Abstract:
For modeling and simulation of humanitarian operations in a geographical area, the
terrain information is of utmost importance. Many gaming simulators/systems such as
Pygame or more sophisticated strategy gaming systems such as JTLS (Joint Theater
Level Simulation) rely on a terrain generation system (TGS) to obtain information
regarding the environment (terrain) for effective simulation. TGS for strategy games
are typically provided as an add-on by the software provider or these are obtained
from third parties against a hefty fee. To the best of our knowledge, no indigenous
solution has been developed for Pakistan. Therefore, in this work, we have successfully
implemented an indigenous TGS by taking into account the geographical area of Pakistan.
Our work employs data from open-source satellite imagery based on 30m SRTM
(Shuttle Radar Topography Mission). This data includes elevation values, land cover
classification data, and rivers data. For a generic implementation, our technique stores
the terrain specifications in a database with latitude and longitude as keys and terrain
properties as corresponding values. The terrain generated has realistic specifications
which would result in an accurate simulation of any operation. Our work can be integrated
with game simulators such as Pygame and JTLS for a variety of use cases
ranging from carrying out simulations of humanitarian operations to wargaming.
