A New Four Tier Framework for Online Application of 3D Visualization Ruzinoor Che Mat 1,3, a , Abdul Rashid Mohamed Shariff 1,b , Ahmad Rodzi Mahmud 2,c , Biswajeet Pradhan 1,d , and Mohd Shafry Mohd Rahim 4,e 1 Spatial and Numerical Modeling Laboratory ITMA 2 Department of Civil Engineering Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor 3 College of Arts and Sciences Universiti Utara Malaysia 4 Faculty of Computer Science & Computer System Universiti Teknologi Malaysia a ruzinoor@gmail.com, b rashidsnml@gmail.com, c armcorp@gmail.com, d biswajeet24@gmail.com, e shafryr@gmail.com, Abstract. The aim of this paper is to discuss on the issues related to the use of a new proposed four tier framework for online application of 3D visualization. This research problem is undertaken as the current framework has issues of more processing power is needed for the middle tier. In our novel approach, we designed a framework based on the server/client architecture which distributes the task into the tiers concept to overcome the problem. It is being formalized into four tiers framework by advancing one more tier into the existing three tiers framework for handling the visualization process. The four tiers framework is divided into the client, logic, visualization process, and database tiers respectively. The interaction between each of these tiers is described in detail and the functions of each tier are also extensively described. As based on these interactions, the processing power is reduced by introducing new tier for handling the visualization process. The performance of the system in online environment also is expecting to increase. The proposed framework has high potential to be formalized into online applications of 3D visualization such as visualization of terrain for agricultural applications, determination of interesting tourism spots, visualization of hazardous terrain and a host of other applications. Keywords: four tier, server/client architecture, online, and 3D visualization 1. Introduction An online application of 3D visualization for GIS data is of interest to not only professions such as cartographers, geographers, geologists and psychologists but also popular among the ordinary people. Conventional design of the system is generated from server/client based architecture. This architecture is the main platform for designing online system which works based on the distributing concepts which is tier. The tier is normally set by the developers to separate the works/tasks between the system architecture. Each tier has its own responsibility and any changing made on any tier will not affect other tier. Currently, three tiers framework is the most well-known architecture used in GIS applications and also other application. However this framework has drawback on more processing power is needed in the middle tier to process the request from multiple of users for visualizing the system. Besides that, most of the three tier framework that develops by the researchers is majority for 2D visualization which is not appropriate to be used for online application of 3D visualization. Based on the literature study, applications such as GIS systems, which involve 3D visualization, generate a massive amount of data. Due to this situation, the use of current three tier framework for online application of 3D visualization for GIS data is not sufficient enough to process the request from the users and 2011 International Conference on Future Information Technology IPCSIT vol.13 (2011) © (2011) IACSIT Press, Singapore 228