IMG data error

bigben · July 12, 2014, 10:05:45 PM

Not sure if there is a DEM size/count limit in the free version, but I've loaded several hundred Mb of geotiff. Using images and DEMs does eat into your available RAM though, which could be an issue with 32bit. I'd check there first. What coordinates are you looking at?

bobbystahr · July 13, 2014, 08:44:14 AM

My guess would be a limitation of the 32 bit O/S

Altbier · July 14, 2014, 07:49:35 PM

N39W123 and N39W124

Should add that the above are 1/3 arc scale. A file I have been successfully able to load is N38.5W123 1/9 arc scale, althought there are some artifacts displayed after converting it. I tried replacing novalue elevation points with 0m elevation, but I only succeeding in flattening the entire heightfield. I need to reread the applicable posts on the forums and try that again.

Oshyan · July 16, 2014, 02:54:20 AM

There is no hard limit that I'm aware of, but using the 32 bit version you only have access to 2GB of RAM unless you're using the /3GB switch, in which case you have 3. It's very possible you're having memory issues. If any intentional limit were being encountered you would see an explanatory dialog box or error, it wouldn't simply exit, so that suggests something is going wrong.

One thing to be aware of is that image (or terrain, or other data) size *on disk* isn't necessarily the same as size *in memory*. A good example of this is the difference between an uncompressed TIFF image and a PNG of the same image. The PNG will be losslessly compressed and so has the exact same actual image data in it, but it may be half the size of the uncompressed TIFF, or even smaller. Both will take up the same amount of memory though because the image data must be decompressed when decoded and loaded into memory. So a 100MB file on disk could take up 200MB in memory, or even more, depending.

- Oshyan

bigben · July 17, 2014, 06:05:29 PM

Quote from: Altbier on July 14, 2014, 07:49:35 PM
N39W123 and N39W124

Should add that the above are 1/3 arc scale. A file I have been successfully able to load is N38.5W123 1/9 arc scale, althought there are some artifacts displayed after converting it. I tried replacing novalue elevation points with 0m elevation, but I only succeeding in flattening the entire heightfield. I need to reread the applicable posts on the forums and try that again.

I'm uploading a demo set of multiple resolution geotiffs around Clear Lake that shouldn't take up too much RAM. The area of 10m resolution is a bit limited using this technique qhich is why I asked where you were looking at. It makes exploring a wide area in TG a bit limited, but it also makes it possible to render large scenes without taking up too much RAM.

http://files.bigben.id.au/terragen/terrains/us/clear_lake/

bobbystahr · July 17, 2014, 07:12:04 PM

Quote

I'm uploading a demo set of multiple resolution geotiffs around Clear Lake that shouldn't take up too much RAM. The area of 10m resolution is a bit limited using this technique qhich is why I asked where you were looking at. It makes exploring a wide area in TG a bit limited, but it also makes it possible to render large scenes without taking up too much RAM.

http://files.bigben.id.au/terragen/terrains/us/clear_lake/

Clear Lake in which country,state or province

bigben · July 17, 2014, 07:39:20 PM

Quote from: bobbystahr on July 17, 2014, 07:12:04 PM
[quote

I'm uploading a demo set of multiple resolution geotiffs around Clear Lake that shouldn't take up too much RAM. The area of 10m resolution is a bit limited using this technique qhich is why I asked where you were looking at. It makes exploring a wide area in TG a bit limited, but it also makes it possible to render large scenes without taking up too much RAM.

http://files.bigben.id.au/terragen/terrains/us/clear_lake/

Clear Lake in which country,state or province
[/quote]

Pass, I was navigating by numbers. The one near "N38.5W123", far west coast

bobbystahr · July 17, 2014, 07:56:57 PM

Quote from: bigben on July 17, 2014, 07:39:20 PM
Quote from: bobbystahr on July 17, 2014, 07:12:04 PM
[quote

I'm uploading a demo set of multiple resolution geotiffs around Clear Lake that shouldn't take up too much RAM. The area of 10m resolution is a bit limited using this technique qhich is why I asked where you were looking at. It makes exploring a wide area in TG a bit limited, but it also makes it possible to render large scenes without taking up too much RAM.

