This is probably a little premature, because it's not yet available for many areas, but Martin (Tangled-Universe) brought to my attention that the USGS now offers 1 meter resolution DEM data, which is just incredible. The old high resolution standard was 3 meters (the USGS refers to it as "1/9 arc second NED"), which I've used quite a lot, most frequently with the St. Helens scene that I've been iterating and varying on for years.
Anyway, this new 1m data has a very limited availability, but that was also true of the 3m data for a long time. So with that in mind, although you can't find a lot of it yet, I wanted to demonstrate how much more detail we can see. And, of course, Terragen loads the data easily. :)
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These two images are default shading, no "Fractal Detail" added. I think the detail difference speaks for itself. This is an area outside of San Diego. The Grand Tetons are also available, as is "Glacier Peak" in Washington. Those seem to be the most interesting areas so far, while many others are potentially boring, places in the mid-west, or New Orleans, etc. But this will probably change with time. So keep your eyes out for more of this amazing terrain data!
All data is available free here: http://viewer.nationalmap.gov/basic/
- Oshyan
I have successfully downloaded and imported a DEM 1meter into TG4 free. Mine is a Lewis and Clark one. Since my grandpa, b.1897 , used to dive into the Mississipi at LeClaire, IA...yes where the pickers Mike and Frank are...
I am going to pinpoint this image location and learn some more new stuff! I realize my version will not be like others, but I will have fun learning! I have to research area altitude, climate, vegetation, etc., etc. etc.
Thanks Oshyan!
Looks awesome!
:)
That's quite a difference for the better thanks for the head's up...now if they'd only do Canada.
Nice. Even the small pathways can be seen.
Bug your government officials! They are probably doing similar measurements all the time (or government contractors are) for all kinds of ecological studies and other things. So the data may exist, they just need to make it available. Maybe your friendly neighbors to the South (us :D) can help show you how it's done, hehe. These days with the availability of cloud storage and computing resources, all that's really needed is the technical know-how to create the interface, and some money to pay for hosting costs. The actual infrastructure to handle multiple terrabytes of data, something that the USGS used to have to maintain themselves, can now be handled transparently off-site by Amazon or others. It's pretty great.
- Oshyan
Quote from: bobbystahr on October 05, 2016, 08:10:59 PM
That's quite a difference for the better thanks for the head's up...now if they'd only do Canada.
I'd kill for 1 or 3 meter resolution data of the Canadian Rockies, yes I would.
Quote from: Tangled-Universe on October 07, 2016, 11:24:40 AM
I'd kill for 1 or 3 meter resolution data of the Canadian Rockies, yes I would.
Maybe we should start a petition eh? There's at least 3 of us Canucks with RArcher....
Who's the third, not me... ;)
Quote from: Tangled-Universe on October 07, 2016, 01:18:00 PM
Who's the third, not me... ;)
Oh, sounded like you were a Canuck from the comment...Guess everyone loves the Canadian Rockies...
Yes Bobby, yes we do. :D
- Oshyan
Quote from: Oshyan on October 07, 2016, 06:32:53 PM
Yes Bobby, yes we do. :D
- Oshyan
because they're so modest and apologise for their beauty? Hee hee hee