By LucaZone
1] Getting the data u need
Ok so first off you need to know where your route is in the UK, to be able to choose the right DEM files to download. To find out, simply download the map in the UKT file library that shows the UK in grid form and indicates the long/lat lines. Provided very kindly by mdanie
UK 1 degree map grid for 90M DEM Route Builders
From that map you can then see roughly what long/lat numbers you need to look for to get the landscape relating to your route.
The actual 90m projection data can be found here :: SRTM FTP server
Simply click on the link near the bottom of the page that says Eurasia (the continent of Europe). This then brings up links to download all the 1 degree blocks of landscape for the whole of Europe. The files you will be looking for to make a route in the UK, will be in the region of N48 > N58 and W006 > E002 (W 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 1 2 E). So for example to get Liverpool you want to find the file named N53W002.hgt.zip.
2] Downloaded the files, now what?
You will notice that the files you download are ZIP files, so you will need to open them up and extract the files in them. Make sure if you need to download more than one file, to put all the hgt files from inside the zip's into the same folder. Will make things alot easier later.
Once you have all the files you think you need, and they are all unzipped, you will probably see they are all .hgt files. What you suppose to do with these then? Well its unlikely you will have anything that can open them, and they are still a way off being able to make MSTS landscape. So right now we need a program called 3Dem.
Click here = 3Dem v18.2
then click 'Download 3Dem'. Then on the next page, navigate and click 'Download Now', which is next to 'Get this on CD'
Now i know i said this was easy, and yet im seemingly writing alot, well its just so that im making it as obvious as possible, so that its easy. ok
Now once youve got 3Dem downloaded and installed, you can go ahead and open it up. May look confusing but that doesnt matter. All you have to do is 'Load Terrain Model' from the file menu, and select the second option down on the left side. Notice it says .hgt. file type
This is where you navigate to the folder you extracted all the hgt files into. Simply bring one up and you will find out what that file looks like in graphical terms.3] Converting the files for use
Now that you have the hgt file open, DONT DO ANYTHING, except bring the file menu back up and click Save GeoTiff DEM. When doing this you will be prompted to give a name, where i simply use the same name it was called as a hgt file. That way i can track the same file in multi-formats if any problems come up.
Repeat this for all the HGT files you have downloaded that you think you need, and thats about it for 3Dem. Thats all its for. Opening one format so you can save it as another.
4] Creating MSTS Terrain in DEMEX
This is where the fun starts and things begin to look exciting.
To take these new 'GeoTiff' files you just created and make them into a 3d landscape in Microsoft Train Simulator we need one other program called 'DEMEX'. This program takes the GeoTiff and works with MSTS to create the landscape for your route.
Get DEMEX from here = Digital Rails.
Once on the site, find the products, and then the tools section. From there you want to select DEMEX, and then download the 'Evaluation' version. This is because its freeware, and although not all the functionality is available, you can complete what we need. (if you wish to have access to all features without any time limit, DEMEX can be purchased for $20 off the same site)
This is where a little effort is needed in the process of creating landscape. Now although DEMEX will be doing all the leg work and turning the flat pool table land into glorious rolling hills, before it can do that it needs a route and more specifically 'world tiles' to work with. So at this point you need to go into the Route Geometry Editor from the Train Simulator default tools, and select the land / tiles that your route is going to run on.
Sadly as this tutorial is not about creating route tiles, but about terraforming (making the landscape on them), im not going to go through setting up the route, and getting those world tiles. There are enough other helping hands out there that cover it so if you dont know, this is where you go find out
5]I've got the route, the tiles, the landscape data, now what about my hills!
Ok so lets open up DEMEX. A blue screen and lots of greyed buttons. First things first before you get any landscape data, you need your route in there. Go to File and then 'Select Route'. At which point your given only the route folders in MSTS to choose from. This makes it very easy, and all you have to do is click on the one thats yours. If however you cant see the route folders, simply click 'select manually' and you can navigate through your computer until you get the route folder from MSTS.
Once youve selected your route folder and pressed OK, up in that blue screen comes all the tiles that you seleted in RGE laid out at a funny angle. Now its not really that important why they are angled so i wont go into it.
What we now need to do is get some data that covers those tiles. So go to File and this time 'Open'. navigate to the folder that contains all the files you saved in 3Dem. the GeoTiff's. Highlight one and click OK. This then loads the DEM data onto the screen, in a position that is relative the tiles you picked in RGE, as well as its global position on the planet. Denoted by the long/lat of the file name. Confusing, but it doesnt matter. What matters is that hopefully if you picked the right tiles in RGE, the grey scale image that youve now loaded into DEMEX falls underneath those tiles.
If all the tiles on your route are now backed by the grey image showing the landscape, only one step further remains. Telling DEMEX to turn the tiles on that image into MSTS terrain.
But if they dont, then well we need to get the other images in that you downloaded and converted. To do this, we want to merge the images together. If you try and open another image, it will disguard the first and only show the second. To get both up, we choose File and then 'Merge DEM'. You will then be asked to select another image from the same folder. If the numbers are next to each other, chances are the image when it loads in will sit next to the first image we opened up.
Repeat this process until you have loaded all the files in that are needed to cover all the tiles on your route.
Once we have that done its time to get that terrain into MSTS. So make sure to check that all the tiles have little X's in them. Simply click 'All' from the line of buttons. Now go to the menu and choose Standard Terrain and then from the drop down menu click Create Route Terrain. A bit of loading takes place, and you will see 2 numbers, one rushing up and the other very high (dependant on the tiles in your route). This is DEMEX drawing the landscape on each tile. Once finished simply open up Route Editor, and view your lovely environment. Maybe press + or - to get a bit of shadow.
And thats it, when your happy doing this and everything in the route appears to be correct, you can go ahead and start laying track.
Terrain done!
