VPB (Virtual Planet Builder)

The VPB driver provides access to imagery and elevation data contained in a  VirtualPlanetBuilder (VPB) database. VPB is a terrain generation tool used to create high performance, highly scalable databases from geospatial imagery and elevation data. The osgEarth VPB driver allows osgEarth to use these databases as sources of elevation and imagery.

  • Please read: This driver is only provided to support those with pre-existing VPB models. If at all possible, you should run osgEarth against the original source data instead of using this driver. You will get better performance with suffer fewer headaches.

Examples of usage:

  • Use imagery or elevation layers from a VPB database in an osgEarth terrain
  • Combine dynamic imagery layers with an existing VPB database
  • Overlay hi-resolution insets on a VPB terrain
  • Incorporate data updates into a VPB database without having to rebuild it
  • Note: The VPB driver will only work with VPB databases created with the --terrain option. Polygonal databases will not work, period.

Options

url URL to the root file of the VPB database. required
primary_split_level Set the primary split level used when generating the VPB database. required
secondary_split_level Set the secondary split level used when generating the VPB database. required
profile geospatial profile of the VPB database. optional
directory_structure The type of directory structure used by the VPB database. Valid values are nested, task, and flat. Defaults to flat optional
layer The imagery layer (a.k.a. color layer) to use from the VPB database. Default is 0. optional
num_tiles_wide_at_lod0 Specify the number of tiles wide the database is at lod 0 optional
num_tiles_high_at_lod0 Specify the number of tiles high the database is at lod 0 optional
base_name The base filename of VPB database subtiles. By default, the driver uses the filename in the root URL as the base name, but you can override it using this property. optional

Example

This example shows how to load an existing VPB database into osgEarth: 

<map name="Virtual Planet Builder model" type="geocentric">
 
    <image name="imagery layer 0" driver="vpb">
        <url>http://www.openscenegraph.org/data/earth_bayarea/earth.ive</url>
        <primary_split_level>5</primary_split_level>
        <secondary_split_level>11</secondary_split_level>
        <profile>global-geodetic</profile>
    </image>

    <heightfield name="dem" driver="vpb">
        <url>http://www.openscenegraph.org/data/earth_bayarea/earth.ive</url>
        <profile>global-geodetic</profile>
    </heightfield>

</map>

Example

To overlay new data on a VPB database, simply add new image layers to the bottom of the .earth file: 

<map name="Virtual Planet Builder inset" type="geocentric">

    <image name="imagery layer 0" driver="vpb">
        <url>http://www.openscenegraph.org/data/earth_bayarea/earth.ive</url>
        <primary_split_level>5</primary_split_level>
        <secondary_split_level>11</secondary_split_level>
    </image>
	
    <image name="vpb hires inset" driver="gdal">
	<url>../data/boston-inset-wgs84.tif</url>
    </image>
	
</map>

Driver list