Integration of Open Geodata into Virtual Worlds

This paper discusses and explores applications of virtual worlds generated from heterogenous kinds of open geodata, such as 2D maps, digital elevation models and aerial photographs. Two workflows are presented for generation of such virtual worlds and their integration into the Unreal and Godot game engines. The feature-richness of game engines then offers the benefit of designing applications that are not possible with conventional 3D-GIS software. As an example we present a virtual world that is created from open geodata, augmented with 3D sonar data from real-world measurements, populated with a robotic boat and animated artificial fish to be finally used for training of AI classifiers.