Looking for advice before making a plugin

[BigYak]

Hi all,
I'm working on a project where we're importing real(ish) terrains into Torque 3D. Ideally, I'd like to fully automate the process, but for now, I'm aiming to just make a workflow that minimizes effort.

I've got some pretty good ideas (I think), but would love to get some feedback to see if I'm doing this the long way (or wrong way). IANAGM. (I am not a GIS Master).

This is based on data from the National Map, found at: http://seamless.usgs.gov/website/seamless/viewer.htm

I'm considering trying my hand at making a plugin that automates much of this:

My thought process (works best for US terrain):
1) Define boundaries using the National Map Seamless Server
2) Download a zip file containing the heightmap (described in XML metadata and GeoTiff)
3) Download a zip file containing the Land Cover Classification at 200m levels (described in GeoTiff)
4) Import Heightmap into L3DT
5) Cropping the heightmap to 2048x2048 pixels
6) Generating the water map
7) Using the Land Cover geotiff to extract the standard land types, and import this as an Attribute map
8) Export both the Heightfield, the Attribute map layers, and some metadata (height) into a t3D .mis file
9) Either have Torque import the terrain or export from L3DT (I haven't tested the new plugin Aaron made with this system yet)

I think the Land Type Classification system looks pretty cool, but have been wondering if it's just too granular to be used as an attribute map. Maybe it could be used as a Design map instead?

Using the standard described here: http://landcover.usgs.gov/classes.php

The 21 Land Cover Types are (modified from the Anderson classification system):
Water
11 Open Water
12 Perennial Ice/Snow

Developed
21 Low Intensity Residential
22 High Intensity Residential
23 Commercial/Industrial/Transportation

Barren
31 Bare Rock/Sand/Clay
32 Quarries/Strip Mines/Gravel Pits
33 Transitional

Forested Upland
41 Deciduous Forest
42 Evergreen Forest
43 Mixed Forest

Shrubland
51 Shrubland

Non-Natural Woody
61 Orchards/Vineyards/Other

Herbaceous Upland Natural/Semi-natural Vegetation
71 Grasslands/Herbaceous

Herbaceous Planted/Cultivated
81 Pasture/Hay
82 Row Crops
83 Small Grains
84 Fallow
85 Urban/Recreational Grasses

Wetlands
91 Woody Wetlands
92 Emergent Herbaceous Wetlands

Currently, when you download one of these files, it looks like:


With the colors looked up based on:
http://landcover.usgs.gov/downloadfile.php?file=NLCD92_Colour_Classification_FINAL.jpg

What do you all think? Maybe first start with a simple plugin that just builds the attribute map from the Classification image?

[Aaron]

Hi BigYak,

My general impression is that the USGS Land Cover Classification data is too coarse, both in the spatial sense and in the classification sense, to be used directly as an attributes map in L3DT. I guess you could feed the data into the design map and use it as a mask for the attributes map generation, but you would have to pre-define your climates, and this could be laborious with that many classifications. Also, there may or may not be smooth or well-controlled blending at the edges between different climates (I haven't tested this in some time, and certainly not with so many 'climates' at once). Nonetheless, I think the plan is feasible, and if the classification->climate->design map->attributes map pipeline works out smoothly, then it should be possible to automate steps 4 through 8 on your workflow in a plugin or script.

Best regards,
Aaron.

PS: I'll have a look into the TIFF loader to see how it will cope with the Land Cover Classification GeoTIFFs. I may need to tinker with it a little.

[Rummy]

Those have been my experiences in its application. I was working on a map of Burma and trying to use the LC in a similar fashion but it was so coarse a resolution that it was simply easier to achieve a more believable landuse by playing with the climate manager.