Quick How-To: Importing heightmaps from Google Earth (Mac)

Hello everybody. I was having fun with the terrain editor and decided to test out heightmaps. I figured out it would be quite nice to get them from google earth. After quite some research, I came up with this.

Note: This is a quick guide and will not dig into details like 8bit vs. 16bit photoshop stuff and all.

So you'll need:
- Google Earth
- SRTM plugin for google earth
- SimpleDEM for Mac

O.K. Let's get going. BTW, I learned this from this good tutorial (but for windows). Thanks to those guys at Transport Tycoon.

Once google earth is installed, run the SRTM plugin you have downloaded. It should launch google earth. Make shure SRTM3 is clicked under Temporary Places (you can click on the SRTM link for more info, I would greatly advise to do so). If the plugin loaded correctly, you should see a grid over the earth, with green triangles in the middle. Click on the green triangle of the desired landscape and a pop-up appears. Navigate to the bottom of the text to the download section. You can select the ARCASCII files (either FTP or HTTP) to download the whole area, or you can click on WWW Network Link (the green box) to cut up the section into smaller ones. This is greatly advised because whole files can be something like 100mb uncompressed!

Now (if you clicked WWW Network Link), expand the "Elevation preview" entry in your Places section. Expand "Local legend" and un-check "previews". Expand "Global Legend" and check "Data". You can now download this big map into many files, very handy if you know what scenery you want. BTW, FTP download didn't seem to work for me, and the downloads take a long time to launch.

If SimpleDEM Viewer isn't installed yet, do it. Launch the program and load your map data you just saved (.asc file). Click on Tools> Create Grayscale Map... Here you could customize a bit, but the defaults are OK (a zoom of 200% seems nice, you might want to test 8-bit). As long as you don't use the "Do-shading" option. Now the program will create an image, check it out and if your happy, save file...!

Launch Photoshop or GIMP, the file should already be Grayscale and 8bit/16bit. Cut it up as you wish in nice perfect squares and save for dinner with a little creamy mushroom sauce, grated with cheddar .

This is it, remember to save as raw file and when importing heightmap from photoshop, if you saved as macintosh, use windows setting in Unity and vice-versa.

Cheers, Socapex_2K

P.S. On my importing, I got jagged edges on to sides of my terrain plain, but I think this is my lack of knowledge (file formats and standards etc). If anybody gets the same problem, it might be worth checking into.

 

Hey all, maybe I should post this into Gossip forum? or unity support? I thought it would interest MMO creators, but it doesn't seem so.

Cheers

 

... or post this to the Wiki, that way it won't get lost in the forums in a few days.

 

Thanks for this
It saved me a lot of time

 

I downloaded the plugin. When I open it from my website browser, it loads google earth, and all of the things on the sidebar are checked:
My places
Sightseeing tour
SRTM4.1
Elevation
logo
logo2

And yet I don't have the grid and triangles that I need! Are there settings I have to turn on that I didn't notice? Anyone have advice?

 

I have exactly the same problem...
My places
Sightseeing tour
SRTM4.1
Elevation - This has a red marker on it.... I have noticed from tutorials the marker is green. If you right click the Elevation and choose proprties, there is an address. http://srtm.geog.kcl.ac.uk/portal/srtm41/elevation.kmz I guess it isnt contacted the address?

logo - Working
logo2 Working

 

This plugin is for old version of Google Earth. Download the needed TIFF from http://dwtkns.com/srtm/