recreating real land plots in an easier manner

I don't do coasters in fantasy terrains or flat land anymore; I do real parks. What I usually do to recreate the land plots is that I go into Google Earth, take lateral and vertical measurements, and I record the elevation every 50 feet. I then make a roller coaster that has the corresponding XYZ coordinates, and then I drag the terrain in the editor upwards until it covers the track. It's a pretty accurate method, but it takes a significant amount of time. Normally, I don't have an issue with it, because with individual roller coasters, it usually only takes two or three days tops to make the entire plot of land.

However, I always wanted to do a mountain coaster of a real plot of land. So I decided to do a nearby gorge: Treman State Park in Ithaca, New York. It has steep terrain, but it's not so big that the coaster will only go part way up it (300 - 350 foot vertical drops, so the coaster can still go a good 100 - 150 feet above the top of the terrain) I *could* do my old fashioned way of recreating the terrain, but I'm going to have to do it for the entire NL map area, which it will probably take weeks, if not more. Is there an easier way to recreate terrain? Is it possible to render the terrain in one program and import it into the NL editor? I downloaded a free version of Terragen 2.3, but it doesn't look like it's what I need; it just looks like a fancy version of NL Terraformer.

If I can't generate the real terrain in one program and import it into NL Terraformer, then what does everyone else do to recreate land plots?

I don't know of a way to import terrain into the terraformer, but you might have better luck creating a 3ds terrain model and just using that. It would probably be a bit quicker since you would only need to place nodes at key points in the land and connect them up with flat geometry.

I use Google Sketchup when creating terrain. I believe it is called "Smoove".

^As I am currently downloading Sketchup, is it possible for Smoove, or anything in Sketchup for that matter, that can import the terrain from Google Earth? (They are from the same company, so there may be hope.)




One more question: How can I view .3DS objects in the editor?

I think you can find a way to import from Google Earth to Sketchup. I have never tried, but there are many options involving Google Earth.

As for .3DS, first, you need to export your model from sketchup as a 3D model. Then, in the editor, go to Scenery -> Choose Scene Object.
-Hope this helps.

Originally posted by Tanks4me

One more question: How can I view .3DS objects in the editor?

You can only see a blue wireframe in the editor. You have to go into the sim to see all the textures.

Bump: Is there a faster way to "snap" the terrain to the .3ds file? I'm about half way done, but I want to do something to make the process a bit more expedient. The way I'm currently doing it is by dragging each 1x1 tile in the editor up to the blue wire frame. Is there a faster, and equally as accurate way?

I'm not quite sure I understand what you're trying to do. Why does the NL terrain have to be right below the 3ds? Can't the 3ds itself be the terrain?

my computer doesn't like sketch-up very much

[AyTrane]

Raise 5x5 segments in "low detail" mode to get them close to the topo; then progressively get smaller area size by changing the selection size or detail level to "high".