A system providing three-dimensional visual navigation for a mobile unit
includes a location calculation unit for calculating an instantaneous
position of the mobile unit, a viewpoint control unit for determining a
viewing frustum from the instantaneous position, a scenegraph manager in
communication with at least one geo-database to obtain geographic object
data associated with the viewing frustum and generating a scenegraph
organizing the geographic object data, and a scenegraph renderer which
graphically renders the scenegraph in real time. To enhance depiction, a
method for blending images of different resolutions in the scenegraph
reduces abrupt changes as the mobile unit moves relative to the depicted
geographic objects. Data structures for storage and run-time access of
information regarding the geographic object data permit on-demand loading
of the data based on the viewing frustum and allow the navigational
system to dynamically load, on-demand, only those objects that are
visible to the user.