I've used this excellent tutorial here: http://builders.forumotion.net/t115...rld-height-data

But I am stuck on a principle that is not elaborated upon. I was hoping someone may be able to help.

My problem is this: All steps in the tutorial work perfectly except that I cannot seem to download the island of Oahu in one data file from Google Earth. By following the instructions, I can only download the Oahu terrain in two separate files. Which is fine, except that I don't know how to merge the two files into one.

Thanks in advance, and have fun modding forever!

Perhaps you could leave a message on the thread you linked or on this one:
http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/247783.page
Maybe NapalmVFR will see your post and reply there.

Although I've tried this tutorial and made it work, I haven't tried merging two srtm files.

I tried merging height data the other day too - was trying to get the area in Venezuala where Angel Falls is located, since it's right on the border between two blocks. It worked for me, showing a lower res detail of the two DEMS in question into one DEM.

When you go to open your DEMS, there is an option to Open and Merge Dems. Choose that and then put in the two DEMS in question - I think they need to be consecutive (ie srtm_20_11_1 and srtm_20_11_2 or what ever comes directly above or below your first DEM) in order to be fitted together. If they are not data sets that border on each other, It won't merge the data and will give you a range check error because the amount of information between them is too large to account for.

Try it like this. Open up Microdem. Choose Open, then choose Open and Merge Dems, then chose your two consecutive Dems. After that opens up, open each of those two Dems separately and compare them to the merged Dem.

God Bless,
mik

I'd import both maps to graphic format (png jpeg etc) and merge those two before importing to caw

That's an option, but if talibaelise can get the Merge option in Microdem to work for them, they don't have to try to fiddle with that in in their graphics program.

I got it to work. At first, I didn't think it HAD worked, but when I compared my two separate DEMS with the merged DEM, I could see that the merge of the two files had happened just fine, just with some loss of detail - because there was a larger area being rendered. Considering that you have to cut down the information before you export it to and image file anyway, that loss of detail is really a minor consideration.

Also consider that upon exporting it to an image file, you have a GRAYSCALE MASK image to manipulate, and those can be difficult to interpret until you work with them alot. Easier to just let Microdem do the merging so you can work on finding the area in the grayscale that is going to be your imported terrain.

Oh, one other thing - remember that each DEM block you get from Google Earth covers a lot of represented square miles. The bit you want for your terrain isn't huge and it can be like finding a needle in a haystack to find what you want on the grayscale mask, let alone puzzling it together from 2 or 3 or more of them.

God Bless,
mik

I've noticed that just islands get good in CAW. When we try to make another type of map we miss the equivalent distant terrain to help us. There is something not good in CAW about this. I was thinking if they let us have a greater map even if we just work in a map who had the same proportions but after we assign just our custom distant terrain. We couldn't play in it but only do it to have a more real aspect in our worlds.

Yeah, that would be nice. Distant terrain really limits what we can do with the terrain - if we want unfettered designing, we have to make an island. If we want to do an inland area, we either have to use existing distant terrains or design in a smaller interior area of the largest map. I, too, would like to see a 4096 map where only the middle 2048x2048 is allowed to be built upon, but you can sculpt the terrain of the entire tile.

God Bless,
mik

Thanks for that useful information, Mikitta!