3D Graphics: Rendering 2D maps in 3D

Title:

Three-Dimensional Renderings of a Two-Dimensional Topographic Map

Objective:

The objective of this project is to take a two-dimensional topographic map 
as input and render it as a three-dimensional representation.

Justification:

As a scout, avid hiker, and driver, I have been faced with this issue of 
visualizing the terrain that I will be traveling on as well as determining 
acurate distances. This project will hopefully minimize those problems.

Description:

The project will likely use OpenGL for the rendering, although a homemade 
method may be devised to aid in portability. The coding will be done in java 
unless it can be easily ported to C or C++. It is a goal of this project to 
portray the information in an appealing and user-friendly way.

Limitations:

The only limitations that I can forsee are those of being able to accomplish 
the project within the time constraints, though this should be accomplishable, 
and the issue of runtime. An analysis may have to be run to detrmine if the 
runtime requirements of the program are feasible for a real-world application.