http://files.bigben.id.au/terragen/terrains/us/clear_lake/

Clear Lake in which country,state or province

Pass, I was navigating by numbers. The one near "N38.5W123", far west coast
[/quote]

gotcha,,,not the one up here in Manitoba then...wrong numbers...everything here is N of 49

bobbystahr · July 17, 2014, 08:04:15 PM

looks like Clear Lake, CA

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Clearlake,+CA/@39.0983519,-122.9052332,13z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x80838b954060c195:0xc16aeac6f3b5e9b6

Altbier · July 18, 2014, 04:30:52 PM

Thanks everyone for your assistance! Looks like the USGS DEM files for my area of interest are too big and detailed for my 32-bit machine. The 10m GeoTiff file which BigBen posted loads just fine, so I'll will work with that format for now. Later when I am able to upgrade to a much more capable PC, I will go back to trying the USGS data.

The ultimate goal here is to render horizon images from multiple viewpoints ranging from about 38.1068 N, 122.5645 W to 38.9731 N, 123.1152 W. The images will be used to print a realistic backdrop for a model railroad layout, which our non-profit club is building based on the Northwestern Pacific Railroad through Sonoma County, California, USA. To view an article demonstrating how someone else has already done this for his home model railroad, search for Model Railroad Hobbyist e-zine.

BigBen, where do you source GeoTiffs? Last night I downloaded several from the J-SpaceSystems ASTER GDEM site. I plan to work with those a little bit this weekend.

Oshyan · July 18, 2014, 04:56:55 PM

Sonoma County, that's where I grew up. Cool! One of my earliest Terragen 2 renders, when it was still in early alpha, was of Mt. St. Helena (not to be confused with my later, and much more well-known, St. *Helens* images/animation

).

- Oshyan

Altbier · July 18, 2014, 08:12:28 PM

Oshyan, small world! My family has lived on or around Mt. St. Helena for 7 generations. Cobb Mountain, which is located within the GeoTiff which BigBen posted, is named after one of my great-great-great grandfathers.

As we progress on the layout backdrop project, I will try to keep you posted. If this works out for us, we should end up with about 250' of Giclee printed wallpaper, that is 1 continuous image which ultimately wraps around on itself. Unfortunately all of our views will be to the west, away from Mt. St. Helena.

bigben · July 18, 2014, 10:03:27 PM

Quote from: Altbier on July 18, 2014, 04:30:52 PM
BigBen, where do you source GeoTiffs? Last night I downloaded several from the J-SpaceSystems ASTER GDEM site. I plan to work with those a little bit this weekend.

I use Global Mapper which accesses a number of databases directly online, including the USGS 10m data. It only downloads enough data to display at the current screen resolution and it makes doing stuff like this really easy. To make these multi-resolution sets I just start out at a location zoomed in, export a geotiff at 10m and then just step through zooming out and exporting at screen resolution. The lower res files are then only 1600px wide at most, making them nice and small.

Oshyan · July 19, 2014, 05:16:01 PM

Very cool! Have you seen Ulco Glimmerveen's giant museum wall project? Sounds similarly ambitious to what you're working on:
http://www.planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,16733.0.html

I'd love to see yours when it's done. It's just a bit more accessible than Ulco's for me.

- Oshyan

Quote from: Altbier on July 18, 2014, 08:12:28 PM
Oshyan, small world! My family has lived on or around Mt. St. Helena for 7 generations. Cobb Mountain, which is located within the GeoTiff which BigBen posted, is named after one of my great-great-great grandfathers.

As we progress on the layout backdrop project, I will try to keep you posted. If this works out for us, we should end up with about 250' of Giclee printed wallpaper, that is 1 continuous image which ultimately wraps around on itself. Unfortunately all of our views will be to the west, away from Mt. St. Helena.

bigben · July 20, 2014, 08:22:46 AM

Quote from: Altbier on July 18, 2014, 04:30:52 PM
The ultimate goal here is to render horizon images from multiple viewpoints ranging from about 38.1068 N, 122.5645 W to 38.9731 N, 123.1152 W.

Uploading some files that should get you going. http://files.bigben.id.au/terragen/terrains/us/sonoma/
7 x 10m geotiffs along the route. 3 x 40m and 1 x 200m geotiffs for distant terrain. The 10m tiffs also have a 20m topo map for reference. There's a basic TGD in the directory as well that loads everything(using just under 1Gb of RAM). You could load this and then just delete what you don't need.