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?