b'Data trends Data trendssame functionality as computationalevolved with computer games to physics, chemistry and AI. A single pointbecome the fastest crunchers of math, of viewing combining exploration withphysics and AI operations in your scientific computing. As such, Geosoftcomputer. Nvidia is the best known GPU and Profile Analyst now offer commercialmaker, and boast accelerating seismic GIS plugins, and Intrepid can be calledprocessing and fault detection for Shell from Python. by 40% (https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2017/03/15/transforming-oil-and-However, it is not all over yet. Computergas-industry/). They want to buy ARM, game engines are sophisticatedwho make most mobile device chips, interactive software with sophisticatedand particularly Googles Tensor chip physics functions, and augmenteddedicated to machine learning in mobile and virtual reality are standard.phones. There could be a lot of scientific They deal with multi-resolution dataprogramming packed into your graphics quickly, and are concerned with howcards in the near future.to best allow people to interact with Tim Keeping3D models. Aerometrex offer a pluginGame engines are free, designed Associate Editor for geophysicalfor the Unreal Game Engine (https:// around GPUs and compile for datamanagement and analysis aerometrex.com.au/resources/blog/ computers, phones and tablets, photogrammetry-game-engines-and- running Windows, Linux or Mac. The technical-standards@aseg.org.au geospatial-industry/) and ESRI offerworkflow for GeoVReality from the direct export to the DATASMITH UnrealUniversity of the Chinese Academy file format (https://doc.arcgis.com/en/ of Science (Figure 1) demonstrates Visualisation trends cityengine/latest/help/help-export- the current complicated pipeline for unreal.htm). getting a dynamic geology model to In 1993, ID Software founder Johnyour Oculus Rift VR goggles (https://Carmack revolutionised 3D computerCould one industry swallow the other?par.nsf.gov/servlets/purl/10253876). games by working out how to displayHexagon Geospatial appears to haveThat could quickly reduce to a plugin pictures fast in 3D. That made himannual income similar to the Electronicrequiring only your graphics card to rich, but he became richer by allowingArts (EA) game company. Call it a drawturn data into a model.customers to modify the game code.for now, but will graphics cards make a Companies could license his gamedifference? I will be interested to see which 3D engine and get on with their own ideas,formats will dominate an age in which instead of reinventing the game displayGPUs (Graphics Processing Units)explorers will expect more accessible 3D, engine. are video hardware accelerators thatAR and VR.Today explorers want a program that lets them display the results from all other programs in one place, and GIS appears to be the chosen one - no doubt in part by allowing users to add functions with the Python and C# programming languages.After dominating environmental, military and infrastructure mapping worldwide, the GIS players are making 3D the default in datasets. To paraphrase a recent plugin demonstration, such programs make it easy to bring big and very different datasets into the one setting, from obscure local council maps to 3D drilling models skinned with (displaying) the core photography (https://youtu.be/tj-lWFMcj54?list = PLD0bNzH8b-H1HnjckeM3HTuQf7WJewpXL).Enormous libraries attached to someFigure 1.Application architecture flow chart of the GeoVReality project at the University of the Chinese GIS software allows users access to theAcademy of Science.37 PREVIEW FEBRUARY 2022'