ProRaster Roadmap
ProRaster is a work in progress. Our goal is to make provide customers with a revolutionary raster rendering and processing package, at a very affordable price.
A variety of improvements, extensions, and new features are scheduled for development over calendar years 2024 – 2025. All future development is shaped by customer feedback. If you are particularly interested in a new feature, or would like to suggest a new feature, please provide feedback to Roberts Geospatial Engineering.
All new and improved features will be made available in ProRaster Scientific via automatic update as they become available. Some features may also be inherited by ProRaster Premium. ProRaster Essential is feature complete but will benefit from bug fixes and operational improvements that filter down from ProRaster Scientific.
Update: 28 April 2025
Version 4.0 is currently in active development and it will bring a new stream of processing capabilities to ProRaster Scientific focussed on Point data storage, rendering, and gridding. Version 4.0 will introduce –
- An efficient new storage format (MRP) for Point and LiDAR Pulse-Return data enabling storage of an unlimited amount of Point or Pulse data, limited only by your local storage capacity.
- Rendering of Point and Pulse data applying on-the-fly queries to LiDAR Pulse data to obtain Point Returns for rendering.
- Virtual Gridding is a new virtual processing operation that will be implemented within an MVR (virtual raster). Grid point clouds of unlimited size in real-time. Modify the query and gridding parameters to instantly adjust the gridded raster output.
Soon you will be able to explore your Point and LiDAR datasets as easily and effectively as you can currently explore your raster datasets. Look for ProRaster Scientific version 4.0 on the Microsoft Store in July 2025!
Rendering Algorithm Extensions
| Point Clouds | General/LAS/LAZ import and rendering. |
| Decoration | A new layer type to decorate a map with a picture or vector image. Decoration types will include Pictures, Text, Scale Bar, Color Scale. |
| Copy and paste | Copy and paste algorithms, layers, or components into other algorithms. |
| Data transform | Visualise and export the data transform function for any user defined data transform. |
| Contouring | A new layer type rendering annotated, color contours at any scale, in real time. Implemented in version 2.5.0. |
Mapping Extensions
| Tracking cursors | Show a cursor in nominated maps that tracks your cursor location in the selected map. |
| Animated Image Export | Export images of constant size along a user defined path and at a user defined level of zoom for video animation. |
| Location linked maps | Keep the centre coordinate of nominated maps synchronised as you zoom and pan. Implemented in version 3.0.03 |
| Zoom linked maps | Keep the zoom extents of nominated maps synchronised as you zoom and pan. Implemented in version 3.0.03 |
Mapping Tools
| Temporal rendering | For any point, acquire all data points on the temporal scale and plot as a profile. |
| 3D surface rendering | Drape an algorithm onto a 3D surface. This will focus on helping users understand the 3D geometry. It will use a flat Earth model, rather than a globe. Specify the extents from a linked 2D map. Implemented in 2.4.0 |
| Profile rendering | Draw profiles across any map, at any scale, and extract vertical axis data in real time. Implemented in 2.3.0 |
| Measurement tool | Measure the distance between points on a map and area of a polygon. Implemented in 2.3.0 |
Multispectral support
| Manual scene import templates and batch processing | Define templates for birds that expedite manual scene import. Support batch processing to import multiple scenes. |
| Support for other satellite platforms and families | Automated scene import support can be added for other platforms and families. Please provide feedback. |
| Harmonisation | Combine Landsat 8&9 and Sentinel2 A&B scenes into a single product. Consider other bird and platform combinations. |
| User defined spectral index | Allow users to add spectral index formulas. |
| User defined processing | Allow users to provide processing DLL’s, conforming to a specific IO standard, that implement bespoke processing on satellite multispectral data. |
| Advanced change detection | Implement more advanced change detection algorithms. |
| Spatial statistics | Expand the existing univariate statistics to spatial and bivariate statistics. Variograms, statistics over windows. |
| Proxy curve statistics | Given a statistics distribution, apply a supplied proxy curve multiplier and integrate to generate an estimate of a physical property over a spatial region. For example, vegetation biomass. Implemented in 2.2.04 |
Processing Operations
| Virtual Gridding | Virtual minimum curvature gridding of a point cloud using automated trend enhancement. |
| Space (kernel) filtering | Apply a wide variety of kernel-based filters. |
| Frequency (Fourier) filtering | Apply a wide variety of filters in the frequency domain using forward and reverse Fast Fourier Transforms. |
| Join operation | Join multiple rasters together in a processing operation to produce an MRR. Provide detailed control over the output raster. |
| Merge operation | Merge multiple rasters together in a processing operation to produce an MRR. Provide detailed control over the output raster. |
| Stitch operation | Merge multiple rasters together using level balancing and advanced edge stitching in a processing operation to produce an MRR. Provide detailed control over the output raster. |
| Combine | Combine rasters together into a virtual raster. |
| Time series | Combine rasters together temporally into a virtual raster. |
| Warping | Georeferencing an image using a variety of methods including warping to control points. |
| Edit | Edit the structure and metadata of a raster, the cell values, and cell values by flood filling. |
| Polygonise | Convert a raster to polygons. |
| Contour | Generate polyline contours as output vectors. |
| Filling | Fill holes in a raster using a variety of mechanisms. |
| Temporal interpolation | Interpolate between rasters in time rather than space. |
| Change matrix | Build a 2D probability matrix of how values in one raster (or at one time) are likely to change to values in another raster. |
| Histogram matching | Transform the values in a raster by matching the distribution histogram in another raster. Implemented in 3.0.01 |
| Classify | Convert a raster into a classified raster by mapping values or ranges to a classification table. Implemented in 2.2.09 |
| Rasterise | Convert polygons to raster. Implemented in 2.2.10 |
| Declutter | Remove isolated cells, islands, and tendrils. Implemented in 2.2.14 |
| Transform | Apply a transformation function (defined as either a mathematical function or as a non-linear table). Implemented in 2.2.03 |
Core support
| Native WMS driver support | Develop a native driver to support WMS webmaps and other styles of web data resources. |
| Output PNG and JPEG format | Upgrade the imagery Export operation to support export to unlocated PNG and JPEG files. Implemented in version 3.0.02. |
| Improved GDAL integration | Improve support for the many raster formats currently supported via the GDAL open library. Upgraded to GDAL 3.9.3 in version 2.5.0. |