Google Inc.

Marcin Romaszewicz

Emil Constantin Praun

John H Rohlf

Gokul Varadhan

Terrain data that represents earth features for a geographic area is received. The following meshes are generated based on the terrain data: (i) a water surface mesh including a first plurality of geometric primitives and (ii) a water bottom mesh including a second plurality of geometric primitives. Portions of the water bottom mesh appearing above the water surface mesh are identified. At least one of the water surface mesh and the water bottom mesh are corrected to cause the water surface mesh to appear above the water bottom mesh.

Water surface generation

Systems and methods for approximating terrain data representing a water surface are disclosed. A computer-based geographical information system for approximating terrain data representing a water surface is provided. The system includes a mesh simplifier and a surface inversion corrector. The mesh simplifier simplifies initial water surface and water bottom meshes. The surface inversion corrector corrects simplified water surface and/or water bottom meshes to avoid having a water bottom surface incorrectly appear above a corresponding water surface in a display view. In one example, the mesh simplifier simplifies the initial water surface mesh while accounting for water/land boundaries. The mesh simplifier also simplifies the initial water bottom mesh while accounting for geographic features and/or water/land boundaries. A computer-implemented method for approximating terrain data representing a water surface is provided. In further embodiments, systems and methods for altering tile information received at a client device are provided.

Embodiments render polygonal data in a geographical information systems according to a viewing perspective of a geographical information systems user. The user may define a viewing perspective. A bounding box may be determined that includes the area being viewed in the viewing perspective. A spherical coordinate to Cartesian coordinate matrix may be determined to approximately convert spherical coordinates of the polygonal data to Cartesian coordinates to be rendered by a graphics processor. The graphics processor may then render the polygonal data and bias detail towards the viewing perspective of the user.

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Mountain View, CA, United States of America

Marcin Romaszewicz