What Is VNS?

Virtual Nature Studio (VNS) is a professional photorealistic terrain visualization, modeling & rendering package developed by 3D Nature LLC and offered by Carbon Graphics as a natural complementary product to Geo - the premiere 3D Modeling & Animation package for the Visual Simulation market. Previously targeted towards the GIS community, VNS can now be used (with the included Scene Exporter add-on) to create high-fidelity real-time ready databases.

Geo and VNS - Geo DBGS

Build vis-sim ready objects and features in Geo (such as buildings, vehicles, cultural features, trees, signage etc.) and have them auto-populated and positioned within VNS. Load VNS-generated databases into Geo for scene Graph modification, tweaking and/or export to other run-time formats. Pass data between the applications in MultiGen (.flt), 3DStudio (.3ds), VRML (.wrl) or Wavefront (.obj) formats.

What Can I Do With VNS?

• Visialize GIS Data

• Recreate Reality with...

  • Digital Elevation Models

  • Vector Data

  • Remote Sensed Imagery

• Combine Data in Different Projections & Datums

• Create Plan Maps, Perspective Views, Stereo Pairs, Fly-through Animations & real-time ready Data-Bases.

Multiple Coordinate Systems and Dynamic Reprojection

Visual Nature Studio lets you import and combine data in a variety of projections, datums, and coordinate systems! Data in diverse coordinate systems is dynamically reprojected on the fly into planimetric or 3D coordinates for interactive viewing and rendering in any datum. VNS includes a large number of predefined systems, datums and ellipsoids, and users can add their own as well.

Projections

Supported projections include (but are not limited to)...

• Geographic

• UTM

• Albers Conical Equal Area

• Lambert Conformal Conic Mercator

• Polar Stereographic Polyconic

• Equidistant Conic

• Transverse Mercator

• Stereographic

• Lambert Azimuthal Equal Area

• Azimuthal Equidistant

• Orthographic

• Sinusoidal

• Equirectangular

• Miller Cylindrical

• Van der Grinten

• Hotine Oblique Mercator

• Space Oblique Mercator

• Alaska Conformal

• Wagner IV/VII

• Oblated Equal Area

• Modified Stereographic Conformal

• British National Grid

• and many others

Datums

Supported Datums include (but are not limited to) ED50, NAD27, NAD83 and WGS84.

Terrain Formats

Supported Terrain formats include (but are not limited to)...

• ArcView ASCII Array/Grid

• DTED

• DXF

• DEM

• Vista PRO

• SRTM

• NTF

• ArcView ADF

• and many others

Vector/Feature Data Formats

Supported Feature Data formats include (but are not limited to)...

• DXF

• Shapefile

• DLG

• and many others

3D Formats

• LightWave 3D

• 3DS

• DXF

• Wavefront OBJ

• OpenFlight®

• VRML

3D Object Alignment

3D object alignment controls lets you orient objects based on the orientation of a Vector. For example: Houses along curved roads can automatically orient to the road. Fence posts can automatically tilt as they go up a hill.

3D Object Randomization

3D object randomization let you control random variations and scattering of 3D objects.

Blazingly Fast Terrain Gridder

Grid contour lines, survey points and break lines into terrain, accomplishing in a matter of seconds what previously took hours or days.

DEM Creation

As well as importing data, DEMs can be created using the built-in Terrain Generator - use the power of the texture editor to design a height-field, and have VNS turn it into a DEM of whatever resolution you require.

DEM Painter

This allows editing of elevation data natively within VNS. DEM-Paint's tools includes selection tools, smear, smooth, roughen, and variable brushes.

DEM Merging

Use VNS to merge datasets of different resolution. Now you can have primary site data at a very high resolution and seamlessly merge it with a low resolution dataset for background terrain. Use multiple datasets to create a custom LOD (Level of Detail) setup for your particular project and dataset combination.

Flexible Ecosystems and Foliage Effects

Place a forest, plant a flower bed, or clear the trees from a building site. Great for parks, golf courses, and landscaping. A single Ecosystem can now have multiple Materials, which can each have their own overstory, understory and ground overlay texturing for enhanced realism. These materials can be driven by keyframed values, or selected based on texture values applied through the texture editor. Used in combination with the new "Dynamic Parameter" texture elements, the possibilities are mind-boggling! Now add Geo created trees and other 3D Objects to your Ecosystems. Place individual Scaled Image foliage or 3D trees alone or in rows. Perfect for orchards, crops, landscaping, telephone poles, fence posts and road signs.

Georeferencing for Image Objects

Place image drapes and raster Color Maps in any coordinate system. World and PRJ files will be automatically recognized for easy import and placement.

Interactive and Numerical Vector Feature Editing

Edit Vectors interactively by dragging in a View. Change them numerically in the Vector Editor. Scale, rotate or move entire Vectors or individual points. Smooth and Interpolate Vectors.

Wall Editor

Create fences, jersey barriers, buildings, regional boundaries and more. Example on the right show a view of New York City, created using Walls.

Plus Many Other Features...

Copyright © Fredrik Ahl, Arctec

Copyright ©  Erik Crews, USDA Forest Service

Copyright © Gemeente Apeldoorn, Afdeling Ruimtelijke Informatie. In cooperation with Red Geographics

Copyright ©  Robert Stacey, WorldSat International

Copyright © R Scott Cherba

Copyright © Fredrik Ahl, Arctec

Copyright © Fredrik Ahl, Arctec