The Ungodly task of finding and grabbing good quality 3d models of real life terrain

[michaelfountouklis1]

Hello people of CG Architect!!

 

One of my biggest problems, when creating a new project for an architectural firm is how do i go about doing the surrounding topography. I like to create most of my geometry in 3d, i am not a huge fan of using background images in photoshop, i like to create my background in 3d. Especially when we are talking about birds eye views of large estates or city blocks. But mainly my work is outside the city, so i dont usually need to find 3d models of cities rather mountains and hills is what i am looking for!

 

I do a lot of projects for hotels, large scale buildings and i always try to find the model of the general area. Up until now i use sketchup pro, from which i grab topology+textures for the area. But since i like to grab a big chunk of area, this way is quite a nuisance. Sketchup has a small window that i can max grab, and it doesnt remember the last grap. Its really difficult to grab many tiles and have them not overlapping. Moreover, its quality in texture and actual elevations is really not that good.

 

I know of Autodesk's Infraworks. Its a program mainly for constructing roads but it also provides a 3d model of a geolocation that you define.

 

Other than that, i understand that you can get elevation maps from NASA (especially now that the ASTER program is free of charge) but the sites you can do that are really complicated and not user friendly. Moreover i am not sure i can get the data in high res, and get a texture as well as an elevation map. Although to be fair i haven't burned myself trying.

 

There are some quite expensive companies that will provide you with 3d models but you have to pay like 2000 dollars minimum and that is out of i can give as a fee just for a 3d model of a topology.

 

I want to ask the people of this forum, how do you go around creating your landscapes? Do you do them with pictures from photoshop? Do you use imaginary terrain that you have created from your mind? Do you use contour lines/autocad drawings and draw it by hand? Or do you know of a way to get real life 3d models of topology over the world without spending huge amounts of time/money?

 

Any information you can provide on this matter will be greatly appreciated.

[Trick]

Have a look at World Creator 2. It exports the terrain and all kind of maps/masks that you can use to scatter things around and refine in your favorite modeling/rendering app.

[Ernest Burden III]

What you are doing is about as good as it gets. Sorry to say, but true. You can use Global Mapper software to coordinate most of the GIS data you find, so that solves the SketchUp tile problem, but there are certain very useful free government filetypes that are proprietary to an expensive program called ArcGIS.

 

Look at it this way--no one else has an easy time with site modeling/prep for rendering, so if you get good at these techniques you have a unique and useful skill to help you earn a living.

[Chris Harris]

What you are doing is about as good as it gets.

 

Agree 100% with Ernest. I have to recreate terrain in photos for camera matching and go through our GIS department (ArcGIS/ArcMAP) to acquire the areas needed. I'm able to import anything from contours lines, ArcGrid data, GeoTIFF's to create the terrain. If its in the middle of nowhere (like where I do a lot of work), the resolution of both the DEM and/or aerial imagery is pretty often very low/degraded/garbage and if there are cliffs, buttes...its a nightmare to work with. Higher populated areas are much easier with high quality imagery/terrain data.

 

I have Sketchup 2018 as well and it remembers the last grab and doesn't overlap at the origin...not sure if you have that same version where you can. It still doesn't really like when you grab multiple max areas though in terms of being far away from the origin. Then there's the imagery issue at those max grab areas where the images aren't great. If you have access to buy a higher resolution image/aerial, you can overlay that onto the terrain, I've had success doing so...but once again, poor terrain.

 

Good luck.

Edited February 5, 2018 by charris

[raimosuuronen]

There is I plugin for c4d that seems doing the job. I have never tried it

 

Here is a link, hope it will be useful: https://cinemaplugins.com/c4d-plugins/dem-earth/

[Ernest Burden III]

There is I plugin for c4d that seems doing the job. I have never tried it

 

Here is a link, hope it will be useful: https://cinemaplugins.com/c4d-plugins/dem-earth/

 

That looks interesting. Why didn't I know about that? (Don't answer). C4D reads DEMs natively, though the USGS now has them in a different filetype, so requires converting back to .dem

[Scott Dombrowski]

Google sunsetted their terrain/aerial API access to Sketchup sometime in the last year or two. I used to be able to get very usable terrain from Sketchup, but now it's pretty terrible.

 

Maproom might be an option with 3ds Max. I tried a demo of it a few years ago and it was a bit clunky, but it looks like development has continued so I might give it another go.

 

Another possibility is if you have access to any lidar scans of your site. State / county GIS departments often have lidar datasets free to download. I don't have a workflow yet for turning those into terrain meshes usable in Max. "Bare earth extraction" is the keyword for separating the terrain from the trees / buildings. I've anecdotally read about some software that can do that, but haven't explored it yet.

 

A third possibility is to get your own drone (or hire one) and do a photogrammetry flight of the site. That gets you a fairly highly detailed and textured mesh, but again you'll need some sort of bare earth extraction to separate terrain from the trees / buildings.

 

My ideal would be access to whatever dataset Google is using for their enhanced 3D areas in Google Earth. It certainly isn't good enough for close-up hero shots, but it's great for contextual models.

[Ernest Burden III]

Another possibility is if you have access to any lidar scans of your site. State / county GIS departments often have lidar datasets free to download. I don't have a workflow yet for turning those into terrain meshes usable in Max. "Bare earth extraction" is the keyword for separating the terrain from the trees / buildings...

 

I've used Global Mapper for the LIDAR conversion, though I don't know about whether it can do the 'bare earth' thing. Maybe a newer version than the one I have could.

 

Photogrammetry results work, but you get a massive trianglualted mess--I mean mesh--to deal with.

 

OK, that C4D plugin I knew about but had forgotten. I had declined an invite to beta test it due to not enough time. The developer used to code for C4D, his work is fantastic. I should buy it.

[klaas nienhuis]

Maproom might be an option with 3ds Max. I tried a demo of it a few years ago and it was a bit clunky, but it looks like development has continued so I might give it another go.

 

I'm the developer of Maproom and it's safe to say it has evolved quite a bit. Generally, when building terrains Maproom (and demearth and blendergis) uses globally available data sources. Depending on the area you're in, the highest resolution of this data is 30m per pixel or 90m per pixel. This means you have one height sample per area of 30x30 or 90x90 meters. Any higher resolution terrains you need to provide yourself. There are many sources, but they're always local or national, not global.

 

Using google data outside of their software is usually not allowed due to their licensing. At least, that's what they've told me!

[michaelfountouklis1]

Guys thanks a lot for your replies until now, i have seen many interesting thoughts on the matter! I will try most of them out in the future and will contact you with results! If you get anymore ideas (or people who havent replied yet) feel free to chip in!

[Chris Harris]

Back to Klaas point of the globally available resolution typically being 30m and 90m...definitely seek out higher resolution. A lot of the times in the areas I work in 30m is all the better I can get and its not that useful, occasionally 10m is available, and even 10m in a hilly/mountainous area doesn't work well. Maybe if the mountains/cliffs are a mile away its fine, but not if you are on a road in a mountainous area, the road is shown at a 45 degree angle as the resolution interpolates points 10m apart, which doesn't help. If possible, 3m great, 1m amazing. Higher the resolution, the larger the file is/heavier to work with however.

Edited February 20, 2018 by charris