Heightmap Visualizer:

What?

• This C++ project can visualize .png heightmaps, in either a wireframe or a shaded view.

Example outputs:

Personal Motivation & Challenges

Motivation

• I took up this project because I wanted to work on a project that relates to computer graphics. Rendering terrain in the form of a heightmap was a challenging project idea, but it still seemed attainable with my C++ knowledge at the time. I also wanted to work on this project 'from scratch', solving challanges as they came my way, without following a tutorial or any other step-by-step guide to point me in the right direction. This turned out (in my opinion) to be a great idea, and I am now more confident in my problem-solving abilities as a result.

Challenges

1. Because SDL2 can only render 2D graphics, I had to create my own data structures for 3D triangles and points.
2. I also had to solve the visible surface detection problem, which I did using Painter's Algorithm (z-buffer sorting). I chose this algorithm because it operates in a per-triangle manner, and SDL2's interface for rendering triangles does not provide access at the fragment-level.

How to compile:

• Necessary libraries: SDL2 (I use SDL2.28.5), any other version of SDL2 should work as well. These

Notes

Header libraries lodepng.h and Eigen.h are used.