MOLA Map Displacement Shader

[rabidzebu]

Does anyone know how to get this to work?  I've been importing lots of NASAs MOLA images but it seems as if everytime I do I get error messages saying that the file cannot be opened (from Terragen) or it opens, but nothing shows up on the terrain.

HELP! This would be really cool if it worked.

[PG]

Can you take a screenshot of Terragen when you get this error, or of the terrain tab and node window when the terrain fails to take effect.

[rabidzebu]

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2243/2240305058_9a887ed46e_o.jpg

[Matt]

As you can see from the error messages, Terragen is trying to find files that end in .img and .lbl.

You need to download the .IMG and .LBL files from the URL given in the following topic:

http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=1496.0

In that topic I also talk a little bit about which datasets you should download. There's a lot to read on that download site but it does a reasonable job of explaining what all the files are. Let me know if I can help to clarify anything.

Matt

[Matt]

Alternatively, as it seems you have already downloaded some JPG images, if you want to use those you should either load them as heightfields (using Add Terrain -> Heightfield (Load)) or try applying them using the Image Map Shader.

Matt

[bigben]

http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=1496.0

In that topic I also talk a little bit about which datasets you should download. There's a lot to read on that download site but it does a reasonable job of explaining what all the files are. Let me know if I can help to clarify anything.

Matt

Had a quick play again now that I got my external drive with all of my GIS data working again (bodgy case).. The last time I tried I (natrually) went straight for the 128 dataset    The 32 and 64 datasets work well. A render with the 64 set started with 1.6Gb memory usage so i guess it's not surprise that the 128 set didn't work. At least it doesn't crash TG

Finding specific features is a lot easier with an image texture. I had an old low res one  that I used but I'm off to Celestia for some better ones.

http://www.celestiamotherlode.net/catalog/mars.php

If you get a texture map and it doesn't fit the terrain then there's a good chance you just have to offset the image by 50% before loading it in TG. It depends on whether they put 0 degrees longitude at the left edge or centre of the image.

I've been toying with the idea of making some terrain sets from the 128 dataset. Cliched locations to start with... Olympus Mons, Valles Marines (actually I find the eastern end of this more interesting). I'm open to suggestions if anyone wants a different area and can convince me that it's interesting enough... I'll be looking for an area with lots of craters but haven't decided exactly where yet.