Landscapes in Unreal Engine 5 -Archived - NASA Satellite Imagery and World Machine for Height Maps

[@samuelkaspersen655]

Hey man, what material did you use on the ground landscape at 1:02:34 ? Looks perfect for my project. Cheers.

[@puttinonthefritz3dvisualiz]

The material is from Quixel Bridge - T_Wild_Grass_umrmdgps_2K_D - But it won't look the same as it did in the video because I set it up as a procedural material in Unreal and used some Blueprints to have it scale at distance and apply the T_MacroVariation in a material function. I show that technique in video 1 of this tutorial series. There is also a more advanced material that build on video 1 shown in video 4 where it allows both procedural and painting in a blended material.

[@samuelkaspersen655]

@@puttinonthefritz3dvisualiz Thanks for the reply man. I will have to check out the first video then.

[@gani_makhat]

Hello! In MICRODEM build 2024, there is no choice as Save DEM/Grid as Current Subset, MD DEM. Which way of saving I can use instead?

[@puttinonthefritz3dvisualiz]

Once you have modified the imagery and go to save it, the option for Current subset should show up. I just downloaded the current version and of Microdem and tested it. Try zooming in and then go to the File tab, Hover over Save Dem/grid, then Current subset, MD DEM will be there. I hope this helps.

[@gani_makhat]

@@puttinonthefritz3dvisualiz nope. I still don't have Current subset, MD DEM

[@gani_makhat]

Hello again! I was struggling with Microdem for the last 2 days and I can say for sure that the last build slightly differs from the build on this tutorial. I stopped on interpolating DEM stage, can you help me somehow please?

[@puttinonthefritz3dvisualiz]

@@gani_makhat it is a little different, but all of the functionality is still there. What is it that you need help with? You said you stopped at interpolating. Did you get it smoothed and saved?

[@puttinonthefritz3dvisualiz]

Okay, I had a chance to download and open it here at work. The Reinterpolate does not seem to be working. Once I get a chance I will try it at home since my work computer has a lot of network security stuff and limits what I can do. I’ll update you once I know more.

[@akshayladdha9015]

Hey man! great tutorial, seems like MicroDEM cant be downloaded now, I checked the internet and most of them have broken links. Do you have any alternatives to MicroDEM, is QGIS a good option, can you make a tutorial if possible. Cheers

[@puttinonthefritz3dvisualiz]

Try: microdem.org/. I have not had a chance to try it out yet. Dr. Guth, the creator and maintainer of microdem retired from teaching at the USNA in October. It looks like the software is available here. This weekend I will check it out and see if my tutorial still works. If not, I’ll create a new one over the winter break.

[@akshayladdha9015]

@@puttinonthefritz3dvisualiz Great, Thanks a lot man! The link works.

[@wlb-comments7596]

cool, I will be looking into importing a small city.. with streets, rivers, buildings. thoughts on how to do that? For game play

[@puttinonthefritz3dvisualiz]

Awesome! I like that you are jumping in and making a game. Importing assets is actually pretty easy. The harder part might be adjusting and modifying your landscape to fit the rivers and lakes, or other in ground and underground assets. I have a couple of game related tutorials for importing assets already and kit bashing. I will be creating a tutorial in this series as well to cover importing assets and modifying the landscape. Although I probably won't cover importing water. Here is current tutorial for getting assets: kzbin.info/www/bejne/o2mYmJifq8Sce7M and here is one for modifying an asset / creating your own in Maya: kzbin.info/www/bejne/h6DHgmyNlJKZfqc I hope these help. The one from this series should be out in a week or two at the most. Good luck!

[@siddhanthpai3409]

after zooming in to get the section I want, when I proceed to save it shows "Current Subset Geotiff" instead of dem

[@puttinonthefritz3dvisualiz]

I’m not sure what part of the world you are trying to create, but not every location will have a .dem unfortunately. Video 3a shows you an alternate website that might have what you need.

[@denakkusativ1072]

What can I do if I use european satellite data and dont get a dem file with my download at asf?

