High Performance Visualisation of Multiscale Geological Outcrop Data in Single Software Environment

Digital outcrop data has become more common over the past decade, though development of geoscientific software for this data has lagged behind the introduction of new data collection approaches (lidar, structure from motion and X-Ray CT among others). Modern graphics cards provide many features designed primarily for the games industry which can be applied with good effect to the visualisation of geoscientific data. Shaders are programs which allow modifications and adaptations of the graphics visualisation pipeline, and these shader programs are utilised to speed up and improve visualisation of geological data at a variety of scales. These different scales of data are visualised in a single software environment, which will facilitate the next generation of high resolution geological outcrop modelling.