BS GeoFormer enables users to create detailed 3D terrains via easy to use
modeling tools or importing real-world data from a variety of supported geographic and image formats.
BS GeoFormer builds 3D terrains from heightfield images, and therefor provides
various tools for working with these heightfield images and viewing the results
in real-time 3D. Many of these modeling tools are similar to those found in image manipulation
programs like Photoshop, for example; brushes of various sizes, selections, rubber stamp,
text, blur, smudge and eye dropper. Other tools and filters are especially geared
towards terrain modeling, such as raise and lower ground, craters, terrace and erode.
Once created, these 3D terrains can be textured with high-resolution aerial or
satellite imagery and exported to optimized real-time 3D for viewing in BS Contact
Geo and other players in the BS Contact range.
BS GeoFormer can be downloaded as test version with functional limitations.
Download
Product features
Menu-driven generation of terrain models (WYSIWYG - What you see
is what you get)
Format conversion of digital height models: VRML 2.0, BMP,
BT, MSH, GIS, DXF, PGM, Polytrans, RAW,
StL, STM, GRD, Terragen, TGA, USGS DEM,
WCS ELEV, Xpand Rally
Marking of vegetation points for i.e. tree visualization
Optimization of loading time through triangulation of meshes of the height models
Create interactive 3D landscapes by yourself with just a few clicks
Explore your walkable landscape visualization interactively with the BS Contact Geo.
The landscape models that have been created with the BS GeoFormer can also be integrated
as a component within the BS Contact Geo 3D Viewer in enduser applications.
Image gallery
Colorado Landcover
BS GeoFormer showing a landcover texture attached
to a one-degree DEM, both imported from the Multi-Resolution Land
Characteristics Consortium site. The elevations were exaggerated
vertically and the results raytraced.
Georeferenced Texture
BS GeoFormer showing a hi-res GeoTIFF map of
central Pennsylvania using a UTM coordinate system reprojected and
placed on a northeastern United States DEM having a latitude/longitude
system. Vertical scale has been exaggerated to show the mountains better.
The map is several hundred kilometers wide and raytraced to show more texture detail.
Waves
Wave formations, made with BS GoeFormer.
Desert Scene
Desert image, made and rendered with BS GeoFormer.
Effects used: gforge, feather selection, Smudge tool, Motion blur, vertical scaling. Multiple smudge tool passes at slightly different angles help create an interference pattern look typical of blown sand.
Alien Scene
Alien image, made and rendered with BS GeoFormer.
Effects used: Craters plug-in, bitmap texturing, Terrain and Water bumpmappers, Standard shader, soft shadowing, fog.
Asteroidfield
Two small ellipsoid gforge heightfields with a hi-res eroded gforge texture, repeated thousands of times with POV-Ray to make an asteroid belt.
Asteroids
Two 128 x 128 heightfields distorted into oblong spheroids by BS GeoFormer and rendered with the Aqsis REYES renderer.
Bumpy Earth
With UV displacement mapping, BS GeoFormer did this vertical exaggeration of the Earth by mapping a Mercator heightfield onto a sphere.
Alien World #2
After creating a large set of random cones using the Mt. Fractal plug-in, we ran it through the Mound 1.2 plug-in which has a terrace-before-mounding option. The result was then inverted and textured.
Terragen Example
Alessandro Falappa did this picture in February 1999. It's a ridged multifractal noise pattern rendered in Terragen, with some light retouching.
Winter Forest
This is a sample rendition from our POV-Ray Forest tutorial.
It was done by using a plasma fractal bump map with the Superpatch
version of POV-Ray 3.1a (so that we could use slope-dependant texturing).
The frozen river uses a gforge bump map with the bump_size value greatly exaggerated.
The trees come from the Genesis Toolkit.
Alien World
After using the Bubbles plug-in, the remaining flat area of the
heightfield was selected with the Magic Wand tool and raised by the
Mound plug-in. The selection marquee was inverted to select the bubbles,
and they were 'mounded' as well.
The Borg Attack Luke
The texture was done in PaintShop Pro. The laser beam was added
using Adobe Illustrator and PhotoShop. The copper tubing was done using a POV-Ray script.
