Heightmaps from Google Earth or similar.

k@rt

Hi All!

I spent about 3 hours trying to get this to work from various tutorials I googled, it didn't so I thought I'd just ask rather than waste more time

Basically all I want to do is use "google earth" type terrain elevation data to create a heightmap for the basic terrain for my skybox.

I tried following tutorials like this one: http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/quick-how-to-importing-heightmaps-from-google-earth-mac.18601/
But the SRTM doesn't work for me, even when I tried to get and older version of google earth. I also tried getting the data from here:
http://www.viewfinderpanoramas.org/Coverage%20map%20viewfinderpanoramas_org3.htm
but it was too low res.

I think along with the many other things I read about this that I saw somewhere someone mention that maybe Sketchup has some in-built feature, which would make sense I guess... but before I start downloading and installing more software I thought I would just ask.

Is Sketchup the best way to get terrain data into heightmaps or is there some other way which would be better? Obviously a lot of the tutorials/advice you find online can be a few years old and I don't know what is the easiest way of doing this today.

I want to render an area of about 50sq miles (120sq km) or approx. 8x6 mile area. The data doesn't have to be hugely high res so long as the basic shape is there, I guess a 1024x1024 image would probably be enough, although more is always better!

Thanks!

Hito

you can grab data from USGS here; There're docs in there that explain the difference between v1 and v2.1; it's a bit technical and I'm not fully clear on it. I think SRTM30 has the best resolution, basically the scans are taken in blocks of 30 meters vs the earlier set the blocks are 90 meters. US_1_arcsec data is about the same as SRTM30, but covers only US/Alaska.
http://dds.cr.usgs.gov/srtm/

Grab MicroDEM free here
http://www.usna.edu/Users/oceano/pguth/website/microdem/microdem.htm

steps here to get a gray scale elevation map from the data
http://scrawkblog.com/2013/02/05/using-dem-data-to-create-height-maps/

k@rt

Hito wrote: »

you can grab data from USGS here; There're docs in there that explain the difference between v1 and v2.1; it's a bit technical and I'm not fully clear on it. I think SRTM30 has the best resolution, basically the scans are taken in blocks of 30 meters vs the earlier set the blocks are 90 meters. US_1_arcsec data is about the same as SRTM30, but covers only US/Alaska.
http://dds.cr.usgs.gov/srtm/

Grab MicroDEM free here
http://www.usna.edu/Users/oceano/pguth/website/microdem/microdem.htm

steps here to get a gray scale elevation map from the data
http://scrawkblog.com/2013/02/05/using-dem-data-to-create-height-maps/

Thank you for the reply. Sadly however the data you linked me too is the exactly the same data that I obtained from a site I linked in my first post:

http://www.viewfinderpanoramas.org/Coverage%20map%20viewfinderpanoramas_org3.htm

Unfortunately it is just too low res to be much use. I used a little program called BIL2BMP.exe which reads both .bil and .hgt files and converts the directly to bitmaps. However the area I want covered ended up being a 128x128 image which is too low to be much use... also each section seems to be separately calibrated depending (I guess) on the highest and lowest points in that area, as a result the subsection I wanted was only covered within a very limited tone range.

Hito

Yeah it's the same data set because it's the only publicly available data set. There are higher res LIDAR scans done by local or private agencies but they are usually not free.

increase zoom factor in MicroDEM before exporting to BMP and you can get larger resolution image, up to 2580x3200. If that's still too low res for the area you're looking to cover ( it may be), and you don't need to have a specific real world location, better off generating the elevation map procedurally.

klaasnienhuis

Hi, I'm the developer of Maproom for 3ds Max. With Maproom you have direct access to SRTM1 and SRTM3 data inside 3ds Max, and also satellite images, openstreetmap data and CyberCity 3D buildings.
Here's an example using SRTM3 height data, openstreetmap shapes and a Bing satellite image
model

You can get a free version of Maproom or buy it directly here: https://www.klaasnienhuis.nl/product/maproom/

Eric Chadwick

This looks great. I could have really used this last summer on a job showing a building in London. Neat stuff.

cptSwing

Aye, you were a little late for a project surrounding berlin's vaporware airport a year back.. but I've been following your progress ever since, @klaasnienhuis ;-)

klaasnienhuis

Thanks Eric and ctpSwing. It's never too late to try it out!

Eric Chadwick

I'm looking into this for an upcoming project.  Looks like we may need to recreate parts of downtown Boston in 3d.

AlecMoody

Are there licensing issues with the source content? About 10 years ago I had to create accurate far terrain textures for a real location. I was told very clearly I couldn't use any google maps data because of licensing issues.

Eric Chadwick

Yes, there are restrictions, not under his control though. Up to you to figure out, depending what your own project is. https://klaasnienhuis.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/12000001615-restrictions-don-t-worry-not-that-bad-

klaasnienhuis

All the data you can pull in through Maproom needs to be attributed by default. The attribution texts are displayed in Maproom for easy copy/paste. For some of the map probivers (Mapbox, bing, DigitalGlobe) you need to make an account yourself with these providers. You can go for the free account, which gets you access to their data, but you can also get a paid account which might give you more freedom.
Regarding Google maps, this is not accessible through Maproom. I've spoken to them and it doesn't make sense financially to use Google maps content. I'd need to get a ridiculously expensive license, but the user would also need an expensive license.
As for Boston, CyberCity 3D has a fair bit of coverage already for 3D buildings:

Eric Chadwick

Thanks for this! The POV I need would be near the harbor, about where it says A Street. If the client goes for the project, I'll be downloading the demo to give it a spin.