I have a question for all of the ecosystem experts in this forum. I've got a job coming up that will require an extremely accurate representation of an existing terrain. I already have the CAD files with the contour lines - which I will have to clean up - so I can create the terrain model in Lightwave.

My questions are:

1. Is there a better way to create the 3D model of the terrain to import into Vue5I rather than to model it in LW? and...

2. Once the terrain is imported, can I use an ecosystem to populate the landscape with trees and assorted foliage? I haven't played with ecosystems at all and have no idea if you must use a terrain created in Vue or if you can import a mesh.

Any suggestions/advice/workflow would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Megalodon

Altho I only have the demo of infinite, it seems you can import a fair number of formats of  terrains that accept ecosystems well. Be aware that placement of foliage/vegetation can be controlled by bit maps making for very accurate placement of the elements. I primarily use Imagine3D but it exports a fine .lwo , one of which I have tried in Vue5Inf DEMO, and it accepted eco well.Is there some way you could get a DEM of the site as, turned into a greyscale and blurred a bit, you might just be able to do a good one with the picture function in the terrain editor.

Hope some of this was helpful.....

Quick answer:  You can apply an ecosystem to ANY object in VUE.  Whether it is a native VUE object, terrain or something you import, ecosystems are like textures: they can be applied to anything and everything.  Essentially this means that you can grow grass, rocks or trees or anything from a hat, an automobile roof etc.  You can even use the object itself that you imported as an ecosystem object (say for example a beach ball) and grow thousands of them on any object you desire.  Welcome to the wonderful world of V5I.

G&C

One possibility for your first question. What format are the files representing the terrain? Rather than modelling the terrain, I wonder if you could get them exported into a format supported by GeoControl. If so, you could import it then export a .tga file and use that to create the terrain. Of course, if you can get the terrain output as a .tga from the start, you wouldn't need Geo :-)

GeoControl can import .ter, 16-bit raw, r32, and PGM as well as .tga.

Excellent! Thanks for all of the answers and advice. Although I can't obtain different files from the architect - it was pulling teeth to get the CAD file of the contours - at least I have that file and CAN use it to create a viable pipeline using Vue5I

Again...   Much Appreciated!

Megalodon