Ron Parker wrote:
> If you're really set on using the topo lines, you can get them in vector
> format from the USGS website without all of the extraneous data.

Oooh.  Must look into.

...what's wrong with topo data?  It's realistic, and definitely good
enough for general terrain appearance.
-- 
Tim Cook
http://empyrean.scifi-fantasy.com

-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.12
GFA dpu- s: a?-- C++(++++) U P? L E--- W++(+++)>$
N++ o? K- w(+) O? M-(--) V? PS+(+++) PE(--) Y(--)
PGP-(--) t* 5++>+++++ X+ R* tv+ b++(+++) DI
D++(---) G(++) e*>++ h+ !r--- !y--
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------

Post a reply to this message

"Timothy R. Cook" <tim### [at] scifi-fantasycom> wrote in message
news:3C7F9969.D4DF4B4F@scifi-fantasy.com...
>
> ...what's wrong with topo data?  It's realistic, and definitely good
> enough for general terrain appearance.

I would suggest you take a look at the thread in povray.general "Topographic map
to height field?" started by Timothy R. Cook  for a general discussion of the
problems... ;)

Post a reply to this message

Tom Melly wrote:
> I would suggest you take a look at the thread in povray.general
> "Topographic map to height field?" started by Timothy R. Cook
> for a general discussion of the problems... ;)

Ah, but I've not seen any alternatives offered that produce
any data, let alone data anywhere near as realistic!

-- 
Tim Cook
http://empyrean.scifi-fantasy.com

-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.12
GFA dpu- s: a?-- C++(++++) U P? L E--- W++(+++)>$
N++ o? K- w(+) O? M-(--) V? PS+(+++) PE(--) Y(--)
PGP-(--) t* 5++>+++++ X+ R* tv+ b++(+++) DI
D++(---) G(++) e*>++ h+ !r--- !y--
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------

Post a reply to this message

On Fri, 01 Mar 2002 10:08:25 -0500, Timothy R. Cook wrote:
> Ron Parker wrote:
>> If you're really set on using the topo lines, you can get them in vector
>> format from the USGS website without all of the extraneous data.
> 
> Oooh.  Must look into.
> 
> ...what's wrong with topo data?  It's realistic, and definitely good
> enough for general terrain appearance.

Nothing, really, except that DEM data is already rasterized and has a 
better vertical resolution.  These days, topo data is often derived from
DEM data.

-- 
#macro R(L P)sphere{L F}cylinder{L P F}#end#macro P(V)merge{R(z+a z)R(-z a-z)R(a
-z-z-z a+z)torus{1F clipped_by{plane{a 0}}}translate V}#end#macro Z(a F T)merge{
P(z+a)P(z-a)R(-z-z-x a)pigment{rgbf 1}hollow interior{media{emission 3-T}}}#end 
Z(-x-x.2x)camera{location z*-10rotate x*90normal{bumps.02scale.05}}

Post a reply to this message

When my final cloth program is ready, you could try it for generating smooth
surfaces.
This should work: define a cloth using the terraced rectangular surface and
let it contract itself with the edges 'locked' to something or with immobile
edges. With gravity = <0, 0, 0> it should should become smooth.

The result won't be a heightfield, but a mesh2 object.

Apache
http://geitenkaas.dns2go.com/experiments/

Post a reply to this message

Apache wrote:
> When my final cloth program is ready, you could try it for
> generating smooth surfaces.
> The result won't be a heightfield, but a mesh2 object.

Sounds good...make a Moray plugin, though, or I won't use it...
(not that I have anything against editing code by hand, it's
just that once I've added something Moray doesn't support, I
can't ever go back to editing it with Moray lest I lose the
piece I added by hand...and have to re-insert it every darn
time after changing it with Moray)

-- 
Tim Cook
http://empyrean.scifi-fantasy.com

-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.12
GFA dpu- s: a?-- C++(++++) U P? L E--- W++(+++)>$
N++ o? K- w(+) O? M-(--) V? PS+(+++) PE(--) Y(--)
PGP-(--) t* 5++>+++++ X+ R* tv+ b++(+++) DI
D++(---) G(++) e*>++ h+ !r--- !y--
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------

Post a reply to this message

Ron Parker wrote:
> Nothing, really, except that DEM data is already rasterized and has a
> better vertical resolution.  These days, topo data is often derived from
> DEM data.

