How do I know the real size of my terrain?

drawthrough · September 07, 2009, 05:21:36 PM

Hi,

In Terragen classic I remember I could just press the size button there the info was.

I don't know how to check the terrain size in TG2. It might be very easy, I am new to TG2 and I can't seem to figure out where to find that info.

I am trying to map a terrain using an image map on the Y-axis. As it is now, I am kind of trying different sizes until the map seems to fit my terrain, but that seems like the wrong way to correctly map the terrain.

Any help appreciated.

Many Thanks!

aymenk2003 · September 07, 2009, 05:33:48 PM

suppose you are standing near your home .. you take a look at right and left and you can see about 100 or 200 m in all directions...
so let say you take altitude above a building !! here you can see more than 100 or 200 m let us say 2 or 3 km ..hmmm take some altitude let us say you are in a plane then here you can see a great surface from the earth ... and if you are on the moon you can see the hole earth !!! it's clear the terrain is limited by the surface of the earth and the camera altitude ...unless you are using a heightfield shader (Heightfield generate 01) witch is limited by 'the size in meter'

drawthrough · September 07, 2009, 06:07:12 PM

I am actually using a Heightfield Load. If I map it with an image map shader on the Y-axis I must enter 60000x60000 inorder to get the map to the size of the terrain. Is there any way to get those numbers (the real world size of the .ter)?

Henry Blewer · September 07, 2009, 06:59:14 PM

Each unit is one meter. So your terrain is 60,000 meters square.

drawthrough · September 07, 2009, 07:25:13 PM

Yep thanks for that.

My problem though (I am a newbie so bear with me) is the following:

The WAY I figured out that the map needed to be 60,000 meters square was by trial and error, typing in the numbers and seeing the map growing in size. Is there any way to get the info of the size of my heightfield load .ter file and simply typing in those numbers, without having to do a trial and error?

RArcher · September 07, 2009, 10:05:04 PM

The easiest way that I know of is to open the .ter file in TG 0.9x and check the size there. Then use those values in the image map shader.

This tutorial may be of some help in some areas:

http://www.archer-designs.com/tutorials/terragen2/working-with-gis-data/index.html

Henry Blewer · September 07, 2009, 10:10:24 PM

DEM's are typically 30 meters between data points. The .ter file should be the size used in generating it. I would try World Machine to check the size. There's another good terrain generator named Geo something (sorry). But these might help determining the size.

If this is actual real world data. The site you received the file from should have the size info.

The link just posted by RArcher might be your best bet.

jo · September 08, 2009, 12:50:17 AM

Hi aymenk,

I'm a bit concerned about the text in your screenshot. Does it always look like that? What OS are you using, and what language? Are you using any theming software?

Regards,

Jo

Matt · September 08, 2009, 03:08:58 AM

Hi drawthrough,

I'm afraid there isn't any straightforward display of this information yet. If the loader is not georeferenced, then images are loaded with 1 metre per pixel and they can be resized using a Heightfield Resize operator. If you're using georeferencing it becomes more complicated. We're planning to allow image maps to be georeferenced but that hasn't been implemented yet.

The coordinate readouts on the terrain in the 3D Preview or may be useful (also in the shader preview for the Heightfield Shader if you open the separate View->3D Preview Location), and there's also a measurement tool.

Matt

Henry Blewer · September 08, 2009, 08:36:59 AM

I thought about including the measure tool, but I did not think it would have much use with real world data. It's something I have not tried. I waited about ten hours once waiting for GIS data to download. It never started, but I did try to get a large area; about 150 square miles.

latego · September 08, 2009, 10:38:31 AM

Quote from: njeneb on September 07, 2009, 10:10:24 PM
There's another good terrain generator named Geo something (sorry).

GeoControl: it loads .TERs but does not dump any information. I have found usual GIS data quite disappointing: their usual resolution is 30m / cell and if you go out and have a look at how big 30 meters are, you see that they are good only for the general terrain shape.

Bye!!!

drawthrough · September 08, 2009, 11:47:08 AM

Thanks Guys

I think the method to look for the size info via TG 0.9x, or Matt's method is my best bet for now, at least for the image mapping purpose.

aymenk2003 · September 11, 2009, 10:00:39 PM

Quote from: jo on September 08, 2009, 12:50:17 AM
Hi aymenk,

I'm a bit concerned about the text in your screenshot. Does it always look like that? What OS are you using, and what language? Are you using any theming software?

Regards,

Jo

Hi jo...
excuse my late replay...
it is the & SnagIt program from www.techsmith.com , the diplucated text is due to the twice paste I've done and because of the transparent white color ...I've got that I didn't pay attention till you've replyed ...