Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
°
World Machine
(free edition/commercial): Powerful and flexible,
World Machine combines procedural terrain creation, simulations of
nature, and interactive editing to produce realistic-looking terrains
quickly and easily. Go to
http://www.world-machine.com/
for
more information on this.
°
Terragen
(free edition/commercial): Terragen is very good at
generating a ground texture and allows us to create and manipulate
highly realistic terrains, both height field and procedural. For more
information, visit
http://www.planetside.co.uk/
.
Now, what if I told you that you can create a height map of any location on the
planet? Let's see how we can do this.
Creating height maps for real locations
The USGS is a scientific agency of the United States government and they provide
a useful application called
Global Data Explorer
, which can be used to locate
real-world locations and export height maps. How can we do that?
We can find Global Data Explorer at
http://gdex.cr.usgs.gov/gdex/
.
The first step is to create an account because we need to log in to download the file
created. Then, we can define an area by country, entering coordinates and drawing
a polygon or a rectangle, as shown in the following screenshot:
