Search Unity

  1. Megacity Metro Demo now available. Download now.
    Dismiss Notice
  2. Unity support for visionOS is now available. Learn more in our blog post.
    Dismiss Notice

Real satelite image to High defenition terrain in Unity3d

Discussion in 'Made With Unity' started by paulo costa, Feb 9, 2010.

  1. paulo costa

    paulo costa

    Joined:
    Feb 4, 2010
    Posts:
    13
    This is a way i found to make very large terrains from satellite images (Usgs Dem,srtm Data,Globe Tile,Lidar point cloud,Mars Mola,Geo tiff dem,Terrain Matrix bin,gtop030 tile,XYZ POINT CLOUD,Mars polar Mola mgt img format)first download the free version of 3dem Visualization here (http://www.simtel.com/product/view/id/6700)dem tutorials here (http://www2.cs.uh.edu/~somalley/DemTutorial/)and you must download a earth globe tile for 3dm visualization here you can download only the tile from earth you need not all earth (http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/topo/gltiles.html) now go to load terrain model in file menu of 3dm program and select the option (globe tile selected from map) select or resizing the image or location you what and save then in file menu Save terragen terrain. At this point go to Terragen (free program to)go to landscape and open ter format,in export options open the raw 8 bites file export, depending from image size in 3dm visualization you can have raw 8 bites whit 256 levels terrain height 512 levels or 1024 l this is already a very high definition terrain level. If you what go to google earth an whit pro version take a shoot satellite map whit high definition and aplay in your favorite program the texture in terrain: they are ter plugin for max in guru ware. And then only must load terrain raw 8 in unity 3d. Thats all people some questions put a replay in mi post.
     

    Attached Files:

  2. AaronC

    AaronC

    Joined:
    Mar 6, 2006
    Posts:
    3,552
    Well it doesnt work for me :-(

    When you say to go to

    http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/topo/gltiles.html

    to get an earth tile, you mean to click on the screen on the part of the planet to download, right?

    So I click to download that and it gives me a file around 60mb, with a .gz extension.

    The 3dem program wont load it though, it just keeps representing the load dialouge.

    I downloaded the file twice, same result.

    Any ideas?

    Cheers
    AaronC

    EDIT:> See screenshot, it just hangs like this. Do they take ages to load? they dont need internet acces to load do they? My PC stays offline.
     

    Attached Files:

  3. Deleted User

    Deleted User

    Guest

    you didn't 'find' this way lol, it's been a way to make terrain heightmaps for games since like 2006-2007 :D

    nice anyway ;)
     
  4. raoul

    raoul

    Joined:
    Jul 14, 2007
    Posts:
    6,722
    Is this indeed about the free to download 90m accurate SRTM data? Or did you find a (free) source with an higher resolution?
     
  5. paulo costa

    paulo costa

    Joined:
    Feb 4, 2010
    Posts:
    13
    Hello AaronC you are doing right the only problem you trie to load a compressed file the dem file must be uncompressed tgz, whit win rar i think does the job. Dont forghet in general globe to point at your tile if you failed to poit at another tile and you dont have it, it dont load nothing.
     
  6. paulo costa

    paulo costa

    Joined:
    Feb 4, 2010
    Posts:
    13
    Hi raoul i dont use the srtm 90 meters resolution but 3dem loads this data you can search in net for then i think have free sources out there and if you use xyz point cloud you can achive 1 meter resolution terrains but i dont stay using this resolution if you see the imagens above they are very large terrains whit 300 km x 300 km and more so the resulotion is 100 meters. But the levels in high is 512 levels in san francisco area.
     
  7. paulo costa

    paulo costa

    Joined:
    Feb 4, 2010
    Posts:
    13
    hi raul i found this SRTM 90m Digital Elevation Data to download free if you whant go there
    http://srtm.csi.cgiar.org/
    they are the entire globe
     
  8. Jehsup

    Jehsup

    Joined:
    May 22, 2008
    Posts:
    166
    Looks good, but that is lots of steps in there. We use GlobalMapper (a lot more expensive than it used to be, but even at $349 its the best GIS swiss army knife tool out there). It will find data and images for you for user defined area, reads in and writes out about ANY format you can think of. Takes a lot less steps to get real world data into your visualization, Unity or otherwise.http://www.globalmapper.com/
     
  9. paulo costa

    paulo costa

    Joined:
    Feb 4, 2010
    Posts:
    13
    Well is a totally free way but when you know how to work well whit this two programs you do it in less then 3 minutes the map for unity. But i see the program you use and is wonderful but i can afford 350 usd that's why i search free ways.
     
  10. AaronC

    AaronC

    Joined:
    Mar 6, 2006
    Posts:
    3,552
    Thanks for the advice Paulo I understood what you meant and got through that part. However I am finding it is very low resolution and when I finally get it into Unity nothing happens..Its just flat.

    You meant to use the older version of terragen didnt you? The newer one wount read .ter files. Because the Globe data of the area I was trying to access was so small my only export option from terragen was 257px x 257 px.

    Im trying to enlarge and make 3d the area hidden behind the cluster of tags in the middle of this picture. Its in Turkey, If you a few minutes to see if thats possible I'd love to see how you go. I've spent hours trying to do this and it doesnt give me anything but a flat terrain. Your San Fransisco map is very impressive.

