Outerra Worlds Forums
Middle-Earth World => General Discussion => Topic started by: elenaran on March 06, 2013, 06:53:06 pm
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Hello, I'm trying to find the GIS data for this project. I've read that there are over 140 layers, but I can't seem to find the download location anywhere.
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elenaran, I think there is a link on CG site for the download. I'll have to look it up
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http://www.cartographersguild.com/general-miscellaneous-mapping/1332-middle-earth-dem-project-37.html (http://www.cartographersguild.com/general-miscellaneous-mapping/1332-middle-earth-dem-project-37.html) Read this, there is a link to download site. Monks can better tell you the deal when he logs in.
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I only see the Outerra files there. I was under the impression there were standard GIS files too
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Hi Elenaran, yes we have a good number of data layers, but not as many as we would like. We have them in .shp format- well any format that Global Mapper can output. One of our members put up an online map- can't access the link at the mo though. Why do you ask?
monks
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The map tiles are available at http://66.172.33.110/openlayers2.html (http://66.172.33.110/openlayers2.html)
But, no, that isn't a .shp. Monks, if I had access to those I could put together a webmap in Geoserver.
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I need to put a link to the map in the new website frontpage here:
http://www.me-dem.me.uk/ (http://www.me-dem.me.uk/)
I think it needs an image like the galleries and vids, but say "online map". So I'll have to resize them so we can fit the 3 on there.
Do you have ftp access from filezilla or something?
monks
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I've tracked down what I think are the latest Global Mapper project files- so many it's getting confusing! The latest update is 149 so you can imagine how many project files are on there :o
Yeh, I have two core files. One for the Outerra stuff and one for general shp files- which used to be the core project file but the Outerra one has somwhat taken over now since it has all the up to date terrain in there.
I'll have to compile all the shp files into one folder but prioritising what I think are the latest versions. So I'll have to add those last to overwrite any older versions. Then I can upload them to the ftp.
I don't think merging the two projects would be a good idea since the shp one contains data which is rarely used -to date anyway. Saves loading it all in everytime you open the project.
I also need to get the Outerra build terrain back into the GM project along with the GTS texture. And for the next build I'm going to alter the base dem fairly drastically- just respanning it- so the old base dem needs to be replaced too. We found that the base dem is too high...and that figures because the base dem was originally intended to cover the entire span of the terrain. But over the years a two layer approach evolved, so now we're adding stuff to the base dem- that's why we're getting very high terrain and lots of moorland in the GTS textures. I always figured we could respan the base dem once I'd decided to go the two layer route, but it was always scheduled for some distant time in the future as and when needed, so that's why it got forgotten about and overlooked. ;D
monks
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pm sent.
monks
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I've created a link off the front page to the online map.
http://www.me-dem.me.uk/ (http://www.me-dem.me.uk/)
monks
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Yeah, I'm interested in the shapefiles. Is there an FTP somewhere?
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Elenaran, it would be useful if you could tell us what you plan to do with the files?
monks
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Ah, well I teach a physical geography class, and I thought it would be cool if I could apply the topics we cover in class to a fictional world, such as Middle Earth. I was originally just going to use some map images from online, but they're all pretty poor in quality, and don't look how I want them to. I'm familiar with GIS, so I thought if someone had already made Middle Earth shapefiles, I could just make my own map.
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Heh, wish we had teachers like that when I was at school ;D
I don't know what level you are teaching it at so the files may be limited in use for you. I can upload the files to my googledrive.
We have:
Forests
Rivers
lakes
wetlands
towns/cities etc
vulcanism
roads
desert
Some generalised geology. biome and climate layers from Fonstad and role playing sources.
The terrain....
What software are you using to view it with? My partner here usually recommends not giving out full res data. You would have trouble with it anyway- especially the dem. I'll run off a 10K dem overnight and gen out some contours for you. I could give you the 10K dem too if you absolutely need it, but you could gen a dem from the contours if you have gridding in your software.
monks
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Yeah I definitely don't need the full super high resolution DEM. A resampled one is probably fine. I'm using ArcGIS.
