anytime, and quickly.

However, there is now already considerable movement in the direction of contracting out this unclassified map production (outsourcing this work) to unclassified vendors for many of the standard product map making operations of NIMA. Some of this started in 1999 and later with classified contractors: see Agency outsources imaging and mapping duties via US$600 million omnibus project (www.gcn.com). This has now moved on to a new level of outsourcing via the special status of American Native organizations as follows:

NIMA, Alaskan Firms to Sign Controversial Deal.  Washington Technology, 9 September, Vol. 16, No. 12, 2001. 

“The National Imagery and Mapping Agency this month is expected to sign a controversial 15-year, $2 billion outsourcing deal designed to help Alaskan Native companies.

“The project, which will outsource some 600 jobs to the private sector, has aroused opposition in the information technology industry and among government employee unions. They question whether the government or Alaskan Natives themselves are benefiting from a special program that allows the Defense Department to bypass normal acquisition procedures in order to award contracts to designated Alaskan Native Regional or Village Corporations.  … 

“Alaskan Native corporations are regional and village corporations owned by the indigenous people of Alaska. The corporations were formed under a 1971 federal law giving them preferred procurement status in exchange for federal rights to traditional Native land.” 

To further complicate things the actual work under this contract will not be done in Alaska by these native corporations, but by a corporation they have set up in McLean, Virginia to be close by the NIMA offices and potentially employ former NIMA employees displaced by this outsourcing.  (For the complete article on this very controversial contract see www.washingtontechnology.com)

There is now considerable “below the radar” discussion of what would happen if this kind of work were to be allowed to move outside the United States to the lowest bidders.

NIMA Topology.

While we are visiting the subject of NIMA a technical item may be of interest.  NIMA’s GIS side is in the forefront of defining the various topologies of vector geodata and in turn their potential applications.  MicroImages vector objects adhere to their definitions for Levels 0, 1, 2, and 3 and the TNT products maintain and can convert between these topological levels during editing and analysis.  Of particular note is that NIMA is now defining topology Levels 4 and 5 for full 3D and even multi-temporal geospatial data creation, storage, and analysis.

Level 0:  (TNT non-topological or spaghetti vector object)

Level 1:  (TNT network topology vector object)

Level 2:  (TNT planar topology vector object)

Level 3:  (TNT fully topological vector object)

Level 4

Level 5

For diagrams and more descriptive information about these levels of topology please see www.geovista.psu.edu.

Topographic Maps on a Shoestring.

A MicroImages’ client in a small nation recently reported they used 7 TNTmips 6.5 systems part-time for a year to prepare 160 of 1:50,000 topographic maps to replace the nation’s original 60 to 70 year old printed British or US Army Map Service maps. MicroImages has reviewed an electronic sample of these maps and they have very complex legends, and these maps are very close in appearance, design, and quality to the older printed maps.

This production of new printed and electronic maps completes about 10% of the 1:50,000 scale maps of this nation.  It involved using the TNT Spatial Data Editor and other TNT tools to digitize the contours and older cartographic features from the old topographic maps for most areas where there are no changes in topography. These could then be overlaid and matched in the Editor to large sections of raw satellite images that “were not orthophotos.”  This allowed accurate transfer of new features in that matching area to the revised cartographic layers.  The TNT map layout and templating procedure was then used to prepare the print plates for this revised map series.  These mapmakers indicated that additional national topographic map upgrading will be conducted in this fashion.  They also pointed out that a government organization had funded a $500,000 project in 1998 using a competitive product “in house,” which to date has produced no maps.

Hand Made Globes.

A well-known manufacturer of globes has always designed their globe skins with Mac software. You probably have 1 of their hand assembled globes in your home.  Now they will be updating their maps, especially place name features, with the Mac OS X version of TNTmips.  They hand wrap their globes with a map printed with a unique non-mathematical projection.  The northern and southern hemispheres of the map are printed separately in 2 hemispherical parts, which look like orange peels pulled up from the equator to the pole in equal longitude strips – sort of the “flattened pinwheel” projection.  This manufacturer also wished to have the capabilities at hand via TNTmips to produce and market other kinds of globe and 2D map products.  

