I have been playing a little with bringing in terrain data from DEM files and thought this might be an interesting post for some. "A Digital Elevation Model, or DEM, is a digital representation of a portion of the earth's surface derived from elevation measurements at regularly spaced horizontal intervals. Simply stated, a DEM is a way of digitally recording the contours of the terrain. DEMs come in an array of sizes. For example, the United States Geological Survey, or USGS, produces several different digital elevation models, three of which are covered here. The main difference between them being the sampling interval and surface area covered. Smaller sampling intervals mean higher surface detail resolution. Here is a list of the DEMs that are covered in this tutorial, with the sampling intervals in parenthesis: USGS EROS GTOPO30 DEM (30 arc second/~1 km) Coverage: Global NGDC GLOBE 1 KM (30 arc second/~1 km) Coverage: Global USGS 1 Degree DEM (3 arc second/~90 meter) Coverage: United States USGS 7.5 Minute DEM (30 meter) Coverage: Most of the United States" I found that to use the data because apparently you can only download the SDTS format you need a translator which can be found at: http://www.gisdatadepot.com/dem/sdts2dem.html And use this link for the USA map to download specific area data: http://www.gisdatadepot.com/dem/demdownload.html You also need WinRar or WinAce to uncompress the download which is in the format of: " ".DEM.SDTS.TAR.GZ Then uncompress and follow the simple instructions on the converter and import into Vue. Seeing how I live a few miles from the Olympic events taking place in Park City here is an elevation rendering of the area. *no textures applied* This was using a USGS 10 Minute DEM which I believe is approx. 45-60 meter coverage.

Very informative and helpful info, Vibes, thanks! This thread has been added to the Archive Tips Collection now. :)

Very interesting. I'm still trying to come to terms with the whole DEM thing, so this is definitely useful information. Thanks!

Thanks for the links. This is something worth looking into.

Thank you! I've tried finding specific places before, but had given up trying to pick my way through the labrynith of links that didn't lead where you'd expect.