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- Newsgroups: comp.graphics
- Path: sparky!uunet!spool.mu.edu!uwm.edu!linac!att!princeton!chagall.Princeton.EDU!jdunning
- From: jdunning@chagall.Princeton.EDU (John Alan Dunning)
- Subject: WANTED: greyscale, bitmapped topographic data
- Message-ID: <1993Jan12.082049.28451@Princeton.EDU>
- Originator: news@nimaster
- Sender: news@Princeton.EDU (USENET News System)
- Nntp-Posting-Host: chagall.princeton.edu
- Organization: Princeton University
- Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 08:20:49 GMT
- Lines: 21
-
- I'm looking for graphics files which represent the altitude of a portion
- of terrain with varying shades of grey. 255 (or 2^24 for 24-bit data) would
- represent the tallest peak, and 0 would represent the lowest valley. So
- an overhead view of a mountain would have a whitish blob in the middle for
- the peak, fading to darker grey as the mountain blends into the surrounding
- plains.
-
- I assume this is the sort of data which is returned by radar-mapping
- satellites, such as have mapped Earth and Venus. Would NASA have files
- like these available on an ftp site somewhere?
-
- I want to use the bitmap as a displacement map in Alias, to produce a
- quick and dirty mountain range. I believe this is also how NASA makes
- those perspective images of Mons Olympus. It doesn't really matter
- what planet the terrain is from. An associated visible light image of the
- same terrain would be ideal, since I could then use it as a color map over
- the displacement map.
-
- Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.
-
- John
-