3D Heightmap Editor Recommendations?

[Nicholas Bell 0]

I have not found what I need yet (I'm willing to pay for it). Hoping someone might have the answer. I've downloaded and tried a lot of demos.

What I want is the ability to drape the satellite image over the heightmap and edit it in 3D. Why? Because the 90 meter resolution SRTM misses a lot of detail. See how the DEM misses the ravines for example:

I can't edit 100 sq km in Bulldozer I did look at L3DT and it does drape in 3D, but it is clumsy and does not provide the fine control.

[opteryx 1562]

You could try and convert the imagery to height map with the PS Nvidia Normal Map Plug-in, then merge it with the DEM data. I did this with Avgani, but I used Crazy bump.

[Synide 0]

Are you regularly using contour lines as a seed for your height mapping?

If so, perhaps do some searchs to see if any terrain editing software has implemented 'C1-continuous Terrain Reconstruction from Sparse Contours' by Hormann, Spinello and Schroder.

I can send you the whitepaper if you are interested. But you should be able to find it through Googling... if you find some bit of software that implements thier alogrithm I wouldn't mind knowing about it...

[Synide 0]

double post

[dmarkwick 261]

I've no idea if you've already tried it, or even if it can help you with what you need, but I've had my eye on GeoControl now for a while, especially for my next project.

[Nicholas Bell 0]

Quote[/b] ]You could try and convert the imagery to height map with the PS Nvidia Normal Map Plug-in, then merge it with the DEM data. I did this with Avgani, but I used Crazy bump.

Might be easier for me to re-paint the heightmap given my total lack of real knowledge of bump files.

Quote[/b] ]Are you regularly using contour lines as a seed for your height mapping? If so, perhaps do some searchs to see if any terrain editing software has implemented...

Nope. I displayed the contours only to show how the 90 meter SRTM data misses the "important terrain" details. But between you and Opteryx's comments I think I have a fairly "doable" solution in my head.

Quote[/b] ]I've no idea if you've already tried it, or even if it can help you with what you need, but I've had my eye on GeoControl now for a while, especially for my next project.

Tried the demo. It only layers heightmap data - no draping of terrain imagery function. However, it looks to have some very impressive erosion routines which might work well to improve the smooth SRTM DEMs we have to work with, even if the results are not exactly true.

I stumbled on this site which has a wealth of information:

http://www.vterrain.org/index.html

This page in particular:

http://www.vterrain.org/Elevation/contour.html

There is a wealth of terrain editors out there for different games & MS Flight Simulator which may work if they can export to something I can use.

[gsleighter 0]

Depending on the size of the terrain in question and how powerful your computer is, you could always edit the heightmap in the Crysis Sandbox, and re-export the changed greyscale image to be re-imported into visitor.

[madine75 0]

There is a wealth of terrain editors out there for different games & MS Flight Simulator which may work if they can export to something I can use.

There sure are a quite a few terrain editors out there.. However, having tested somewhere around 15-20 of them recently, I've been very disappointed. I'm yet to find a tool that allows easy edits of heightmaps. Most of the tools I've used have only had very basic tools for editing the heightmap.

After my playing, I've settled on a suite of tools consisting of Wilbur, for the basic stuff, and L3DT for the more intensive stuff.

Quote[/b] ]I did look at L3DT and it does drape in 3D, but it is clumsy and does not provide the fine control.

What fine control were you lacking? I find that the control is quite good in L3DT, not perfect, but the best of the tools I'd tested. I also quite like the fact that you can create an image that can be used as a mask with some work, it will also create a reasonable sat map if you have the RAM..

[morganlovgren 0]

Depending on the size of the terrain in question and how powerful your computer is, you could always edit the heightmap in the Crysis Sandbox, and re-export the changed greyscale image to be re-imported into visitor.

what tools do you need for this

how do you do this?

[Nicholas Bell 0]

I found what I need - it's the Daylon Leveller. Although it cost $150 it's well worth it from my perspective. Not only does it do everything I need, the owner has made several improvements for me specifically in how it works and what it does. In a matter of hours in each case.

I am able to drape the terrain image and work in both 3D and 2D at the same time:

I can also drape the terrain on the 2D and can control the transparency.

Also has a bunch of plug-ins and features. What you see in the images above is my experimentation with roughly cutting in the ravines that do not appear on the SRTM DEM and then letting erosion plug-in do it's thing. It creates erosion that nearly matches the actual.

madine75-

I agree that no one program does it all, but this one comes close. Wilbur and MicroDEM are stables for me. As far L3DT goes, I'm not saying it's a bad program. Just not my style in how it handles things. Each to his own

[dmitri 0]

Best apps for this are the commercial CG apps...but cost is a major factor. I use Maya only because I use it professionally too.

[gsleighter 0]

Depending on the size of the terrain in question and how powerful your computer is, you could always edit the heightmap in the Crysis Sandbox, and re-export the changed greyscale image to be re-imported into visitor.

what tools do you need for this

how do you do this?

It's the map editor that comes with Crysis. It's got a robust set of terrain editing features, includes the import and export of greyscale images, and you can drape imagery on the map and edit the height in real time.

[boumboumjack 0]

Hi,

I would like your advice on this editor, which seems good, at least for the demo.

It export in .png greyscale.

an Other thing, can somone could tell me where I could find a project for visitor for training?

thx

[biggibs 0]

not sure if this does all you require

but there is a free demo and tut vids showing what is possible.

Grome

its one of the few 3d terrain app's i haven't tried myself yet

if anyone trys it i'd appreciate it if you could let me know how you get on with it!

BiGGiBs

[boumboumjack 0]

For 3 days now, I am on l3dt, I think this editor is the most complete, and export well enough to visitor 3. I am a beginner, and it was easy to start with.

[biggibs 0]

@boumboumjack

sorry my post was mainly intended for the op nicholas bell

yes grome does seem to be quite a complex 3d terrain editor.

are you after a sample island?

i thought the BIS tools included a sample island that you can load up into visitor and play around with.

if not i know nicholas bell has released a pew version of his island.

BiGGiBs

[boumboumjack 0]

I made my own island and try to make it work , but I have a probleme with textures.

My visitor3 crash each time I try to load the layers mask

here is my layer.cfg

Quote[/b] ]class Layers

{

class sand

{

texture = "was\data\sand_mco.paa";

material="was\data\sand.rvmat";

};

class grass

{

texture = "was\data\grass_mco.paa";

material="was\data\grass.rvmat";

};

class dgrass

{

texture = "was\data\dgrass_mco.paa";

material="was\data\dgrass.rvmat";

};

class dsand

{

texture = "was\data\dsand_mco.paa";

material="was\data\dsand.rvmat";

};

class stone

{

texture = "was\data\Stone_mco.paa";

material="was\data\Stone.rvmat";

};

};

class Legend

{

picture="was\source\mapLegend.png";

class Colors

{

/// color names should correspond to surface layer names

sand[]={{255,255,0}};

grass[]={{0,255,0}};

dgrass[]={{99,55,0}};

dsand[]={{0,0,255}};

stone[]={{255,0,0}};

};

};