Abstract: A system and method is provided for modeling a world database that is a spheroid in a computer graphics simulation system. The method includes the operation of modeling the world database using a plurality of geodetic terrain gridposts. A further operation is creating a triangulated network mesh based on the geodetic terrain gridposts in real-time as a function of eye position. In addition, the triangulated network mesh is stored in geodetic coordinates. The triangulated network mesh is then rendered using geometry formed by the triangulated network mesh.

Abstract: A system and method is provided for modeling a world database that is a spheroid in a computer graphics simulation system. The method includes the operation of modeling the world database using a plurality of geodetic terrain gridposts. A further operation is creating a triangulated network mesh based on the geodetic terrain gridposts in real-time as a function of eye position. In addition, the triangulated network mesh is stored in geodetic coordinates. The triangulated network mesh is then rendered using geometry formed by the triangulated network mesh.

Abstract: A method for MIP mapping index texture. This invention has index texture with texel index values which refer to physical material properties. First, a lookup table is stored and the lookup table has table entries defining material types. Each table entry has an index, and material property type values. Then at least two texels are selected from the index texture, where each texel has index values corresponding to table entries. Next, the material property type values are averaged for each separate property type from the table entries for the selected texels. This produces an average material property value for each material property type. Another step is selecting a new material index based on the material which most closely matches the average material property values. The final step is generating the next lowest MIP level by using the new material indexes to form a new index texture with fewer texels.