X Server (alias MI/X)

A series of minor improvements in the standalone version sold separately by MicroIm-ages under the name MI/X have raised its version number to 3.11.  These changes are all related to improvements in handling the installation and protection of this product for trial use and purchase.  The user of MI/X does not yet have access to the new Windows desktop, which will be released as part of MI/X 4.0.

TNTsim3D™  for Windows

Background.

There are numerous low-cost products that can ingest standard raster and/or graphics files and produce realistic qualitative simulations.  The ubiquitous availability of DirectX and OpenGL, fostered by the game industry, has provided a code base upon which to rapidly build many different qualitative simulation viewers.  Most of the programming effort in creating these low-cost products is expended in developing the product’s user interface around these rendering libraries. 

Simulation products specifically directed toward GIS and image processing systems are more expensive. They are primarily providing a means of transforming their, or someone else’s, ill-designed mess of geodata in various other formats into a format suitable for rapid rendering or, as in some, directly into real memory.  Typically the geodata is assembled into a landscape directly in their geospatial analysis package or in an expensive optional module for that package.  Their proprietary viewer is then used to run the simulation within the geospatial analysis system used to assemble it, or by buying a copy of their optional viewer.

Landscape Files (which means, Project Files) are assembled in TNTmips using a standard feature provided with every system at no additional cost.  With the release of TNTsim3D 6.7, these files can be used for simulations by anyone who is provided or downloads a free copy of TNTsim3D 6.7.  TNTsim3D can now be distributed freely with your Landscape Files assembled for TNTatlas.  This approach follows the same preparation/distribution model as used with TNTatlas.  In fact, an initial level of interprocess communication has been established between a free TNTatlas and a free TNTsim3D so that each can start up the other to view the common image = texture and DEM = terrain objects occurring only once in the accompanying Project File(s).

What it is not.

TNTsim3D was conceptualized from the onset, like TNTatlas, to be a geospatial visualization and local analysis tool. It can provide a wide area simulation flying over a real world. However, a simulation for a geospatial application will often have little to do with how the real world looks or might look to an observer. TNTsim3D is not provided to teach us how to fly and, thus, is not another flight simulator striving for realism.  It does not provide any cockpit appearance (for example, control panels), operation characteristics (for example, flight dynamics), guns, other aircraft, and so on.  Its design objectives are not focused upon simulating an air battle, planning a route to a strike zone, driving a tank, or planning an architectural project.

What it is.

TNTsim3D’s current capabilities and continuing development focus on providing a geopublishing and local geoanalysis tool for professional geospatial analysts using TNTmips.  This means that it will strive to use complex geospatial objects prepared in TNTmips in quantitative ways while supporting your choice of map projections, geodata types, attributes, and so on.  Some initial features oriented toward these objectives are being released in V6.70 such as:

• readouts of many viewing characteristics,

• real time display of map coordinates in any projection,

• multiple texture overlays with offsets,

• selection of texture layers during the simulation,

• merging and mosaicking of textures during simulation,

• map reference views, and others.  

Current plans for TNTsim3D will continue to proceed along these development lines toward supporting:

• JPEG2000 compression to permit the distribution of very large landscapes,

• static and interactive pin mapping,

• offsetting multiple terrain surfaces,

• direct use of vector overlays including polygon extrusions,

• dynamic pin mapping, and so on.

These are all fundamental features that need our focus and effort so they can be added to this product.  Viewing characteristics, such as:

• display gadgetry for realistic control panels, dials, and sliders;

• sky types, including clouds, sun position, sunsets;

• water surfaces;

• rendering realistic buildings, trees, and cars;  and similar  features

are details that can be added as needed.  If you request these cosmetic features, please justify why we should interrupt our baseline development of TNTsim3D into a geospatial analysis and publishing tool in order to provide them.

Additional Background Materials.

As usual, this MEMO introduces the features that are new in V6.70.  However, since it is now free, first time users of TNTsim3D 6.7 need to review this same section in the MicroImages’ MEMO shipped with your V6.60 or posted at www.microimages.com/relnotes/v66/ for additional introductory materials not duplicated here. Also, the most recent Using TNTsim3D for Windows tutorial booklet can be downloaded now from www.microimages.com/products/tntsim.htm.  Please also consult the attached color plates illustrating TNTsim3D while reading this section as they, more than words, attempt to illustrate the dynamic actions of TNTsim3D.

