An application for geovisualization with virtual reality built on Unity3D

Based on the rapid geographic information system (GIS) development, there are many kinds of tools for geographic information visualization (geovisualization). One kind of these tools is using modeling techniques to present geographic information (geoinformation). Therefore, we developed an application for geovisualization by applying modeling or special effects to visualize large-scale geoinformation. Moreover, the application provides several methods to the geovisualization especially for the weather information and georeferenced information such as forest cover. Geoinformation data are downloaded from cloud database in advance or obtained by HTTP request in real time. In order to enhance the immersion of visualization environment, the application is operated with Virtual Reality(VR). We utilize Unity3D as our platform since it facilitates multifunction in modeling, special effects and VR. In this paper, we discuss each visualization method and its advantages and disadvantages.