[Plugin] Heightmap from model

Pixero · 19 Dec 2009, 18:05

Still crashes instantly while loading SU. Now on Windows 7 64bit. SU 7.1.

charly2008 · 19 Dec 2009, 18:25

it still crashes while loading SU.

Karlheinz

TIG · 19 Dec 2009, 19:19

Test file = instant Bugsplat.
Didier - why not PM or email the 'uncompiled' script to one of us for debugging - you can trust me ...
You know that I hack into your encrypted rb files all of the time, but the rbs ones are a bit harder... just easier if you supply it unencrypted...
It must be simple to fix...

georglorenz · 16 Jan 2010, 03:11

Slightly off topic here: Is there a plugin that does the exact opposite of this one? That is creating a terrain from an greyscale image (.jpg or anything else)? Thank you. G

Chris Fullmer · 16 Jan 2010, 03:46

There is, Didier wrote a script that imports a heightmap image into SU. I forget what its called, but it was written by didier bur and should be posted here on the forum somewhere....

Chris

notareal · 16 Jan 2010, 14:07

Nice work!

miikka1978 · 2 May 2010, 19:47

Did anybody find some solution for instant BugSplat upon starting SU when using this plugin?

Chris Fullmer · 2 May 2010, 22:59

I was going to look at the code, but it is encrypted. So it would require Didier to look at it.

Sometimes if the script calls the active_model before the model is initialized by SU it can cause problems. But I can't see if the script is possibly doing anything like that.

miikka1978 · 4 May 2010, 15:26

Chris,
Is it possible to use your Color by Z- plugin for creating a heightmap from model? I would need to create heightmap from Sketchup model and take it into Unity 3D for creating a terrain (just like Heightmap plugin was supposed to do).
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=16660

Chris Fullmer · 4 May 2010, 16:45

Look at the technicque used in this post:

http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=16660&start=15#p131738

The idea is to make your terrain, then apply a gradient image to the entire terrain. It will make a much smoother gradient than my color by Z and the gradient will be more accurate.

You can try using the attached gradient image. That will give you a greyscale heightmap. I don't know what file format you need, but I am hoping you can export a black and white image from SU and find a way to get it into the correct format.

Let me know if this works, if you are still missing a piece to the puzzle.

Chris

Chris Fullmer · 4 May 2010, 16:49

ohh, hmm. I think perhaps this does something different than I thought. What are you trying to achieve? You already have a greyscale terrain and want to turn it into 3d geometry? If so, that is very different than what my color by z does. It would not be able to be tweaked to do that.

Didier Bur · 5 May 2010, 20:02

Hi all,
A new version of the script has been uploaded May 5th 2010 (no more instant bugsplat).
Find it here: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?p=209935#p209935
The scrambler still puzzles me...

TIG · 6 May 2010, 07:57

Thanks, now working perfectly...

miikka1978 · 6 May 2010, 17:27

Thank you Didier!

morrowsend1 · 10 Jun 2010, 20:02

This is a great plugin!

I'd love to be able to customize this code for use with a project I am working on. Any chance you will be releasing the code?

Things that would GREATLY help my project include:

Making Black a background color
Making square output images (my heightmap importer only accepts square images.)
The ability to scale the output images to any size I need.

dbalex · 30 Nov 2010, 15:29

really impressive plugin, very nice for render purposes!

But could it be possible to enable it also in perspective view so we could have a depth map for postprocessing a sketchupview?

anyway, thank you very much for this plugin didier!

jason_maranto · 30 Nov 2010, 16:27

This is indeed very useful for rendering purposes -- I would second the idea that being able to generate the image at whatever resolution needed would be great.

In regards to the previous post, you can do a quick version of what you want using fog:

Best,
Jason.

dbalex · 3 Dec 2010, 13:26

Interesting way jason_maranto, thanks for that, will try it!

Hanstania · 28 Jun 2011, 16:43

Hey Didier! Trying to get google terrain into UDK and tought this plugin was just what i needed. Got a problem though.

First off, 18700016 rays to shoot? Thats a bit much, why does that number get so large? The model is just a small section of terrain.
After the export when i open the raw file in Photoshop it does not show up as heightmap, but more like a grey mess.

Any suggestions? I've got the plane version of sketchup pro and your plugin is the only one installed. Do i need additional plugins installed or something?

Pardon my noobiness!

Cheers!

Didier Bur · 29 Jun 2011, 09:21

Hi Hanstania,

What this plugin does is the inverse of thomthom's 'Bitmap to mesh' here: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?t=31339

As you can see a heightmap is a grey scale image so you'll get a greyscale image with my plugin. The size (in pixels) of this image is basically the size of your SU viewport. 18700016 rays to shoot is the result of width_of_your viewport * height_of_your viewport. For instance, a 1024*768 viewport will give 786432 rays and 786432 pixels in the calculated heightmap.
You can resize down your viewport or lower your screen resolution to get smaller (but less accurate) images.
Ensure to 'zoom-extents' your terrain in a top-down orthographic view before launching the script.
You don't need to install anything else that the script.
Please post an example of the 'grey mess' you got

Below are 2 images of a GE captured terrain (mountain and sea) and the resulting heightmap on a red mask. It took 6 minutes to process.