Development work continued on TNTsim3D 6.7 after several of the attached color plates were printed.  Thus, some of their illustrations may no longer conform to the exact appearance and operation of TNTsim3D.  These descriptions in this MEMO were written later to conform to the version of TNTsim3D on the V6.70 CD.

Easy Download and Install.

The Windows application program SetupTNTsim3D.exe on your V6.70 CD can be copied to your web site or onto any other CD or media type and freely distributed.  No other files are needed as this is a complete Windows program.  Simply add the Landscape Files you prepare or the sample landscapes provided on the CD or at www.microimages.com/products/tntsim.htm.  This SetupTNTsim3D program file is compressed and packaged with the common windows InstallShield. Do not zip this file in any way, as it is already fully compressed. Wherever this program is made available, it can be selected by the mouse and InstallShield will decompress the program and install it to the designated hard drive.  It can also be installed using the Window’s Add/Remove Programs utility.

Please keep in mind that by the time you get SetupTNTsim3D on the V6.70 CD, it is likely that a newer version with additional features will be available from www.microimages.com/products/tntsim.htm.  Get used to this idea, and keep up.  You can determine the date of the TNTsim3D version you are running by using its menu option Help / About TNTsim3D….  This date is inserted when the program is compiled.  When a new TNTsim3D is available, the description where you download it will show the date of that version.

At this time each new version of TNTsim3D will be about 10 Mb and will download packaged into the same compressed, single SetupTNTsim3D installable file, just as the one on the CD.  Thus, if you are satisfied with the newer version of TNTsim3D, you can simply substitute and distribute it as you choose.  It is advisable to use Window’s Add/Remove Programs utility to officially delete an older version before installing a new version.

Landscape Builder.

Since they are Project Files, the Landscape Files you prepared in TNTmips 6.6 will still work in TNTsim3D 6.7 and any other TNT product. However, to use some of the new simulation features (for example, multiple texture layers), your existing Landscape Files must be expanded. Simply add the new objects to them in the V6.70 Landscape Builder.  Please see the technical section on new TNTmips features for an explanation of the alterations that were made to the Landscape Builder to expand your Landscape Files to use new features in TNTsim3D 6.7.  These additional features can also be reviewed in the attached color plates entitled Preparing Multiple Textures for TNTsim3D and the tutorial booklet entitled Building 3D Landscapes, which is current with V6.70.

Multiple View Windows.

Simultaneous use of more than one 2D display window is an important aspect of your efficient use of the TNT geospatial analysis products (for example, geolocked 2D views, image plus map views, related 2D with 3D views, and so on).  The need for a similar multi-view strategy can be extrapolated to the development and application of TNTsim3D.  First, a review of 3 ways your TNT product’s desktop can be used for viewing and interacting with your geodata.  Variations on these 3 arrangements are illustrated for 3 monitors on the attached color plates entitled Immersive Geospatial Analysis and Immersive TNTsim3D, and they apply as well to how you layout the display area of 1 or 2 monitors.  Please also keep in mind that a 2^nd 17" monitor would cost less than US$200 and a replacement Matrox dual monitor display board about US$100.

Make One Big View.

For demonstrations and direct visual interpretations you can set up 1 big 2D display window or static 3D simulation covering all your monitor(s) display area.  If you use the virtual X desktop option, the 2D display in TNTmips can even be much larger than the area of your monitor(s).  TNTsim3D provides a parallel effect to the virtual X desktop when you have a large landscape available and use your control device to interactively change your viewpoint.  In this “big view” approach you show the maximum image or map area. Control dialogs and other windows must be brought forward and backward as needed.  When multiple monitors are used, their display board’s driver makes these monitors appear as 1 larger display to application software.  Thus TNTsim3D and TNTmips can immediately use 2 or 3 monitors to show 1 large “wrap-around” desktop over which you can enlarge your display window or simulation view.

Use a View and Controls.

You can choose to use a smaller TNTmips display window or TNTsim3D simulation view and use the rest of the display area on 1, 2, or 3 monitors for control information in several control panels and dialogs.

Take Multiple Viewpoints.

