Review by GIS Europe

"The real power of MapRender3D lies in the wide range of export possibilities it supports."

For those who need to visualize terrain data there are two discrete groups of software separated by a frustrating cost and functionality gap. Firstly, there are the raster data mapping tools and desktop image processing packages, which cost a hundred pounds or so. These let you display terrain data in two dimensions but have limited georeferencing capabilities. Secondly, these are the high-end terrain modeling tools that cost a couple of thousand dollars and are used within GIS, image processing and virtual reality applications. These enable you to display fully georeferenced 2D and 3D terrain images, complete with image draping. The release of MapRender3D may help to fill the gap between these two areas, bringing georeferenced terrain visualization to a wider audience.

MapRender3D is a standalone Windows package that lets you develop georeferenced terrain displays in 2D and 3D. It will import most standard forms of digital elevation data, including the ".dem" format. Photoshop image processing format and ASCII format. Once imported, you can render the terrain using 2D color contours (bitmap or OpenGL) or a perspective/orthographic-viewed 3D mesh (OpenGL only).

These 2D and 3D displays can be zoomed, panned, scaled and rotated: in 3D the model can be lit using a sun position and height. In 3D you can change these properties interactively while looking at a simplified mesh view, and when finished the display is redrawn. On a 200Mhz machine the redraw is very fast, even for large models. MapRender3D can also drape the terrain with an image in various bitmap forms such as TIFF, PhotoShop or Windows bitmap, although you have to clip the texture to the dimensions of the terrain data.

Central Control

The heart of the application is a "settings" dialogue box. This functions as a control panel for the display properties and a legend for the shading, and provides a description of the terrain data. Since you can make a large number of modifications to the display, it is useful to be able to save the current image to MapRender3D's own "map" format. You can also save the settings and apply them to other terrain databases or use a range of pre-set settings files supplied with the package.

However, the real power of MapRender3D lies in the wide range of export possibilities it supports: bitmap forms (including TIFF, GeoTIFF and Targa), mesh formats (VRM1.2.0, Wavefront.obj and Direct3D.x) and the USGS "dem" height data format. Although there are plenty of shareware tools around to carry out these tasks individually, the value of MapRender3D lies in the integration of all these tools with the visualization capability. Since the package is focused on visualization, the developers also include a global database of terrain data pre-clipped to country outlines and based on the GTOP030 database from the USGS. A standalone tool called MapRender Converter is included with the package to convert the data.

Solid Product

Overall MapRender3D is a very useful package. It is solidly coded and well targeted at a gap in the market for those who are looking for visualization of terrain grids. Only minor criticisms can be leveled at the package, which was at the beta stage for this review. The most important is that there is no coordinate display as you move the cursor over the 2D map. For cartographers and others needing a 2D/3D terrain visualizer and import/export tool, look no further.

REVIEWER'S VERDICT
Product:	MapRender3D
Description:	2D/3D visualization package
Price:	US $295
Features:	20+ projections to create maps of any scale using the MapRender Converter; 200 country maps (DEMs cut to a country bounding box) 20+ style palettes for contour intervals and coloring.
Ease of Use:	Good
Support:	Internet/Fax
Performance:	Very Good
Value for Money:	Good
System requirements:	Microsoft Windows 95 / 98 / NT / ME / 2000 / XP

GIS Europe, September 1998 - Reviewed by Jonathan Raper

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