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Creating Landscapes
in 3ds MAX 3/4/5/6 using DEMs
written by: Eumel3d
@-mail: eumel3d@3dkingdom.org
for: http://www.3dkingdom.org
I ntroduction
Have you ever tried to create the
Grand Canyon in 3dsmax?! With all
its valleys and deep canyons.
Perhaps you have actually dreamed
of creating a short animation; a fly-
through the canyons? All this
sounds really difficult, but in fact it is
easier than you would believe.
You do not need excellent modelling
skills or ages of experience in 3d
MAX (although a bit of experience
would help a lot ;) ). You do not
even have to know much about the
material editor. All you have to know
is, how to use things which already
exist. Therefor this tutorial is
focused on n00bs (beginners), but I
am sure that intermediates will learn
some things too.
In this tutorial you will learn how to
easily create high detailed landscape
models with the help of a few programs
and plugins
But to get something straight, and to
destroy all illusions: This tutorial is
not a guide to create photorealistic
scenes in 3dsmax and I am not
going to explain how to create a fly-
through the canyons, so if you
expected the ultimate help to
landscapes and animations you
should stop reading right now.
With this short paper I just want to
show the possibility to import
existing data into 3dsmax with the
help of various programs and
plugins. This paper should show
you a completely other way of
working with 3d MAX as you might
know or expected. At the end of the
tutorial you might be really surprised
and some of you might be
dissapointed, but if only a few of you
understand the meaining of what I
wanted to say with this paper I
would be really happy.

I would be really happy.
Its been ages since my last tutorial.
As a matter of fact I am
admininstrator at 3dkingdom.org
(only god and PiLe knows why ;) )
and responsible for the tutorials
section, and I am really sorry that
you have scarcely anything heard of
me for the last few months. Good
luck 3dkingdom.org is not reliant on
me and has a few very active
members who submitted their work
to help the others. I want to thank all
of them.
Alright, the titel of this paper is
Creating Landscapes in 3d Studio
MAX. I am sure that some of the
3dk-knights who frequently browse
the forums have read lots of stuff
about Terragen, which should be
the non-plus-ultra for landscape
modelling. Well, that’s right: You
can create very fast, very good
landscapes, you can export them to
3dsmax and do some post work
there. Terragen is a very nice tool if
you want to create some fractal
generated surfaces or if you want to
work with displacemet maps. BUT:
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why should I use an other program DEMs consist of a sampled array of
to do stuff like landscapes when I W hats a DEM? elevations for a number of ground
have one of the best programs positions at regularly spaced
already installed? With 3d MAX you DEM stands for Digital Elevation intervals.
have a great tool, and the Model, but lets start from the These digital cartographic /geo-
landscape that we are going to beginning: graphic data files are produced by
create is absolutely identical with Digital elevation model data are the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
the real Grand Canyon! arrays of regularly spaced elevation as part of the National Mapping
values. The USGS Digital Elevation Program.
But befor the intro is getting too long Model (DEM) data files are digital
and boring I want to tell you the representations of cartographic
main things that this paper is information in a raster form.
focused on:
What is a DEM (this chapter
is just for the ones who are
interested in the background)
Where to find DEMs
Using some freeware progs
(some of them are for good old
DOS) to convert files
Finding plugins on the net +
how to install them to 3dsmax
How to import data into MAX
How to create a quite well
looking rock material (blend,
gradient)
That’s a DEM from the Grand Canyon with a Raster of 10x10m

