Problems trying to export a .ter file from Global Mapper to Terragen 2

[Cadmium77]

I'm doing the tutorial "Blending Terragen 2 with Real Canadian GIS Data and I've loaded teh DEM vector data into Global Mapper successfully but now I can't export it as a .ter file...when I try the Export Terragen Terrain File  selection on the Export Raster And Elevation Data menu is inactive pale grey.

What am I doing wrong?

Is it that the area I want to export (the actual map data) isn't selected? I can't find any way to select it the way I would say, in Photoshop...

[RArcher]

The problem is that you cannot export vector shape file information as a .ter file because the vector data that you have loaded does not contain height information.  What you have loaded is point data and shape data which can be exported as a graphic file (.tif, .jpg, etc.) to be loaded into TG2 as an image map shader for use as a masking tool.

In order to export height data you need to have the .dem files loaded into GlobalMapper.  For the tutorial the files used were from www.geobase.ca and designated (092G10, 092G11, 092G14, 092G15, 092J02, 092J03).

[Cadmium77]

Thank you very much RArcher. It's all confusing subtle details when you're a noob.

I've been longing to use DEM data with a landscape program for a long time. It's going to be very cool when I finally master this. Who knows? If I can transform the .ter file to .obj then transfer it Mudbox I might even be able to sculpt the landscape by hand with stamps and stencils and then create displacement and normal maps of the landscape..


Terragen 2 has turned out to be a big surprise for me. I had no idea is was the equal or superior to Vue 8.

[Henry Blewer]

Vue can do some really good stuff. Terragen 2, because of the way it is thought out is far more flexible.

[Cadmium77]

Vue can do some really good stuff. Terragen 2, because of the way it is thought out is far more flexible.

This is great! I just love computer graphics technology. Thanks again for the generous advice.

[Henry Blewer]

This is a very good start. The shading is well done. Now if you have an image of this area to study, you can start populating it. Here are some links to very good plant models.

These are both by Jan Walter Schliep aka Walli

http://www.wallis-eck.de/2009/
http://www.planetside.co.uk/content/view/21/36/

Marc Gebhart has also provided very good plants. Just goto the file sharing area and look for posts by MGebhart.

[Cadmium77]

This is a very good start. The shading is well done. Now if you have an image of this area to study, you can start populating it. Here are some links to very good plant models.

These are both by Jan Walter Schliep aka Walli

http://www.wallis-eck.de/2009/
http://www.planetside.co.uk/content/view/21/36/

Marc Gebhart has also provided very good plants. Just goto the file sharing area and look for posts by MGebhart.

Thank you; and if there's anyone out there that needs or wants to use real world map data in their Terragen2 creations then there's no better tutorial than this one;

http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=4559

I struggled to do this a few months back on my own and failed. Now I've finally got it. Very very satisfying to me. In the not too distant future I'd like to run this kind of data through Terragen, then transfer it to Maya, and then use Real Flow to have some water rushing down those creeks or rivers..

We shall see

[Cadmium77]

So now I'm trying to export the topographic maps. I can remove their borders, but really, what file format should I export them in? The .ter format is greyed out for this and I've tried the geoTIFF or .tff that it come in and .jpg but it maps to the entire globe...When I export it there's no opportunity for resizing it the way I did when I exported the .ter file of the height map.

Feeling pretty retarded here. This tutoral doesn't exactly spell things out for the newb.





Well it's not right but this is an improvement. Though I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be using .jpgs for this. So what am I supposed to be doing to shift it around to where I want it and size it up properly?



Also when you look at the pictures for this tutorial, in the node box there's an extra kind of node I can't seem to access; Overlays. That's where the Image map shader goes i suppose. How do I bring that one up?


See? Objects, Terrain,  Water, Atmosphere...OVERLAYS

I don't suppose that's very important though..

[Henry Blewer]

It does not look like the overlay and the height-map are matching position. I do not know why, sorry. But check the location for each to see if they match. You'll want to be in the Terrain Tab for the next part.
Underneath the Shaders window is a operator selector. You'll want to use the heightfield adjust vertical operator. First, add a power fractal and adjust the scales and noise so it looks like a sort of near match for the heightfield. Now move the power fractal up the tree so the heightfield is below the power fractal. This makes the heightfield cover the power fractal. Now it's time to use the heightfield adjust operator. This allows you to make the height field match the power fractal terrain more. When it looks like the borders are close to even, go back to the heightfield's root layer. (not the generate or generate from image) Adjust the border blending slider. The two should merge together well enough to get some great camera locations over the heightfield.

Hope this helps.

[Cadmium77]

It does not look like the overlay and the height-map are matching position. I do not know why, sorry. But check the location for each to see if they match. You'll want to be in the Terrain Tab for the next part.
Underneath the Shaders window is a operator selector. You'll want to use the heightfield adjust vertical operator. First, add a power fractal and adjust the scales and noise so it looks like a sort of near match for the heightfield. Now move the power fractal up the tree so the heightfield is below the power fractal. This makes the heightfield cover the power fractal. Now it's time to use the heightfield adjust operator. This allows you to make the height field match the power fractal terrain more. When it looks like the borders are close to even, go back to the heightfield's root layer. (not the generate or generate from image) Adjust the border blending slider. The two should merge together well enough to get some great camera locations over the heightfield.

Hope this helps.

Well at least I got it centered now. And this task sure is getting me used to handling the nodes. I'm going to have to go over your advice with a fine tooth comb now...

[RArcher]

I would suggest not following the advice posted above.

As stated earlier in this thread your image exports can be saved as any graphic file format that TG2 can load .jpg or .tif are fine.

As to why the images are not lining up depends on how closely you read and followed the tutorial.  Everything is explained step by step how to get them to line up correctly.  

1. Did you export your image files at exactly the same size as the heightfield export?

2. Did you go through the section on how to find out exactly what size the image maps should be?

3. Did you set your image map projection type to be "Plan Y" and adjust the size to be the number you discovered above?

4. Did you make sure that both your image maps and your terrain are either set to "position centre" or "position lower left"?  It doesn't matter which you choose they just have to be the same for both terrain and masks.

If you follow the steps in the tutorial everything will line up.

As to the Overlay group, it is noted in the tutorial that this is purely cosmetic and simply helps for organization.

[Cadmium77]

Oh I get it now; you need Terragen 0.9 to resize the terrains you're importing so you can ensure they're all exactly the same;

Before we import anything into Terragen 2 we are going to need to know exactly how large (in meters) the terrain we are importing is. For me the easiest way to
get this information is to first import the .ter file into Terragen 0.9x and then click on the 'Size" button. There will be two numbers (they will be exactly the same if
you exported a square terrain size) that are of critical importance. For my export these were 64359.58 x 64359.58. What this will let you do is appropriately scale
your image masks to the exact size of the .ter file you imported

Is there any way to do this in Terragen 2? Will the "Landscape Settings" option box be brought in anytime soon?

[Oshyan]

I would imagine you could see this info in GlobalMapper as well. But I agree it doesn't make sense not to have it in TG2. It will be added in the future. Not for the next release, but probably the one to follow.

- Oshyan

[Cadmium77]

I would imagine you could see this info in GlobalMapper as well. But I agree it doesn't make sense not to have it in TG2. It will be added in the future. Not for the next release, but probably the one to follow.

- Oshyan

Thank you Oshyan...