I just downloaded file at http://edcdaac.usgs.gov/gtopo30/w100n40.html
How do I convert to dxf or raw or something else I can easily get into
Moray?  I did a quick search on the net but didn't find anything useful
(well, I found a realvideo to AVI converter, might be useful it it
works...)

-- 
Tim Cook
http://empyrean.scifi-fantasy.com

-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.12
GFA dpu- s: a?-- C++(++++) U P? L E--- W++(+++)>$
N++ o? K- w(+) O? M-(--) V? PS+(+++) PE(--) Y(--)
PGP-(--) t* 5++>+++++ X+ R* tv+ b++(+++) DI
D++(---) G(++) e*>++ h+ !r--- !y--
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------

Post a reply to this message

"Timothy R. Cook" <tim### [at] scifi-fantasycom> wrote in message
news:3C80BF7E.2B1674B3@scifi-fantasy.com...
> Ron Parker wrote:
> > Nothing, really, except that DEM data is already rasterized and has a
> > better vertical resolution.  These days, topo data is often derived from
> > DEM data.
>
> I just downloaded file at http://edcdaac.usgs.gov/gtopo30/w100n40.html
> How do I convert to dxf or raw or something else I can easily get into
> Moray?  I did a quick search on the net but didn't find anything useful
> (well, I found a realvideo to AVI converter, might be useful it it
> works...)

If it's the newer format for DEM then this might be of some use:
http://geopotential.com/codes/SDTS/sdts2dem.html
Other than that, maybe all you need is something like Wilbur:
http://www.ridgecrest.ca.us/~jslayton/software.html

bob h

Post a reply to this message

On Sat, 02 Mar 2002 07:03:10 -0500, Timothy R. Cook wrote:
> Ron Parker wrote:
>> Nothing, really, except that DEM data is already rasterized and has a
>> better vertical resolution.  These days, topo data is often derived from
>> DEM data.
> 
> I just downloaded file at http://edcdaac.usgs.gov/gtopo30/w100n40.html
> How do I convert to dxf or raw or something else I can easily get into

If you really want something that's near 40N 100W you can get better-quality
data than gtopo from USGS; unfortunately the appropriate server seems to be
down at the moment, so I can't get you a URL.  But what you want is a 7.5-
minute DEM (Digital Elevation Model).  There are utilities to convert that
to a TGA, which you can then use as a heightfield.

-- 
#macro R(P)z+_(P)_(P)_(P+1)_(P+1)+z#end#macro Q(C,T)bicubic_patch{type 1u_steps
6v_steps 6R(1)R(3)R(5)R(7)pigment{rgb z}}#end#macro _(Y)#local X=asc(substr(C,Y
,1))-65;<T+mod(X,4)div(X,4)9>-2#end#macro O(T)Q("ABEFUQWS",T)Q("WSXTLOJN",T)#
end O(0)O(3)Q("JNKLCGCD",0)light_source{x 1}// ron### [at] povrayorg

Post a reply to this message

Hi Timothy R. Cook, you recently wrote in povray.general:

> .. it's
> just that once I've added something Moray doesn't support, I
> can't ever go back to editing it with Moray lest I lose the
> piece I added by hand...and have to re-insert it every darn
> time after changing it with Moray)
You are aware of the possibility of placing code in the INC file that
will not get overwritten, right? Or in the Comments field of the
Scene|Settings.

- Lutz
  email : lut### [at] stmuccom
  Web   : http://www.stmuc.com/moray

Post a reply to this message