Geovisualization of Buildings: AI vs. Procedural Modeling

Abstract

Procedural modeling offers significant advantages over traditional methods of geovisualizing 3D building models, particularly in its use of scripts or machine language for model description. This approach is highly suitable for computer processing and allows for the rapid rendering of entire building models and cities, especially when the buildings are not highly diverse, thus fully leveraging the strengths of procedural modeling. The first hypothesis is that buildings in the real world are mostly different and they should still be able to be displayed through procedural modeling procedures, and the second hypothesis is that this can be achieved in several ways. The first hypothesis suggests that real-world buildings, despite their diversity, can still be effectively represented through procedural modeling. The second hypothesis explores various methods to achieve this representation. The first approach involves recognizing the basic characteristics of a building from photographs and creating a model using machine learning. The second approach utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) to generate detailed building models based on comprehensive input data. A script is generated for each building, making reverse procedural modeling in combination with AI an intriguing field of study, which is explored in this research. To validate this method, we compare AI-generated building models with manually derived models created through traditional procedural modeling techniques. The research demonstrates that integrating AI and machine learning techniques with procedural modeling significantly improves the efficiency and accuracy of generating 3D building models. Specifically, the use of convolutional neural networks (CNNs) for image-to-geometry translation, and Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) for texture generation, showed promising results in creating detailed and realistic 3D structures. This research is significant as it introduces a novel methodology that bridges the gap between traditional procedural modeling and modern AI-driven techniques. It offers a robust solution for automated 3D building modeling, potentially revolutionizing the fields of urban planning and architectural design by enabling more efficient and accurate digital representations of complex building geometries.