For intense analysis you can open several TNT display windows and position them across your monitor(s).  In TNTmips these might be some combination of a 2D view, a static 3D view, a geolocked 2^nd map or image view, and so. Since it is geospatial tool, TNTsim3D also supports this concept by allowing you to open multiple interrelated simulation views, all related in some way to your main (pilot) view. These additional views of your geodata all move in tandem as you move around through new landscape areas.  Furthermore, as will be discussed below, each view can show the same or a different texture layer as the main view all chosen from the multiple textures you can now add to your Landscape File. 

Displaying and maintaining simultaneous separate views in a flight simulator product is not particularly useful.  A flight simulation wants to put everything in just 1 view, which looks like a cockpit with a window(s), control panel, embedded recon sensor views, and so on.  In a geospatial simulation tool, this realism is not paramount as often the analysis does not deal with a real view of the world, but with geologic, soil, infrastructure, historical images, panchromatic images, symbolized elements, and so on.  Often you will be visually portraying the interrelationship between various diverse geodata types.  TNTsim3D now provides you the opportunity to open a variety of interrelated specialized simulation windows.  Each window represents a different viewpoint.  Each window can use 1 or more separate textures.  TNTsim3D maintains all these simulations at the same time while preserving their preset orientations and interrelations. 

Georeferenced Views.

The geodata objects (both texture and terrain) assembled in a Landscape File are standard objects in a Project File.  Thus, if they are georeferenced, this georeference data is available during their use in TNTsim3D.  TNTsim3D shares many standard TNT library functions with the other TNT products and uses these functions to process the geodata objects up to the final rendering of each simulation view, which is the responsibility of DirectX or OpenGL and your display board.  TNTsim3D 6.7 can therefore provide some of the quantitative features and behavior needed in a geospatial simulation and analysis tool, thus moving beyond a simple simulator. 

Using the georeferences of the objects in the Landscape File, TNTsim3D provides the basis for continuous readout out of the real world map coordinates of many positions of interest in the simulation.  For example, you can point in any view with the mouse and get a continuous readout of the coordinates of that position on the terrain surface.  The map projection and datum can be selected or changed during a simulation, and all real time readouts will report these new coordinates.  The units for reported measurements such as altitude, surface elevation, and distance to the indicated point can be selected from any of those provided in TNTmips.  The 3D Compass gadget now uses the georeference to indicate true north.  Multiple textures covering only part of the terrain can be draped over or merged into a larger texture in the correct geographic position.  Multiple textures each covering part of the terrain raster (for example, orthoimages) can be virtually mosaicked during a simulation. These new features resulting from using georeferenced texture and terrain objects in the Landscape File will be discussed in the sections that follow.  The attached color plate entitled Georeferenced Views in TNTsim3D illustrates some of them.

Observer Views.

The main TNTsim3D view window shows a view forward along the current line-of-forward-motion (pilot’s view).  Several standard observer windows can be opened to provide additional simulation views. Several are illustrated in the attached color plate entitled Simultaneous Views in TNTsim3D.  These views present what an observer, free to turn their head, could view from the same viewing position as the main (pilot) view.  Each observer view will use the same terrain layer and viewing position as the main (pilot) view.  However, within each observer view you may choose any texture layer(s) from those you have added to the Landscape File.  For example, you may want the vertically down nadir view to show a different texture than the main (pilot) view, such as a map. Different combinations of textures can be selected in each of these views and will use the offset and embedded texture effects discussed below.

Left View. 

This is the view of an observer looking out a left window 90 degrees to the left of the center-line or line-of-forward-motion.

Right View. 

This is the view of an observer looking out a right window 90 degrees to the right of the center-line or line-of-forward-motion.

Down View. 

This is the view of an observer looking down 90 degrees from the center-line or line-of-forward-motion.

Rear View. 

This is the view of an observer looking 180 degrees from the center-line or line-of-forward-motion.  It is the view looking directly back along the current line-of-forward-motion.

Vertical View.

This is the view of the nadir point beneath the current viewer position and may be on or off the texture layers.  It is the view perpendicular to the X-Y plane.  If the main (pilot) view is below the surface, then the vertical view is at the zenith point above the viewer position and is still perpendicular to the X-Y plane.  The contents of this Vertical View rotate with changes in the main (pilot) view so as to maintain the line-of-forward-motion always pointing to the top.