W hats a DEM?
For America a huge set of DEMs is
available on the internet for free
download with a 10 meter square
grid spacing along and between
each profile. Means: you can see
everything in the DEM that is bigger
then 10 meters in real life.
But I do not want write to much
about DEMs in general. If you are
interested in a detailed overview do
not hesitate to visit the USGS
hompage:
http://www.usgs.gov
(the exact link can be found at the
end of the tutorial.)
The next step we want to go about is
to download some DEMs and import
them into 3d MAX. Perhaps, befor
we start, I should say that it needs
lots of pre-work to be able to create
such landscapes, and that the work
in MAX is focused on lightning up
and texturing the scene (or, in a next
step, animating the whole stuff).
You do not have to model anything
in 3dsmax, so this tutorial is not
really a 3d MAX tutorial but
shows
a way to import DEMs. And with a
bit of knowledge you are able to
create photorealistic images, but as
I said befor: I am not going to
discuss on this topic ;)
W here to find DEMs?
To get started, you have to know
where to find the DEMs you need.
In our case we need the elevation
data from the Grand Canyon. Good
luck that we only need one site to
download our grand canyon model,
but for lateron I will tell you a few
more sites which you can check out
as well.
Alright, enough of this bushwah;
LETS START!!
First of all, to realize this tutorial you
must have to download
a few files,
one or two freeware progs
and a plugin for 3ds MAX.
So if you have a problem with that
(28.8k users (if there are still some
out there ;) ) or if you are not
working on your own computer, and
do not have the rights to install
plugins into the 3dsmax directory)
you wont be able to follow the
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For all the others, open your
internet explorer (or netscape,
mozilla, opera,….) and surf to:
http://www.mapmart.com
When successfully opened, you
have to click on the "Ditial Elevation
Model" link that you can find in the
menu on the right.
If you have the time, take it and
explore the site, its really worth a
look

W here to find DEMs?
A new site should open, with lots of
text and (for us) very
uniteresting stuff. We are only
interested on the Begin Search
Button. Click it to get to a new site.
(Look at the big picture below)
Interesting stuff can be found, and if you find the time, just take it and explre it
Again a new site should open.
On this new site you can see a map
of the United States of America.
Everything that is painted green on
this map is available to download
(and almost ready to be imported
into 3d MAX) As our goal is to
model the Grand Canyon, we have
to zoom in.
(Hopefully everyone knows where
to find the Grand Canyon ;) )
To Zoom in you have to select the
Zoom In field in the ToolBox menu
on the left. (Look at the picture on
bottom)
The ToolBox - I hope that I do not
habce to explain how it works ;)
If you do not know where to find the
grand canyon: no problem ;)
Just do the following:
Click on the Zoom to… field (which
can be found in the upper middle)
and select Lat/Long Degrees.
tutorial.
*Latitude and Longitude are how
your site location is defined on the
surface of the earth. Latitude is
used to express how far north or
south you are, relative to the
equator. If you are on the equator
your latitude is zero. If you are near
the north pole your latitude is nearly
90 degrees N
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In the new pop-up window just enter
the values:
Latitude: 36.11
Longitude: -112.19
And press Enter (The explanation of
Latitude and Longitude, is found
below*.)
Longitude shows your location in an
east-west direction, relative to the
Greenwich meridian. Places to the
west of Greenwich (such as North
and South America) have angles up
to 180 deg west.

W here to find DEMs?
When entered the values, you
should now see the following map:
Very good. Now select zoom out in
the Tool Box on the left and click
once on the red star on the map as
we need a bigger cutout for our 3d
MAX-model lateron.
After that activate DEM in the Base
Map menu (that can be found on the
left as well) to see the map as
shown on the right.
When you can see this map, click
the Begin Ordering Button which is
found somewhere on top.
At MapMart you are allowed to
download 9 DEMs per order, so we
are going to place a rectangle
around the 9 fields that we want to
download. How? I think that I do not
have to explain that ;)
On the left side you should see a
table with the Quad Name, the State
and the Availability of the DEMs.
Good luck everything is available to
download. ;)
Be sure that every Quad has a
check in the order-box and click on
the Check Out box below.
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A new window will open with lots of
text and stuff which is not important
for us. Just look at the cost field and
make sure everything costs 0$.
Now scroll down on the site and fill
out the form.
If you do not want, you do not have
to fill in your real name and stuff.
They just want to know who is
interested in their data. (I told them
my real name and my city and I
have never recieved any email or
spam from them, and I do not
expect to get anything as they work
tight together with the USGS which
is a national organisation).
Just fill out every field that has a red
star beside and click the Submit
Order Button below. If you have
filled out everything "correct" you
should come to the "you ordered…"
site

