A Visual Simulation Study for an Individual Tree Based on OpenGL: Mongolian Scots Pine Plantations

For a clearer demonstration of the morphological characteristics of an individual Mongolian Scots Pine in its plantation and more supports for teaching as well as research, in this study, the system analysis principle and mathematical modeling techniques were employed to construct the morphology model of an individual Mongolian Scots Pine in its plantation. The crown structure model was constructed under the guidance of quantitative analysis of its morphology data. The 3-Dimensional (3-D) geometrical modeling technology of different organs was also investigated, and organ geometrical models were developed according to characteristic parameters. Moreover, individual tree model was built by means of assembling single organs. The studies above laid a solid foundation for a virtual system that, with the help of the developing platform of VC++ language and OpenGL, can realize the organic integration between the growth mechanism and the visual expression of morphological characteristics. In addition, it also showed the ideas of the organic integration between crown structure model and visualization. The system consists of geometric construction module, crown model module, visualization module, scene control module, two database, and human-machine interface. Operations of the system turned out to be fully capable of achieving the visual expression of the morphological characteristics of an individual Mongolian Scots Pine in its plantation based on the field measured data or the parameters which was outputted by the models. Not only can this visualization be a solid foundation for visualization of forest management, it can also become a nice reference for the visualization study of other species.