The biome and climate layers from Fonstad might be good too - I love that book. Also, general stuff like forest, rivers, lakes, etc is good.
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Ok cool. I've had my copy of Fonstad a few years now- I see she did a few other maps too- never knew that until I picked the book up a few weeks ago. ;) The files are on my Google Drive. Do you have a google account? I think I can give you access via an email address too.
Just generate your own contours from the dem.
monks
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Hey Monks,
I just logged in to look for the PM, but I'm not seeing it. Any hints?
Jeremy
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message must have got lost...I've sent another ;)
monks
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Okay, so I started to build a webmap with the shapefiles on the MapBox stack. (TileMill is the next big thing in town, and MapBox software Just Works (TM)) So, I went to label the cities, and I discovered that the cities did not have any names in the attribute table. Most of the other shapefiles are the same way, no particularly useful attributes. So, I am going to take ownership of the shapefiles and start adding attributes to them over the next couple of days. When I am done, I will try to put them on GitHub so that we can work on them collaboratively in the future. Oh, and then I will make a killer webmap.
Cheers,
Jeremy
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Ah thanks Jeremy, I tend not to look at the attributes that much- names, elevations, stuff like that. I very rarely give features names actually, but with stuff like that, I can see it would be useful.
Great news on the webmap 8)
monks
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Hey, I hope this will be seen! I didn't want to start an entirely new thread for a redundant question. Let me know if I should.
I am also interested in making a ArcGIS map of Middle Earth. I think it would be crazy fun for my GIS final, and maybe break up the monotony of the class (my professor is definitely not elenaran). If it would be alright by you, I'd like to use the GIS data to make some sort of spatial analysis map. Please let me know if this is an option! I have about three weeks for this project, so if I'm not able to get it within a week or so I'll have to end up doing a different topic, but no worries!
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Hi Bloodwolf, welcome to the boards. :) I'd love to be able to help you but you have asked me at a bad time really. I'm in the middle of another game project. It's maxed out my hard drive and I have little or no room left to copy back in the project I'd need to, in order to generate you any really useful terrain data. I can't really generate the terrain from my backup hard drive where the files are now sitting because the project has file paths which are pointing to the other hard drive. The project wouldn't even load. Does that make sense? What's more even if I could generate the terrain data, you'd have to manually georef 16 tiles as I've not had chance to get the final terrain back into global mapper- which would save you the job. The data on the ftp is probably not of much use to you as it represents the project at a much more basic state: no rivers or mountain ranges.
We are waiting to get the textures into the project, but that has also had to wait until I finish up with this game. Everything is on hold until I finish it really.
Hope you can find another worthy and interesting project for your finals! And please stick around as the improved map with textures in Outerra will be well worth the wait!
monks
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I just posted my introduction, but thought I'd add my request for some kind of heightmap and/or data from which I can export one.
I've got Global Mapper installed (2 week trial) if that helps.
Basically I'm looking to recreate a reasonably scaled map of NW Middle-Earth in minecraft. It's for a private (non-commercial) server. I'm a long time (30+ years) Tolkien fan and I've got pretty much all of ICE's Rolemaster/MERP Middle-Earth modules. I figure a heightmap would GREATLY help me in my task. Heh. I can import it into World Painter for some base ground topography and then proceed to add rivers, lakes, and forests.
I don't know what a "reasonable" scale would be, but at least as detailed as this gentleman's WIP (http://massivemiddleearth.com). He has roughly a 24000x24000 block map of NW Middle-Earth. This pic (http://massivemiddleearth.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/middleearthbetabiomessmall.png) shows the extents. I wouldn't mind trying something higher, like 48000x48000, since some of the areas I'd like to import structures into seemed a bit small for a 1-1 scale structure.
Any kind of help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advance, and take care.