W here to find DEMs?
The "You Orderd… Site"
All you have to do is to download
the 9 files (one by one; otherwise
the MapMart server gets flooded
and will stop working ;) ) and save
them onto your hard disc. Best thing
to do will be to create an own folder
for the whole tutorial. I guess that at
latest now, the 28.8 modem users
will stop to read on as all 9 files
together have a filesize of 26MB ;)
But its really worth to download.
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U sing freeware progs
to convert the files
Creating DEM-files out of the zip-
archives with sdts2dem.exe
When you open one of the zipped
files you can see that it contains 19
different files. What we want to do
in the next step is to create one file
out of 18 (as one of the 19 files is
just a read.me). Therefor we need a
very small program that can be
found here:
http://www.cs.arizona.edu/topovista/
sdts2dem/sdts2dem.exe
(Size: 226kb; for additional
When done you are finished with
information make sure to visit their
the DEMs-downloading stuff. You
homepage)
have sucessfully downloaded a part
of the Grand Canyon and saved it
Best thing to do will be to save the
on your disc. As you might have
small program into the same folder
noticed the files you have
as you have saved your 9 zip-files
downloaded are zipped, and contain
you downloaded befor.
a few strange named files. For the
Now, select the first zip-file and
moment you do not need to unzip
unzip it into the same directory.
them but rather wait a few more
That directory should now contain 9
mins because we now need a small All the files you should have now
zip-files, the sdts2dem.exe-
programm to convert the whole stuff
program, 18 .ddf-files and one
into a real DEM.
readme. (look at the pic on the right.

U sing freeware progs
to convert the files
When unzipped run the
sdts2dem.exe. The command
window should pop-up and you
should see some text (just look at
the pic below)
The command-line from sdts2dem.exe
Alright, the next steps are really
easy
Enter first 4 characters of the base
SDTS file name:
Guess what you have to do :) In
my case I entered 9860 as I have
unzipped the
1678106.dem.sdts.tar.gz - file.
When done, the little program
asks you to enter the output-file
name. Just select "part1" press
enter and wait a few secs
(depends on your CPU speed)
As soon as the program has
finished the calculation, it closes
the command-window. Now check
your directory with all the files.
If everything went fine, you should
see a new file named part1.dem.
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Next step is to delete all the .ddf Downloading 3DEM and
files and the readme-file, unzip the merging the 9 DEM files to one:
next file into that directory and run
the sdts2dem.exe again (You 3DEM is a freeware program as
have to delete the previous well and can be found at:
unzipped files as it might happen
http://www.visualizationsoftware.com/3d
that the files within the new zip-file
em/downloads.html
are named the same way as the
ones already unzipped!!).
This time, name the new file Install the little program. If you do
part2. Repeat that till you have 9 not know how to do that, just read
.dem files in your directory. (After the included readme.txt
that you can delete the zip-files as
well, as you do not need them When installed just run it and you
anymore, but to tell the truth, I should see something like below:
kept those files, as you do not A white screen with a menu-bar
know what future brings ;) on top.
By now you are theoretically able
to open the files in 3d MAX, but
befor we do that, we have to
merge the 9 files to one. You wont
believe it, but to be able to do that,
we have to download an other
small program that is called 3DEM

U sing freeware progs
to convert the files
Downloading 3DEM and
merging the 9 DEM files to one:
Click on File, Load terrain model, in
the pop-up make sure USGS DEM
is selected and click ok. Now
browse to the directory where you
have installed your 9 dem files and
open them. If for some reasons you
cannot open all 9 files at once just
open the first 4 of them. (3dem has
a few bugs, and it might happen
that it cannot open all 9 files at
once, but who cares as long as it is
freeware?)
When opened you should see
something like the pic on the right.
Now select Files, Save USGS
ASCII DEM, and save it into your
directory and name it merged.dem.
By doing that you merge all 9 files
to one. That is necessarry for
lateron as you would see some
strange borders in MAX when you
open the .dem files individually
(best thing is to check it out ;) )
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If you had problems to open all 9
files at once, open the first 3 or 4
and save them as merged1.dem,
after that open the next 3 or 4 files
and name them merged2.dem and
so on.
When done, open all the merged
files and merge them together….
It’s a bit more work, but the result
is the same.
At the end you should have one
file named merged.dem which is
about 85MB big. If you have
succeeded we can move on to
install a 3d MAX plugin and take a
first look at the file in 3ds.
A part of the Grand Canyon opened in 3DEM
 Page 9/13

F inding plugins on the

net and how to install
them to 3dsmax

I guess that everyone knows how
to search for plugins and how to
install them into 3dsmax so this
chapter will be rather short :-)
What we need is a plugin that
makes it possible to open .dem
files in 3dsmax. Good luck, that I
have searched it for you, so you
just have to install it.
Go to
The zipfile includes 2 files. We are
only interested in the Dem2Max.dlo.
Extract it into your max/plugins
directory. (Make sure that you have
the right plugin for your max version!)
When done, start 3d MAX.