[@puttinonthefritz3dvisualiz]

I did do a video on this: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gpq8pqWtgbGLnpI or you can get DEM imagery from the European Space Agency here: earth.esa.int/eogateway. The IKONOS ESA Achieves might have what you need. You will need to register. This page gives you the information you need: earth.esa.int/eogateway/catalog/ikonos-esa-archive. Also look at the GeoEye missions as well. Good luck!

[@denakkusativ1072]

@@puttinonthefritz3dvisualiz Thank you very much!

[@omerpnar4700]

Hey, In MICRODEM 2024.2.6.4 version some menu changes were made, kzbin.info/www/bejne/hZqyanmmjqp8a68si=TBc14OvV_ZgbQW1O&t=2352 It seems Reinterpolate UTM option changed with Interpolate, pick projection. After click that one, small screen shows up named as "Set grid parameters" . XGrid size(m) = 1 and Lidar grid projection is set to UTM. But the result of this action is only white map. PS. In each start of MICRODEM, it's giving warning about GDAL required.

[@puttinonthefritz3dvisualiz]

Yes, the interface did change, and you did do it correctly. I have also run into this issue about the white screen. I was hoping it would get resolved with a patch or update, but it has not yet. I will reach out to the developer and see if they know about the issue. I'll keep you updated here. Thanks for the heads up!

[@puttinonthefritz3dvisualiz]

Also, if you wish to get rid of the GDal popup, go to this site to install OSGeo4W. trac.osgeo.org/osgeo4w. Under the Quick Start for OSGeo4W Users section there is a link to the installer. Download the installer and follow the instruction for an Express install. As you install OSGeo4W, there will be a choice for which server to download from, I usually choose the top one. After that there will be an option to download 4 or 5 packages. You only need the GDal one for this. Once installed open up Microdem and point it towards OSGeo4W.

[@puttinonthefritz3dvisualiz]

Okay, this should be the fix. Please let me know. Updates to the video because of software changes: 1) With the new Microdem download you will get a popup telling you that GDal is not installed. If you wish to get rid of the GDal popup, go to this site to install OSGeo4W. trac.osgeo.org/osgeo4w. Under the Quick Start for OSGeo4W Users section there is a link to the installer. Download the installer and follow the instruction for an Express install. As you install OSGeo4W, there will be a choice for which server to download from, I usually choose the top one. After that there will be an option to download 4 or 5 packages. You only need the GDal one for this. Once installed open up Microdem and point it towards OSGeo4W. 2) When you go to Reinterpolate the map to 1 X 1 meters the menu and process has changed. First, you will need to know the UTM Zone for your map area. This is found under the Info tab and pick Map. Look for Map Projection parameters UTM (ellipse), zone=. After the equal should be a number and alpha letter combo. Mine for Palo Duro was 14N as an example. Then go to the File tab and under the Save DEM/grid hover over Reinterpolate DEM/grid and pick Reinterpolate, pick projection. A menu will pop up called Set grid parameters. Near the top on the right side find the Force UTM Zone and in the empty box put in your UTM Zone number. XGrid and YGrid should be default set to 1. Leave everything else default and press the close button. Your new reinterpolated map should pop up after a few seconds or so. Follow along with the video from there.

[@omerpnar4700]

@@puttinonthefritz3dvisualiz Yes it's worked. Let me try rest of steps

[@puttinonthefritz3dvisualiz]

I saw your message about the white cube in World Machine. I tested it and I have the same issue. It looks like the data is there, but it is not complete. Under Project Setup in Project Settings you can change the colors used in the project and it is there, just not very usable as is. I went back in and just exported the 4km Cropped Map in Microdem as a GeoTiff and skipped the rest of the steps from the reinterpolate through the Mean and Median smoothing. Then opened that in World Machine. That works, but you have to change in the File Input Properties where you import the GeoTiff under Elevations from Natural file elevations to Specify range. Then use the Map Data Z range in Microdem to fine tune your map for the correct elevation range. This skips the reinterpolate and the smoothing. But it will allow you to move forward and create your world for Unreal. I will keep working on why the data seems to be getting lost after the reinterpolate step. Once I have this all figured out, I think there have been enough changes I will need to make a new video. Let me know if this worked for you.