Map View.

Use this Map View to keep track of where you are and what you are looking at within the landscape in the main (pilot) view projected onto the X-Y surface of the texture(s) it displays.  The Map View is an ortho view of the texture layer(s) selected within this view from the textures in the Landscape File.  This texture might be that of a map, an aeronautical chart, or simply the same image that is in the pilot view. If this Map View is zoomed in so that it shows only part of the extent of the terrain layer, it will automatically roam the texture as you move the position of the main (pilot) view relative to the X-Y plane, keeping the viewer position centered in the window.  Changing only the orientation of the main (pilot) view such as its pitch, roll, altitude, never causes the Map View to roam.  If the entire texture is showing in the Map View, its content will not move and remain unchanged for any change in the main (pilot) view.  The attached color plate entitled Map View in TNTsim3D illustrates this special view.

Locator Gadgets. 

Two optional Locator gadgets show the position and orientation of the main (pilot) view in the Map View.

Arrowhead. 

The simplest Locator gadget is a simple, color arrowhead.  The base of this arrowhead is at the nadir position of the main (pilot) view.  The arrowhead points in the direction of the line-of-forward-motion. If the Map View is zoomed in and therefore roams, the base of this arrowhead is always at the center of the view as this will always be the nadir of the main (pilot) view.  If the Map View is viewing the entire extent of the terrain layer and does not roam, then the arrowhead moves about as the nadir position in the main (pilot) view moves around over the terrain.

View-Center.

This Locator gadget shows the nadir position of the main (pilot) view as a cross with an arrowhead on one limb always pointing north.  The position of the center of this same view projected to the terrain surface is indicated by a circle.  In other words, this circle indicates what is being viewed at the center of the main (pilot) view. It changes position in the Map View with changes in the pitch and heading of the main (pilot) view.  A colored dashed line between the cross and the circle indicates the direction from the nadir position to the center of the main (pilot) view.  The length of this dashed line between the cross and circle indicates the distance from the viewer to the center in the X-Y plane. This is a very simple, but useful gadget to determine where your main (pilot) view is at on the terrain and where you are currently looking in it.  For example, if you are looking straight down in the main (pilot) view perpendicular to the X-Y plane, the cross and the circle will be coincident.

Dragging the Nadir Position.  This gadget also provides a very direct way to use the mouse to change your main (pilot) view position and the center-line of that view and all other windows slaved to it.  If, in the Map View, you position the cursor over the nadir point cross and press and hold down the left button, you can drag this end of the gadget anywhere within the extent of the terrain showing in the Map View.  As you do this, the nadir point in the main (pilot) view will track the change in this nadir position while remaining at the same elevation and rotating so as to remain centered on the same point on the terrain.  Using this maneuver, you can instantly position your main (pilot) view over a landscape feature (for example, a mountain top, a proposed scenic overlook, a building site, and so on).

Repositioning the View Center.  If you use the mouse to click on any other feature in the Map View the circle end of the gadget will move there.  This will recenter the main (pilot) view on that point in the terrain (for example, a house, a proposed forest clear-cut, and so on) without changing its nadir position or elevation.  You can also hold down the left button in the circle and drag it slowly to the new position so that the main (pilot) view will rotate gradually to center on that new point in the terrain.

Using the mouse on this gadget provides the easiest and fastest possible way to reposition your main (pilot) view to a particular point above the terrain and then view a specific feature from that position.  Note that clicking the left mouse button on the terrain in any view also recenters it on that position on the surface just as if you moved the circle gadget to that point.

Scrolling the Altitude. 

After working awhile with this gadget, it was determined that 1 more additional feature would be very useful in moving your position around.  The altitude of the main (pilot) view can now be moved up or down with the scroll wheel on your mouse.  The rate of movement is one wheel notch equal to the distance specified for Speed Up/Down.

Since the V6.70 CDs.

The altitude scrolling feature is not in TNTsim3D on the V6.70 CDs but is available now in the latest version at www.microimages.com/products/tntsim.htm.  The following additional improvements to the operation of this gadget are in the latest version.  1) This gadget is much more useful than the arrowhead and is now the default gadget.  2) Any roll you have created in your main (pilot) view by some other control, (for example, via the joystick) will be fixed and maintained as you move the nadir point in the main (pilot) view (crosshair) around.  In other words, if your horizon is level (or at some angle) it will be maintained at that orientation as you move your main (pilot) view—you will no longer roll over.  3) Both ends of the gadget now move more reliably. 

