Planetary Robotics 3D Viewer

Explore planetary surfaces in full resolution.

PRo3D is an interactive 3D visualization tool that allows planetary scientists to work with high-resolution 3D reconstructions — from orbiter and rover cameras, at the accuracy of the original data.

Get started View on GitHub
The PRo3D logo over a 3D reconstruction of a Martian outcrop annotated with coloured measurement markers.

Who uses PRo3D?

PRo3D aims to support planetary scientists by exploring high-resolution 3D surface reconstructions from orbiter and rover cameras. In the scope of ESA and NASA missions, new features are developed to support the mission.

Features

Built for real geological work

A 3D outcrop model overlaid with point, line and polyline annotations in several colours, plus a dip-and-strike orientation marker.
01

Geological Annotations

PRo3D lets users pick points on the 3D surface at the full resolution of the data present. Our tools contain point, line, polyline and ellipse annotations, while line segments are projected onto the surface. Various measurements are computed at the highest possible accuracy, such as the distance along a 3D surface (waylength) or dip-and-strike orientations of sediment structures.

  • Various annotation types
  • Measurements and computations based on annotations
A colour-coded elevation map of a large Martian region, with a zoomed inset revealing the dense triangle mesh beneath the surface.
02

Large Data

Surface reconstructions from high-resolution satellite images can easily yield gigabytes of data in terms of geometry, imagery, and additional layers. With PRo3D users can explore huge datasets interactively and even perform measurements of topographic features.

The displayed dataset consists of 2 GB of raw 3D position vectors, a 1 GB elevation map, and 10 GB of image data — rendered at interactive framerates with commodity hardware, utilizing adjustable level-of-detail and out-of-core techniques.

Victoria Crater rendered from four overlapping reconstructions — HiRISE, HiRISE SRR, MER-B PanCam and WideBaseLine — each outlined in a different colour.
03

3D Layers

Although PRo3D is not a GIS system, we need to provide our users with typical GIS features to solve their geospatial problems, such as evaluating topographic or geological features.

Our 3D layering technique allows a seamless integration of different reconstructions present at a single location. Unlike image or DTM layering, we allow users to blend full 3D data by assigning rendering priorities — which is crucial to explore reconstructions from multiple rover camera instruments.

  • Rendering priorities
  • Multi-instrument blending

Data

Formats & provenance

Currently, PRo3D supports OBJ files but works best with reconstructions in the proprietary data format OPC (Ordered Point Clouds), basically consisting of hierarchically organized surface patches. These reconstructions stem from orbiter images and rover images and are produced by Joanneum Research by using the PRoViP processing pipeline.

Many surface reconstructions have been generated from, for instance, the HiRISE, MER-A, MER-B and MSL missions from various instruments. An ongoing project evaluates terrestrial applicability of PRo3D and the PRoViP pipeline by capturing outcrops in the UK. Two example datasets are provided below.

Getting started

Up and running in three steps

  1. 1

    Download PRo3D

    Grab the latest stable build from our release page.

    Release page
  2. 2

    Download a dataset

    Pick one of our example reconstructions to open in the viewer.

  3. 3

    Launch the viewer

    Unpack the archive and start the executable.

    PRo3DViewer.zip → PRo3D.Viewer.exe

PRo3D is also available in source code form on GitHub. If you have questions on how to use PRo3D or want to contribute, please feel free to join our Discord channel.

Academic or commercial inquiries — science[at]vrvis.at PRoViP & other reconstructions — gerhard.paar[at]joanneum.at

Citation

Using PRo3D in your research?

If you have used PRo3D in your research and would like to cite it in your publications, please use the following reference and DOI for PRo3D:

Barnes, R., Gupta, S., Traxler, C., Ortner, T., Bauer, A., Hesina, G., et al. (2018). Geological analysis of Martian rover-derived Digital Outcrop Models using the 3-D visualization tool, Planetary Robotics 3-D Viewer — PRo3D. Earth and Space Science, 5, 285–307.

If you would prefer to cite the software in an acknowledgement rather than the references section, that is also fine with us. We suggest a statement like:

“This research made use of PRo3D, a 3D viewer for exploration and geologic interpretations of planetary surface reconstructions (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6674707).”

The most important thing is the inclusion of the Zenodo DOI link, which is what makes it possible for us to track the impact of PRo3D. Citations to our software are very helpful to us for professional advancement, securing funding, justifying expenses to project sponsors, etc. — exactly like citations to traditional research publications.

Tutorials

Learn PRo3D

Video walkthroughs are on the way.

Tutorial coming soon

A description will accompany each video.

Tutorial coming soon

A description will accompany each video.

Tutorial coming soon

A description will accompany each video.

Technology behind PRo3D

Aardvark

PRo3D has been developed with the Aardvark.Media framework as part of the AardvarkPlatform for visual computing developed at VRVis.