Richer background/relief

[hubbardmapworks]

This site got me wanting to really enrich some backgrounds. Started this a few hours ago, will try to 3-D it, if I can get my raster data to extrude.
No labels or layout yet. sorry not a great jpg...
BUN_Arcscene_10.jpg

[Steel General]

That's pretty cool, looking forward to the 3D version.

[su_liam]

Very nice. I'm kind of torn whether to use the hell out of ArcGIS while I got it(till june, since I graduate winter term, woohoo), or try to avoid getting attached since there's no way I'm paying $6,000 a year to RENT the MINIMAL version of the program. I really need to friend up with a professor at the university that uses GRASS on the Mac.

[hubbardmapworks]

hey su, you can get trial (student) versions that come with several different GIS textbooks available out there. the versions last anywhere from 180 days up to one year. they are fully functional arcview editions, some now with 9.3.1. check out amazon or places like that for the GIS books. and to buy a license version of arcView isnt near how much you said. you're thinking of an arcInfo license. i think arcview licenses are running around $1500 now. arcInfo is a pro upgrade for more spatial analyst and server tools.
peace,

[su_liam]

I have the student version free till june 8th. Well... I paid $30.00 for a usb dongle about a month before they discontinued the hardware-based DRM.

You need the ArcInfo license to do any of the interesting raster-based analysis. Actually, between SAGA-GIS and GRASS I can do most of the raster stuff, although getting anything into GRASS is a nightmare. Vector and georeferencing are the places where ArcGIS really shines. All that said, I think I will use the hell out of ArcGIS till my student license expires.

EDIT: btw, did you build those mountains by hand or are they repurposed real-world DEMs?

Aaaand... Anybody interested in real world DEMs, for whatever reason, there's a good source at seamless.usgs.org, though it's been a little buggy lately...

[hubbardmapworks]

su,
hey, you should buy this book while you still can, it looks like ESRI and many others have pulled it. but it's the only one left i think with a one-year version of 9.2 for $76.00. it's a great deal, you can add arcscene and arcglobe when installing too. i found one place still selling it:
http://www.seekbooks.com.au/book/Map...1589481817.htm

and that seamless server...always been clunky. it used to be a little faster, but never great. make sure to turn off unneeded layers in the directory to the right, because it may have many turned on when you first boot in, and leave plenty of time for screen refreshes. if you target a big area for download, you'll still wind up ith many grid files to download, and then seam together in a raster catalog to even get them to look good. pain in the ...
maybe you knew that, idk.

yeah, i love the raster. guess it shows. any hillshades or dem's i use, i have manipulated them pretty good to get a look i like, or is needed. some backgrounds are even 2,3,4, layers of raster to a final look underneath. then there's the usual contrast, trans, bright, etc.

you know what i really want? the Map-Publisher plug-in for Adobe.
talk about some pricey stuff though...

[Hai-Etlik]

I have the student version free till june 8th.

Same boat here, though it's April that they cut me off from the license server. I've been playing with Quantum GIS a little when I have free time.