Some of my own visual research. The notes probably don’t make much sense but this is my own way of trying to reference recreating large scale terrains. I’ll take these ideas into World Machine Pro eventually, well everything but the River Systems for now. To bad this was not elevation only grey scale. Kind of hard to get a clear idea how the many features truly look. Maybie there is a DEM of this somewhere?
http://www.ashundar.com/datas/users/1941-crazy%20research.jpg
where is it a picture of, dems/srtm data is avaiable for pretty much everywhere at various resolution free online, if you know the location. SeerBlue
The area around the himalayas, northern india and the tibetian plateau.
That’s a huuuuge area. There are 90m DEM’s available for pretty much all of it on http://seamless.usgs.gov/
It is huge but alot of very nice land forms and some serious strike-slip faults and uplift movement going on.
Checking the site out right now… kind of hard to navigate around it but i’ll get the hang of it eventually. 
another tool for viewing imagery is the Carbon Projects Giai app. You can access a wide variety of formats that are not available in GE or World Wind, but it is a flat 2d “map” type display. SeerBlue
I checked out the Carbon Projects Giai. Have to keep that for future referance as well. The 90m DEM did not work out, i think my connection is to slow for looking into the smaller regions but no worries. I think i have a fairly good idea of what the elevation differences are anyways.
Eolian Processes and Landforms
http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/10ah.html
Some usefull goodies here.
I was playing with Nikita’s latest Glacier Device with some Perlin modifications and came up with what looks like a series of strike-slip faults. I plan on sharing this soon when i get rid of the out of place eroded effects on the left side of the heightfield.
http://www.ashundar.com/datas/users/1941-strike-slip%20faults%20test.jpg
Oho! Interesting stuff. Er… Criss?
Who is this Criss. :? 8)
Hey Sethren, here’s acouple of great sites for geology research:
A full course on geology:
http://earthsci.org/index.html
A free imagebank (request via email):
http://www.earthscienceworld.org/images/search/results.html?Keyword=Thrust%20Fault#null
I’m in the middle of writing an article for ME-DEM on geology. It would be great if we could hook up and get some of the landforms covered in the article actually built in World Machine with mini-tuts or whatever. I’m thinking a direct line from the Middle Earth ->r-w examples/theory->how to’s.
Seer has a good point about getting actual dems of those features- the best tutorials I’ve seen incoporate dems. At the end of the day, its the dems that you are using for refs.
monks
I got something even better. 
Two brand new Geology College Books, a hundred dollars a piece, there not mine as i am just borrowing them but i want to take some very good scans and digital photos of subjects that are needed. I can get to this in afew days.
I can try to get some very good land forms covered but i stink at tutorials, not my cup of tea. Hopefully as soon as World Machine Pro is available for Beta testing this will allow alot of possibilities to open up especially hand placing land forms where they need to be, something i have always wanted to do.
I have GeoControl as well but i have not used it for awhile now, i am kind of waiting until Johannes covers more terrain types and “Rivers”.
I want to cover some more unique land forms this week as well. I did all the dune types as well, atleast as close as i could get. I don’t think The Middle Earth needs dunes though, heh,heh.
So the answer is YES!
I got something even better. Two brand new Geology College Books, a hundred dollars a piece, there not mine as i am just borrowing them but i want to take some very good scans and digital photos of subjects that are needed. I can get to this in afew days.
Nice- you still can’t beat a good book! I looked into the 2 part Encyclopedia of Geomorpholgy a few months ago- came out at several hundred dollars each. Ridiculously high priced (but fantastic) resources.
I can try to get some very good land forms covered but i stink at tutorials, not my cup of tea. Hopefully as soon as World Machine Pro is available for Beta testing this will allow alot of possibilities to open up especially hand placing land forms where they need to be, something i have always wanted to do.
All we need to do is point the reader from the article to a zip file with the macro, or the relevant forum, or whatever. Maybe include a shot in WM of the terrain in the ME-DEM tut and a dem shot?
I have GeoControl as well but i have not used it for a while now, i am kind of waiting until Johannes covers more terrain types and "Rivers".
New release today…
I want to cover some more unique land forms this week as well. I did all the dune types as well, atleast as close as i could get. I don't think The Middle Earth needs dunes though, heh,heh.
Wha? Lots of dunes in Harad, south of Mordor- that’s on our nw map.
So the answer is YES!
Cool. I’d like to get Seer involved with tracking down of the dems if possible (Seer?), and others (Nikita?) who are capable and have the time. I want to include a shot of Nikita’s glacier and a link to the macro for certain.
Is it posssible fo me to get the article to you? (it’s a .doc at the mo). Or, I could stick it up on ME-DEM and we could add to it wiki style. It’s currently about two thirds roughed out.
I didn’t know this Geology forum existed until yesterday- even though it seems I’ve actually posted in it! Strange oversight…
monks
The geology article is now up here:
http://www.me-dem.org/content/view/55/33/
Like I say, feel free to add to it- ME-DEM is thinking of moving to a wiki anyway.
monks
“I’d like to get Seer involved with tracking down of the dems if possible (Seer?),”, sure just need a general idea of location, like northern india, and a pic or idea of what you are looking for. SeerBlue
I was thinking of trying to provide a dem with the pics (especially the faults) that are included with the Geology Article on ME-DEM. to illustrate what these areas look like as dems. It won’t be possible with some, such as underground
monks
Okay, I was just reading thru that actually, while I back up files for my tutorial to streamload, lightening season here and it is better safe than sorry. I will note the pics and do some searching tonite. SeerBlue
I will scan as much as i can for good referance material, what ever is needed, my sister actually has the scanner and she goes back to college in less then 2 weeks so i will gain access then and go scan happy.
With GeoControl i have to reinstall it and take a look at these new brushes.
Harad! Oh right! I was not thinking of the biggie map. I forgot that was all desert there.
I want to try working on more fault types as well, i got the Strike-slip down fairly well but still it is hard to do additional variants of the same fault. I will have to research the Displacement Device some more and see what i can get. Too bad GeoControl has no Procedural Displacement Brush where it can take a selected fractal or series of fractals and warp, shift, stretch and skew the terrain kind of like what the Liquid filter does in Photoshop. Even using a image import to displace the terrains would be neat.
Great Seer
Sethren, I’ve put the article up on ME-DEM. All you need to do is register to abe able to edit it. Feel free. I’ve still got lots to add.
Yeah, I’ve not even downloaded the GC new version yet!! I liked the sounds of most of the changes except for the loss of -Slope, that was very useful for smoothing and levelling.
I want to try working on more fault types as well, I got the Strike-slip down fairly well but still it is hard to do additional variants of the same fault. I will have to research the Displacement Device some more and see what i can get. Too bad GeoControl has no Procedural Displacement Brush where it can take a selected fractal or series of fractals and warp, shift, stretch and skew the terrain kind of like what the Liquid filter does in Photoshop. Even using a image import to displace the terrains would be neat.
Yes, I could see the strike slip fault that you illustrated in your macro. It looked very convincing. For the overthrusts you don’t need overhangs to get the right result. Overhangs of any size don’t last very long anyhow, though I’m no expert.
Ah, you’re getting into other realms with those PS style manipulations. There’s been some talk about that (especially with J.Slayton of Wilbur).
monks