http://www.habware.at/max6/dem
2max6.zip

and download the plugin if you are

using 3d MAX 6. If you do not
have MAX6 or want to have
additional information about that
company, please visit their
website (there are plugins for 3, 4
and 5 as well)

http://www.habware.at
 Page 10/13

H ow to import data
into 3dsmax

3dsmax is able to import various The import will take a few

file formats. Most of you might
know: .3ds or .prj
With the little plugin we have
installed, it is now possible to
import .dem files as well.
The plugin DEM2MAX is an import
plugin, that allows you to import
landscapes defined in the Digital
Elevation Models into 3DStudio
Max. It also provides methods to
set the color of the landscape
depending on the elevation of the
faces. Get your favorite landscape
into 3DStudio MAX!
To import a model, select from the
File menu the entry Import.
moments. When successfully
loaded, you should see something
like the pic below.
It looks quite well. The only
problem is, that the z values from
the dem-file is in feet; 3dsmax
does not know that, and shows it
in meters.
To fix that, you just have to scale
the model in z-direction.
As 1 foot is about 0,3m you have
to scale about 30 percent.
Therefor: click on non-uniform
scale (pic below)

In the file selection box goto List

Types and select
• Digital Elevation Model (*.dem)

Now select the merged.dem file

and start the import.

(take a look at the pic on the right)


H ow to import data
into 3dsmax
When activated, make sure that
the model is selected, and click on
offset mode transform type in
Look at the pic. The button can be
found somewhere on the bottom.
Now you should be able to enter
values in the x, y and z fields. As I
said bevor, we have to scale the z-
axis to 33%, as the hight is in feet
and not in meter.
To do that, just enter 33 in the
z.field and press enter.
Thats, it, the model should now
have the right hight
+/-..., you can also try to calculate
the real percentage, but 33 is fine
for the tut
M odifiying the model
Make sure that the model is
selected and click on the modify-
button.
In the modify menu you are able
to change a lot of settings.
Mesh Density
StepX and StepY stands for the
accuracy of the model. The lower
these values are the better is the
model BUT the more polys you
get and the harder it is to work
with. So that really depends on
your CPU how low you can go.
Try a value of 5, that should look
fine.
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Clipping
Top, Bottom, Left, Right just tells
you the size of the model.
Make it a bit smaller as it is. (Do it
and see why ;) )
When finished, you are done with
the "modelling" part.
All you have to do know is to
create a good looking material,
place some lights and a camera
and render the landscape

H ow to create a quite
well looking rock
material
Alright, I have played a bit with
materials and came up with a
quite well looking one. (for this
particular model)
Bevor you start, add a UVW
modifier to the model (plane in x-
direction, and hit “Fit” button)
We have to do that, because we
want to add a gradient map with
different colors. So it is possible to
create a kind of elevation.
• Elevation 1: eg. Water
• Elevation 2: eg. low green
• Elevation 3: eg. high green
• Elevation 4: eg. pure mountain
• Elevation 5: eg. ice and snow
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But how? When done, click on Go to parent
When added the UVW-modifer, till you are back to the blend-
open your material editor ("m" = basics.
shortcut), select a free field, and
click on the "standard"-button. Click on the field near Material 2
In the pop-up select blend In the Diffuse-field, add a Cellular-
map and change the colors as
The popup should close and you shown:
should have added a basic-blend
material to your slot.
Click on the button close to
"material1"
In the maps rollout, click on the
map-button near the "diffuse"-field
and select gradient ramp
Now change the colors as shown
below.
When done, click on Go to parent
till you are back to the blend-
basics.
Now add a Noise Map in the Mask
When done, click on Go to parent
field (type: fractal), and apply the
and add a cellular map into the
material to the model.
bump field. Change the bump-
Thats it ;)
value to 10.
(try to play around with the cellular
settings)
 Page 13/13

C onclusions:
I hope it was not that difficult and
that you have learned something.

There is not much left to say, so I

will stay quite and wait for your
feedback.

Best wishes, good luck and till

next time…

Eumel3d

@-mail: eumel3d@3dkingdom.org

Little help for the material, the Material-Tree Thats, what you should get when you have
successfully followed the tutorial

Copyright © September 2004 :: 3D Kingdom.org :: Don't stay in the shadow!

Tutorial edited by Eumel3d and PiLe