You may at first experience what you think is spurious behavior in the operation of this gadget.  Remember that you are manipulating a 3D control.  For example, a change in the altitude or nadir position of your main (pilot) view may automatically and correctly change the position of the circle and the dashed line.  If you lower your altitude, the circle may jump toward the nadir point as a hill in the foreground suddenly obstructs the view to the previously distant intersection of your viewline with the terrain.  In a similar fashion, for a fixed nadir and altitude you may drag the circle to a position behind a mountain obstructing your view of that position.  This will cause the circle to snap to a new position on the near face of the mountain with a shorter dashed line.

Zoom Icons. 

Zoom In and Zoom Out icons in the Map View zoom its contents in and out in 2X increments.  A Full icon zooms out until the full extent of the terrain layer is exposed

Options Icon. 

This icon opens a Map Options dialog. Use it to select the particular Locator gadget and its color.  It also indicates in percent how much of the total geographic extent of the terrain layer used as the basis for this landscape is currently displayed in the Map View providing an indication of how far it is zoomed into the area of the total landscape.  It is not the percent of the texture being viewed as this might cover only a small portion of this landscape.  For example, the texture you have selected in the Map View might be a single orthophoto or topographic map texture from many adjacent textures in the Landscape File.  

The Map Options dialog also provides the option to shift between a fixed north orientation at the top of the Map View to/from a Viewer orientation.  When the Viewer orientation is selected, the contents of the Map View rotates so that its up is always the direction of forward motion in the X-Y plane.  In other words it behaves just as if you are rotating a map in your car to keep your direction of travel up at the top to assist in watching for left or right turns.  In the Viewer orientation mode the Arrowhead Locator gadget that points in the direction of the main (pilot) view will always point to the top of the window and the dashed line for the View-Center Locator gadget will always be vertical.

Point-of-Interest Views.

Since TNTsim3D is a geospatial tool, it is likely that you, as a geospatial specialist, will need to demonstrate how a particular landscape and set of textures look from a variety of viewpoints.  You will maneuver around in the landscape you have prepared and view it through the main (pilot) view.  However, you wish your observer to focus on how a particular area looks from any position above it (for example, how a proposed forest clear-cut will look from a variety of viewpoints, how it relates to the drainages, and so on).

A total of 8 Point-of-Interest (POI) views can be designated and opened, each of which provides a fixed view of a specific point selected on the terrain in the pilot view by the mouse, by the entry of map coordinates, or in advance in the Landscape Builder.  The interactive creation of a POI view is illustrated sequentially in the attached color plate entitled TNTsim3D Point-of-Interest Views.  Select Window / Point-of-Interest from the menu in the main (pilot) view.  This exposes a Point-of-Interest dialog box.  With this box open simply select any point on the terrain in any view.  This position on the terrain will be immediately marked with a vertical color bar in every open view and with a matching color arrowhead in the Map View.  A Point-of-Interest 1 view will open centered on that view and will remain centered there for wherever you move the main (pilot) view.  You can now repeat Window / Point-of-Interest and add a 2^nd POI and view and so on.

Point-of-Interest Dialog.

When you are designating a new POI, this dialog box will allow you to enter a name for that new POI view.  It also provides you with the ground coordinates of the position you select in any view with the mouse for a possible POI.  You can keep clicking the mouse around in your views and each time these coordinates will change.  You can also simply fill in the actual values you want in these coordinate boxes, then choose Apply to set that POI.  The POI marker will then jump exactly to this manually entered position.  

Each POI view provides a toolbar with 2 icons.

Texture Icon. 

This icon permits you to select the texture(s) to show in this POI view from all those in the Landscape File.

Edit Icon. 

This icon will reopen the Point-of-Interest dialog for that POI view.  When this dialog box is reopened for any POI view, its coordinates can be manually edited and its name changed.  As long as this dialog is open, you can also click the mouse in any view and that POI and its marker will move to that position in all views and the POI view will redraw centered on the new position.

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