3D model from aerial laser survey .. ?

[archijam]

3D terrain problem:

I have access to super high res data, but only as bitmaps.

As you can see, the terrain is modelled, lit and frozen.

With all of the use of Normal maps etc out there, can anyone think of a way to reverse engineer a 3d file or displacement map (greyscale) form this?

Thanks in advance ...

j.

[Lightwolf]

With all of the use of Normal maps etc out there, can anyone think of a way to reverse engineer a 3d file or displacement map (greyscale) form this?

Yes... but no without coding. Basically what you have there is a bump, and it should be possible to re-created the elevation from that.

I think I saw a link a few days ago, related to normal maps and bumps... but I can't seem to dig it up at the moment...

Cheers,
Mike

[archijam]

A tentative yes is still great to hear - thanks mike!

In this case the topography (contour) drawings are useless, since the terrain is so subtle ..

In the meantime, if you can think of the link, please let me know - ;)

j.

[prospector]

I did some land from topo maps and it was quite easy actually.
I just plotted points (in a row and not haphazardly) along each contour line.hit 'ctrl-p' for spline, brought it to height as indicated, did another and after I just connected ends, selected splines, hit 'crtl-f' and patched.
Kept going till map was completed. Was accurate to 25 feet. (distance of topo lines).

[archijam]

contour lines? that would be nice. not on this project - its swampy farmland here ...

i realise sudden drops (cliffs) would be impossible to do by this bottom up method, but luckily its all constant here ...

j.

[SplineGod]

www.zarria.net

[archijam]

Thanks Larry, a great link, but .. any idea of the process?

Have had a play, but can't seem to generate what I'm looking for.

To clarify, I want to generate something like the attached image, a map to displace a 3d terrain, white high and black low. Smoothing etc. can come later.

The main problem is that I have several such sites, and therefore need to automate the process as much as possible ...

Cheers ..

j.

[archijam]

No ideas? hm.

My latest idea: generate a second 'normal' map by balancing this grey colour to 50%, then inverse in photoshop (grey stay same, but light becomes dark, dark becomes light) then trying again in crazybump ...

Am I crazy(bump) ?

j.