Universität zu Köln

Gunia, Patrick (2013). Der Semantic Building Modeler - Ein System zur prozeduralen Erzeugung von 3D-Gebäudemodellen. PhD thesis, Universität zu Köln.

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Abstract

Computer generated 3d-models of buildings, cities and whole landscapes are constantly gaining importance throughout different fields of application. Starting with obvious domains like computer games or movies there are also lots of other areas, e.g. reconstructions of historic cities both for educational reasons and further research. The most widely used method for producing city models is the „manual“ creation. A 3d artist uses modeling software to design every single component by hand. Especially for city models consisting of hundreds or thousands of buildings this is a very time consuming and thus expensive method. Procedural modeling offers an alternative to this manual approach by using a computer to generate models automatically. The history of procedural modeling algorithms goes back to the 1980s when the first implementations for the automatic texture synthesis were developed and published by Ken Perlin. Other important applications are the generation of plants based on formalisms like L-systems, proposed by Aristid Lindenmayer or particle systems widely used within computer graphics first proposed by William Reeves. Research concerning the applicability of the developed formalisms and techniques led to the creation of systems dedicated to the automatical computation of building and city models. These systems are often differentiated between rule-based and procedural systems. Rule-based systems use formalisms like text replacement systems whereas procedural systems implement every step of the construction process within the program code. The Semantic Building Modeler is a procedural system, which is configured by using user-provided XML-parameters. The semantic meaning of these parameters is fixed through a tight coupling with their usage within the program code. In this point, the semantic of the Semantic Building Modeler differs from other systems on the today’s market. Besides, it facilitates the introduction for novice users making their first experiences with procedural modeling. Concerning the algorithmic aspect the system proposes two new algorithms for the automatic creation and variation of building footprints. These enable the software to create automatically varied building structures. Additionally, the prototype implementation can be seen as an extendable framework. It offers a wide range of algorithms and methods, which can be used for future extensions of the current system. The prototype also contains an implementation of the Weighted-Straight-Skeleton-Algorithm, techniques for the distributed storage of configuration-fragments, the procedural construction of building components like cornice and many more. The prototypical realization of the developed algorithms is a proof-of-concept-implementation. It demonstrates that the usage of semantically based parameters for the procedural creation of complex and visually appealing geometry can go hand-in-hand. This opens the powerful algorithmic construction of building and city models to a big group of users who have no experience neither in the field of programming nor in the manual design of 3d models.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD thesis)
Translated title:	Title Language The Semantic Building Modeler - A system for the procedural generation of 3d building models English
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Gunia, Patrick patrick.gunia@gmail.com UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-54410
Date:	22 July 2013
Language:	German
Faculty:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities
Divisions:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Fächergruppe 2: Archäologie, Altertumskunde und Kulturen des Mittelmeerraums > Archäologisches Institut > Abteilung für Historisch-kulturwissenschaftliche Informationsverarbeitung
Subjects:	Data processing Computer science Technology (Applied sciences)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language procedural content generation semantic building modeler algorithm graphic 3d automatic weighted straight skeleton English Prozedurale Inhaltsgenerierung Gebäudegenerierung 3d automatische Algorithmen Weighted-Straight-Skeleton German
Date of oral exam:	6 November 2013
Referee:	Name Academic Title Thaller, Manfred Prof. Dr. Förtsch, Reinhard Prof. Dr. Lang, Ulrich Prof. Dr
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/5441