    Thanks in advance
    AaronC
     

    Attached Files:

  11. paulo costa

    paulo costa

    Joined:
    Feb 4, 2010
    Posts:
    13
    Yes AronC must be the terragen v 0.943 older or newer but not the version 2.00 well i send a (raw8 data width= 1025 data height=1025 = 1 050 625 bytes) of this zone for you, like i say 3 minutes of work don't kill anybody. :D :D :D enjoy don't forgot of put in unity in set high-map resolution 20 000 or 10 000 in terrain width and the high abbot 100 or 200 maximum height map resolution and detail resolution 1025 to for you take all detail of the raw image;

    http://depositfiles.com/files/mn9cgslfn
     

    Attached Files:

  12. bigkahuna

    bigkahuna

    Joined:
    Apr 30, 2006
    Posts:
    5,434
    Please rescale your graphics so they will fit a typical browser window (usually no wider than 800 pixels). Thanks.
     
  13. AaronC

    AaronC

    Joined:
    Mar 6, 2006
    Posts:
    3,552
    Thanks heaps, I made some progress in the end.

    AaronC
     

    Attached Files:

  14. paulo costa

    paulo costa

    Joined:
    Feb 4, 2010
    Posts:
    13
    Hi Aron if you want more resolution of that area you must load in 3DEM program other kind of data because globe tiles is only for large terrains and the detail is 100 meters the maximum: you need resolutions of 10 meters or 1 meter you search Dem files format in net they have 1 m or 3m or 1o m resolution if i found one i sent to you c ya.
     
  15. siggi-gross

    siggi-gross

    Joined:
    Apr 6, 2009
    Posts:
    56
    hi paolo, hi aaron,

    i don't want to be brainy-smurf :wink:
    maybe this could be interesting for you.

    i'm a bit busy atm, but i can write more on it later this evening.

    greets siggi
     
  16. paulo costa

    paulo costa

    Joined:
    Feb 4, 2010
    Posts:
    13
  17. raoul

    raoul

    Joined:
    Jul 14, 2007
    Posts:
    6,722
    thanks Paulo, I have experimented with the 90m resolution but it was too low for what I needed. The best resolution free sources I found was something like 30m accurate but only for certain parts of the world.
     
  18. siggi-gross

    siggi-gross

    Joined:
    Apr 6, 2009
    Posts:
    56
    hello again,

    the SRTM-data were the best and most accurate i could get for free until now, for the US they are in 1 arcsecs, the rest of the world is in 3arcsecs resolution, which means about 90m on the aequator, 60m for central europe and about 45m for scandinavia, canada etc. (of course the same for the south part of the globe).


    the best data i ever could get in real high resolution were these:

    click to enlarge
    (note, this is not a unity-project. its data from an environmental engeneering project i was working on in 2006, exported to POVray)
    the complete tile is 1km². the resolution of the vegetation and buildings layer is about ~1m, the resolution of the ground layer is ~25cms, both as point cloud. unfortunately this data are not affordable at all :(

    concerning the SRTM-data: the downloadable .hgt-files are 16-bit heightmaps reaching from -32k to +32k meters. the documentation is quite good. they can be imported directly to unity but its not real fun to deal with the heights.

    to expand the data, lets say form 0 to 2000m, there are two possibilities, script or photoshop.
    open the .hgt-file as .raw-image 16bit, 1layer in photoshop and expand the used range to the full 16bit with Image->Adjustments->Curves. be sure that you use linear curves.
    i personally use a perl-script for this, reading in the 16-bit values, expanding them from the defined range to full 16bit and writing them back.

    import to unity: be sure to select 16bit grayscale, 1 layer, and bit-order mac. (not sure why, but sometimes i had to flip the .hgt in one direction for the right orientation in unity) set one appropriate light, create lightmap and export it via duplicate texture. this exported lightmap is your reference for the google-maps texture. you can use it also to enhance the shadows on mounaints etc in the compositing.

    google-maps-texture: its a bit of a click-orgy to get a good texture. get single tiles of the terrain in the best resolution google-maps can give you and stich them together. adjusting the stiched image to the height-map needs a bit of tweaking. depending on the latitude you have to scale the height a bit down (~87% for central europe).

    greets siggi

    edit: image link working
     
  19. paulo costa

    paulo costa

    Joined:
    Feb 4, 2010
    Posts:
    13
    Hi siggi-gross you are very welcome and thanks for your support, in did you are right dem,lidar, Srtm whit 1 m or whit 1 arc sec. are very difficult to find only if you pay the download and must have registering in certain sites not easy at all, But for our friends of the united States they have the 1 arc sec in all states, Alaska and Hawaii i see some zones like the image in this post, free and whit very good resolutions here http://seamless.usgs.gov/.
    About of your model 1km x 1km in SRTM is awesome but not only takes the landscape but the forest and houses to. I see your site and your landscape very good and interesting i like make landscapes to for give a huge environment for scenarios or games i work in architectural visualization to, i work whit max 2008 64b and whit the vray 1.5 render. If you have interest of making contact (arraialp@yahoo.com.br Msm) (arraialp@hotmail.com msn) i like to see more works of yours if you want you can post here links for your projects) i have started projects whit huge landscapes too i post the links here:

    my Architectural work
    http://assis.olx.com.br/maquetes-el...-3d-projetos-em-autocad-archicad-iid-61835332

    Unity projects
    http://www.megaupload.com/?d=XGXWNQO6
    http://www.megaupload.com/?d=IXNDBSU1
    http://www.megaupload.com/?d=H1NB09H8
    http://www.megaupload.com/?d=JKM8RQXV

    c ya and stay weel
     

    Attached Files:

  20. davedev

    davedev

    Joined:
    Jan 12, 2009
    Posts:
    72
    For anybody using a Mac, I've used the SimpleDEMViewer. It has an option to create grayscale images of the dem data. Its available at:

    http://www.jizoh.jp/english.html
     
  21. cemC

    cemC

    Joined:
    Dec 23, 2010
    Posts:
    214
    Excellent work... i love it :)