GeoTIFF in max??

[Ben Ando]

Hi,

Does anyone know if there is a way of using GoeTIFFs in 3ds max?? I can use them within Viz but it doesn't look as though they are supported in Max. Is this correct or am I missing something? Are there any plug-ins that let you use Viz's geo referencing system in max or can you load specific Viz plug-ins?

I always thought that Viz was just a cut down version of Max but this is one feature that it seems to be lacking.

Any help would be appreciated.

Ben

[J_Bug]

If you have Viz and MAX maybe you can just copy the plugin from the Viz plugins directory

--Jon

[Da_elf]

whats a geotiff?

[yage]

GeoTIFF represents an effort by over 160 different remote sensing, GIS, cartographic, and surveying related companies and organizations to establish a TIFF based interchange format for georeferenced raster imagery.

[natty]

So what is GeoTIFF then ... ?

[yage]

a picture-compression that is used for georeferenced raster imagery, well .. eh, maps, navi-systems, etc.

at least i think so.

[Da_elf]

so is it a greyscale heightfield tiff image?

[{DCX}99Tarbox]

It can do that, but it also renders an image that you could use in a GPS enviroment. The Latitude and Longtitude are of at least two points, but usually more, are known in the image. Introduced by the National Geospacial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) when it was called National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) and used by most of the space and ground based imagers today such as Space Imaging and Digital Globe. The maps can be DEMs (Digital Elevation Models, hieght maps) or standard imagery. It can also be used on regular maps as well.

A good use for this is in the modelling world is gaming. Space Imaging is working with Microsoft to provide 1 meter resolution or better imagery based DEMs for their flight sims. Another use could be for war based games as you could then digitally fight a battle on the actual terrian of a battlefield.

[Ben Ando]

Thanks guys,

I'm actually using the GeoTIFFs to generate a fly over of terrain and mine sites. Using the satellite imagery and the height maps (with vray displace) to create the terrain. At the moment I have to go through my old version of Viz to get the co-ordinance and scale then take it into Max to render. A bit of a pain

However, the word on the street is that Max 7 has a maxscript for GeoTIFF support.

Ben