Data-Driven Compute Overlays for Interactive Geographic Simulation and Visualization

Information

• Publication Type: Conference Paper
• Workgroup(s)/Project(s):
  • Massive geographische Datenvisualisierung mit WebGPU
• Date: December 2025
• ISBN: 979-8-3315-6613-5
• Publisher: IEEE
• Location: Vienna
• Lecturer: Gerald Kimmersdorfer
• Event: IEEE VIS 2025
• DOI: 10.1109/VIS60296.2025.00043
• Booktitle: 2025 IEEE Visualization and Visual Analytics (VIS)
• Pages: 5
• Conference date: 1. November 2025 – 7. November 2025
• Pages: 186 – 190
• Keywords: 3D geographic visualization, geographic simulation, WebGPU

Abstract

We present interactive data-driven compute overlays for native and web-based 3D geographic map applications based on WebGPU. Our data-driven overlays are generated in a multi-step compute workflow from multiple data sources on the GPU. We demonstrate their potential by showing results from snow cover and avalanche simulations, where simulation parameters can be adjusted interactively and results are visualized instantly. Benchmarks show that our approach can compute large-scale avalanche simulations in milliseconds to seconds, depending on the size of the terrain and the simulation parameters, which is multiple orders of magnitude faster than a state-of-the-art Python implementation.

Additional Files and Images

Weblinks

• Paper preprint
• Online demo
• Talk recording
• GitHub repository
• Entry in reposiTUm (TU Wien Publication Database)
• DOI: 10.1109/VIS60296.2025.00043

BibTeX

@inproceedings{komon-2025-dco,
  title =      "Data-Driven Compute Overlays for Interactive Geographic
               Simulation and Visualization",
  author =     "Patrick Komon and Gerald Kimmersdorfer and Adam Celarek and
               Manuela Waldner",
  year =       "2025",
  abstract =   "We present interactive data-driven compute overlays for
               native and web-based 3D geographic map applications based on
               WebGPU. Our data-driven overlays are generated in a
               multi-step compute workflow from multiple data sources on
               the GPU. We demonstrate their potential by showing results
               from snow cover and avalanche simulations, where simulation
               parameters can be adjusted interactively and results are
               visualized instantly. Benchmarks show that our approach can
               compute large-scale avalanche simulations in milliseconds to
               seconds, depending on the size of the terrain and the
               simulation parameters, which is multiple orders of magnitude
               faster than a state-of-the-art Python implementation.",
  month =      dec,
  isbn =       "979-8-3315-6613-5",
  publisher =  "IEEE",
  location =   "Vienna",
  event =      "IEEE VIS 2025",
  doi =        "10.1109/VIS60296.2025.00043",
  booktitle =  "2025 IEEE Visualization and Visual Analytics (VIS)",
  pages =      "5",
  pages =      "186--190",
  keywords =   "3D geographic visualization, geographic simulation, WebGPU",
  URL =        "https://www.cg.tuwien.ac.at/research/publications/2025/komon-2025-dco/",
}