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bloodwolf, you can get a copy of the terrain at 10k res if you're still interested. No doubt it's too late for your project, but it's on Google Drive. Let me know ;)
monks
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Hi, may I also ask for a simple shapefile for a large-scale Middle Earth, or, maybe, whole Arda?
I'm leading a study project where I'm teaching pre-graduate school students programming and we're trying to create a GIS-like wiki and visualizer. We are http://higepedia.org (http://higepedia.org) (the site is in Russian).
Middle Earth would help to involve my students better.
One of our nearest plans is to draw animated maps, so we might draw an animation of Arda changes during its ages too :)
Thank you a lot.
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Hi Singalen, Yes, I think we can help you. I can give you the dem at 10,000 pixels resolution and the shp files. Let me know if that would help. :)
monks
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Hi Monks,
I'm wondering if you could also share a lower-res DEM file (e.g. geotiff) with me. I have a blog (geovisualist.com) where I mess around with data visualization and the like, and I think it would be fun to look at the overall hypsometry of Middle Earth. Perhaps we could compare it to regular Earth and make some guesses at the erosional history or surface processes at work in Middle Earth.
Of course I'd give you full credit and would refrain from sharing any of your data without your consent.
Bravo on your project, by the way. Truly an awesome accomplishment!
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Hello Monks,
I realize that this conversation is ancient history, but my interest is in the same vein as Singalen's. I teach a GIS course at the College of William and Mary (a small liberal arts school in Virginia), and I often have need of interesting data layers to attract prospective students to my class. I would greatly appreciate it if you would share with me any geophysical vector files (I saw mention of *shp) that you have created for Middle Earth. Of course, I will understand if you would rather not distribute elements of your landscape; as a geospatial analyst I realize that creating and editing data is a meticulous process. For what it's worth, I assure you that my interests are purely academic, in every sense of the word.
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Hello everyone,
I'm restarting my push for a new webmap. To support that, I have put some of the GIS data on GitHub. As with all ME-DEM data, we prefer that anyone who uses it explains what they are using it for. But we do approve most personal and educational uses. Contributors are always welcome.
https://github.com/jvangeld/ME-GIS
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I'm in the process of setting a new website up. My last one was deleted by my ISP because I owed them a fiver...d*cks...well this is late to the party :-D...
monks
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Webhosts can be such a pain that way. I'm looking forward to whatever you will put up :)
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Hi Monks,
I'm Pflinch, from Spain, I'm an archaeologist specialized in human mobility models using GIS. In a few months I'll be participating in a conference about "Archaeology in fantastic universes", who will take place in the Complutense University of Madrid. This event has been organized primarily for educational purposes, trying to teach history and archaeology to the students in a funny way.
For my paper I thought about making some archaeological GIS studies in the Midde Earth and, searching for a proper DEM, I arrived to your awesome project. I've just downloaded the layers from GitHub but I'll need a DEM for making some Spatial Analysis. I would like to ask you if you could send me a raster DEM layer or the contours in order to make my own raster layer with ArcGis.
I will not earn money for this, it will be all for educational purposes and, of course, you will be in the acknowledgment.
Thanks
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Hi Pflinch, welcome to ME-DEM!
I don't know if Monks will be able to provide a DEM. It sounds like his backups are a bit scattered right now. But I added the Contours_18 layer and the HelperContours layer to the GitHub repository. They were generated from our DEM several years ago. I hope they are useful, and I look forward to seeing what you come up with!
Jeremy
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Webhosts can be such a pain that way. I'm looking forward to whatever you will put up :)
Where's the dl now guys?
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Hi monks and anyone involved in this project. I'm a graduate student and I was hoping to use the data from this project in a graduate level thesis of some kind. Can someone tell me what data is available, preferably in GIS formats? Feel free to PM me too. I'm a civil engineer and was hoping to do a hydrologic analysis of the world DEM and see how sediment transport and possible urbanization will change the terrain.
-Arca9 (Alex)