Terrains For Google SketchUp?

[ddonahue]

Hi there,

  I'm not sure if I'm in the right place, but maybe someone here can help me out a little.  My friends and I are currently looking around the internet for some way of generating, or otherwise creating, some useful terrain models for Google SketchUp.  Whether they're created in SketchUp or imported from something else (the more likely choice) makes no difference.

  The purpose of what we're trying to do is to build simple 3D environments for use in role-playing games (specifically D&D).  The scale we're looking for is on the order of something that's a few miles across (up to several miles), and with detail down to meters.  Ideally, we're trying to build on a moderately level terrain with some hills (maybe increasingly hilly in a given direction, we'd like some high vantage points somewhere) and a moderate river running through it (best if the water isn't actually there, just a dug-out of where the river would be and we can create a translucent blue plane across the whole model that would be the "water level" which we'd raise into the dug-out).

  I don't even know if I'm really describing this very well, to be honest.  None of us are artists or drafters or in any way knowledgeable or skilled in the ways of 3D modeling.  We can make the structures we need in SketchUp, and there are tons of sample trees and such, but even the simplest of terrain modeling continues to elude us.  Samples we find are usually on too small a scale and, when re-scaled, create unrealistic outcomes (such as an 800-foot wide river).  The tools we do find (such as Terragen) show excellent sample output, but the use of the tools seems geared towards those who know this stuff.  Also, are the outputs just rendered images, or transferrable 3D models?

  I'm hoping someone here can at least point me in the right direction for this.  I don't see us really having the time or the passion to seriously learn the trade here, we're just looking for a quick end result to use in our hobbyist activities.  Any advice on this matter would be very much appreciated, thank you.


Regards,
David

[RArcher]

For minimal effort your best bet would be to forget all about generating your own terrains and import real world elevation data instead.  If I recall correctly you can directly import .dem files into sketchup.  Try downloading some files from here and see if they work out for you.

http://seamless.usgs.gov

[ddonahue]

For minimal effort your best bet would be to forget all about generating your own terrains and import real world elevation data instead.  If I recall correctly you can directly import .dem files into sketchup.  Try downloading some files from here and see if they work out for you.

http://seamless.usgs.gov

I was thinking the same thing before, but everything I find doesn't seem to do the trick.  The scale doesn't seem right in that the entire imported terrain is broken into large polygons at shallow angles from each other, not like a realistic terrain at all.  Also, they don't seem to handle rivers properly in that there's no depth to them, they're just a line across the terrain.  There's no real usable features, and any attempt to make a movable "water level" plane either shows a handful of small puddles or, upon raising it slightly, a complete flood.

Maybe I'm not using the right files?  Or maybe the kind of detail I'm looking for (miles across, but with detail almost minute enough to denote a pitcher's mound) isn't available in real-world data?

[bobbystahr]

For minimal effort your best bet would be to forget all about generating your own terrains and import real world elevation data instead.  If I recall correctly you can directly import .dem files into sketchup.  Try downloading some files from here and see if they work out for you.

http://seamless.usgs.gov

And how does one get a dl from this site...point by point would be helpful as I just get confused and leave the site. Been there before and had a similar lack of success in dl ing anything...thanks in advance man.. ...