How to render a realistic panorama view of a terrain?

Could you help me properly render a panorama view using DEM (Digital Elevation Model) data, please?

This summer I went to the Mountains called Tatras in Slovakia. I walked to the location:

Latitude = 49.232230688571
Longitude = 20.221235240000
Altitude = 1868.8

and I took an image (the first one):

I tried to render the same view in Google Earth (the second image) which was quite successful.

I tried the same in Matlab (the last image) but the result is disappointing. How could I make it more realistic?

I don't care about textures; I am more interested in correct location of the peaks from current viewpoint. Just looking at horizon, it is clear that it is not accurate.

To create the last image I used this code:

dem = readhgt(49, 20);
dem.z(dem.z < 0) = 0;
latlim = [min(dem.lat(:)) max(dem.lat(:))];
lonlim = [min(dem.lon(:)) max(dem.lon(:))];
R = georasterref('RasterSize',size(dem.z),'Latlim',latlim, 'Lonlim', lonlim);
worldmap(latlim, lonlim)
geoshow(double(dem.z), R, 'DisplayType', 'surface')
demcmap(double(dem.z))
daspectm('m',1)
view(3);
camva(20);  % had to play with this value because the real camera has around 40 or 50
camposm(49.232230688571,20.221235240000,1868.8);
camtargm(49.195833, 20.194778, 2034);

Thank you for any help.

Answer 1

[Chad Greene]

Use some sort of lighting to create hills. You should be able to follow all your Matlab commands with shadem, which I wrote to make the process easy. Then it'll make it look a lot more like realistic topography. Or you can skip shadem and edit lighting manually.

Answer 2

[Chad Greene]

Alternatively, you can drape a satellite image over your topography. Something like what I did here. Just swap my DEM for yours.

[Peter]

Thank you for the suggestion. After using shadem command I have realized that maybe the virtual camera is not on the correct GPS location.

Is it possible that there is some longitude/latitude shift (offset) of the DEM data? Comparing the Google Earth rendered view with the one I have made in matlab, it looks like I were looking at the mountains from some distant and shifted location.

I would like to achieve a view where the peaks and mountains are rendered on exact positions with as minimal distortion as possible. Maybe I should use some sort of projection or other adjustments to make it as exact as Google Earth one…I am just a beginner and don't know where to start. The colors and textures are not important for me.

I downloaded the DEM data from viewfinderpanoramas exactli DEM 3" as the data downloaded with readhgt command have a lot of holes.