Time and money could be saved if open city data could be used in the visualisation of cities. The Town of Raahe is testing visualisation with the open city model CityGML.

What kind of problem is the project trying to solve?

Companies and local authorities need visualisations of cities and architecture to support planning and design, marketing and decision-making. At the moment, there is no cost-effective way to visualise a large urban area. If open data on cities could be used in the creation of modern visualisation models, considerable savings in time and money could be achieved.

CityGML is an open data model and exchange format for the storage of digital 3D city models. However, the quality of the material in CityGML does not allow it to be used credibly in high-quality visualisations without processing it.

Objective: to visualise the city by taking advantage of open city data

The experimental project tests the use of CityGML material in the creation of a modern city visualisation. CityGML is an open, internationally standardised data model and exchange format for the storage of digital 3D city models.

The aim of the project is to create an example of a city visualisation on two different platforms: the visualisations will be implemented using both the Unreal Engine 4 game engine and the 3ds Max software, which represents more traditional rendering technology. Rendering means creating an image from a model with computer software.

These programmes represent the two most popular main trends among producers of visualisations. Unreal Engine 4 is a real-time game engine that can also be used to create virtual reality applications. 3ds Max, on the other hand, is a modelling programme that is widely used in architectural visualisation to render images and videos with the traditional ray tracing technology.

The example visualisations created in the project are aimed at ensuring the actual quality of the visualisation based on CityGML material. In addition, the possible practical problems will already be identified and solved during the experiment.

The methods developed in the project as well as the experiences will be documented so that other operators can take advantage of them in agile creation of a modern city visualisation.

What is done in this project?

The problems to be solved in the project include:

Who benefits?

City and landscape architects, companies operating in the sector and local authorities