Automatic terrain generation from geographical data (a tool I created)

[ghostdancer]

Very nice.

Once you have the grid numbers for the sectors though you might need to do some tweaking on those to make sure they are legible against the terrain (differing colors and such). Grid lines are fine while you might need a slightly darker color for the sector numbers once you have them.

A possible future enhancement would add variables to the config file or to a csv (like you did for gndtype) that allows the designer to set color values for various parts of the clipboard map. What you have is great and is really all most need. Just for the people who like to tweak it would be a thought.

[artik]

Very nice.

Once you have the grid numbers for the sectors though you might need to do some tweaking on those to make sure they are legible against the terrain (differing colors and such). Grid lines are fine while you might need a slightly darker color for the sector numbers once you have them.

A possible future enhancement would add variables to the config file or to a csv (like you did for gndtype) that allows the designer to set color values for various parts of the clipboard map. What you have is great and is really all most need. Just for the people who like to tweak it would be a thought.

The colors are fully configurable: you can define color for 5 types of ground forest, farm, grass, dessert, snow - the actual color would vary according to the brightness (for shade like effect) you can also  specify colors for water, shoreline and grid.

Also I start thinking that probably it is better in the grid templates to have numbers and actual grid colors be different so I can provide color for grid and numbers

[ghostdancer]

I agree having the numbers and grid be separate is a good idea.

On the rest ...     

[ghostdancer]

So I have done some tests on the latest version v0.5 and so far so good. I left everything in the config.ini alone except for inputtng latitude and longitude coordinates for various areas. I also didn't move over the ground cover tif, river files, or strm30, etc. files from v0.4 to v0.5. I wanted to test out the new download functionality from scratch.

- The globcover.tif takes forever to download (over 20 minutes for me) but it download successfully (automatically) and the program ran fine.

- First test I selected gtopo30 dem files. Successful automatic download and program created the terrain with no problem.

- I then switch to srtm3 for the same terrain (lat and long) and re-ran the program. No problem here either it sucessfully identified and got all the hgt files needed.

I will say that comparing the different elevation files that srtm3 is now the way to go. Much, much, much better detail and resolution (you easily see the difference in the elevation file and the CBM map created). I never really used this format before because it was pain to figure out all the hgt files needed and then a pain to download them all and unzip them. The automatic feature makes this a breeze and I would recommend that basically everybody use this format now since it is a breeze to use in Artik's program.

[artik]

I will say that comparing the different elevation files that srtm3 is now the way to go. Much, much, much better detail and resolution (you easily see the difference in the elevation file and the CBM map created)

Small note about SRTM3... The biggest problem with SRMT3 that it lacks a data above N60. Basically this means, for example, that we can't create maps for Murmansk area - and recreate for example PQ convoys. Also SRTM3 more accurate (i.e. less blurred when you look to elevation file) I'm not sure how important it is. Finally the accuracy of our maps in elevations is 1/2 a mile + many corrections required to contain the water.

See: http://dds.cr.usgs.gov/srtm/version2_1/Documentation/Continent_def.gif

Additional note about the advantage of automatic download - it saves disk space - all individual files after being extracted from ZIP are compresses with gzip saving disk space (gzip compressed files are much easier to read directly in comparison to zip)

[artik]

Version 0.6 Released

Download from: http://cppcms.com/files/makeahmap/makeahmap_v0.6.zip

Bug fixes:

- Changed download_sources.txt line endings to CR/LF to make them more windows friendly

New Features:

Implemented automatic clipboard map generation. Thanks for Ghost Dancer for the grid templates.

The colors of different parts of map are fully configurable (see config.ini for details). The difference
in elevations can be marked using "shading-like effect" or "altitude-color" variation. The strength
of these effects is configurable as well.

[artik]

Added a wiki page: http://www.hitechcreations.com/wiki/index.php/Terrain_Generation_From_Geographical_Data and added the link to it from http://www.hitechcreations.com/wiki/index.php/Terrain_Editor

Maybe it is time to create a sticky discussion with a link to the wiki page?

[jeffdn]

Artik -- what language is this written in? Can you possibly put the code on GitHub (http://www.github.com) so that other people can contribute? I can help if it's in C/C++/C# or compiled Python. 

[artik]

Artik -- what language is this written in? Can you possibly put the code on GitHub (http://www.github.com) so that other people can contribute? I can help if it's in C/C++/C# or compiled Python. 

It is C++. Source code is provided.

I'll put it probably on source-forge as I already actively use SF account (for several projects).

[dantheman]

very interesting, are you considering updating this tool for the new terrains when they come out?

[artik]

very interesting, are you considering updating this tool for the new terrains when they come out?

Yes I am. However we don't know a thing about new terrain file formats. So it is hard to tell what, if at all, would require changes.

[715]

Well, you do know the altitude resolution will probably go to 4K but that's an easy change as the SRTM3 files are already about 8K.

[artik]

Well, you do know the altitude resolution will probably go to 4K but that's an easy change as the SRTM3 files are already about 8K.

The general knowledge does not really help...

Need accurate data formats, TE etc.

Once HTC releases the new TE and AH I'll be able to work on it.

[artik]

Hi Guys... Few questions

- Have anybody used this tool for creating an AH Map (besides me)?
- Can this thread be sticky, or maybe create a new sticky thread?

[Easyscor]

Hi artik,

I hope you've been well.

As htc moves closer to a release of their new engine, I thought it time to point you at better GIS ELEVATION data for your terrain generating program.

Take a look at Global Multi-Resolution Terrain Elevation Data 2010, aka GMTED2010.

The data files are free IF you can find the right USGS site(s). They are also listed at sites which charge you money for the download or limit the scope of coverage (smaller files) so skip those sites and keep searching with the file name be75_grd.zip etc.

The site I prefer is:
http://topotools.cr.usgs.gov/gmted_viewer/gmted2010_global_grids.php

It is originally based upon the srtm(?) data but has been reworked by GIS professionals to correct the missing or erroneous output data. It includes resolutions of 30, 15, and 7.5 arc seconds.

These full, zipped data files for 7.5 arc seconds are ~2.9 GB for the whole earth.

Greg Bagby