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How do you work with terrains in Lumion 10?

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Morten
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1. Here's how

There are two ways to work with terrains in Lumion 10:

  • Use the built-in Lumion Landscape.

         or...

  • Import your own model.

 

2. Using the built-in Lumion Landscape

  • The editable Lumion Landscape consists of a high-detail 2 x 2 km square surrounded by a low-detail 10 x 10 km square. The outlines of the squares are yellow and red respectively.
  • You can paint the Lumion Landscape and change the shape/height of the yellow 2 x 2 km square at a higher level of detail than the surrounding 10 x 10 km square.
  • Landscape Grass is only displayed inside the yellow 2 x 2 km square.
  • For those reasons, we recommend that you place your Imported Models inside the yellow high-detail 2 x 2 km square.
  • The squares are centered at 0,0,0. The red, green and blue axes mark 0,0,0.
  • It is not possible to change the shape/height or paint the Lumion Landscape outside the 10 x 10 km area.

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2.1: To download real-world Height Maps (elevation data) for the Lumion Landscape, we recommend using the OpenStreetMap function in Lumion 10 Pro or newer:

2.2: Alternatively, you can save and load the terrain elevation data from the 2 x 2 km square as a grayscale Landscape Map (also known as a Heightmap) via the Load Landscape Map function:

mceclip0.png

2.3: If you want to load a Landscape Map (also known as a Heightmap) from a 3rd party application, please use these guidelines to prepare the texture:

  • The resolution of the Landscape Map texture should be 1024x1024 pixels. The innermost 1000x1000 pixels are only used for the 2 x 2 km high-detail square. The outermost 12 pixels along the edges are not used. Each pixel of the Landscape Map texture corresponds to 2x2m on the editable part of the Lumion Landscape.
  • The color black is equal to a terrain height of 0m and the color white is equal to a terrain height of 200m. Each grayscale step (from RGB = 0 to RGB = 255) is equal to a terrain height of 0.78125m.

2.4: Visit the following page to learn more about Heightmaps:

Example of a scaled-down Landscape Map texture:

 

3. Importing your own model

3.1: Alternatively, import your model in Lumion and use it as a terrain. Please note the following:

  • It is not possible to adjust the shape of an Imported Model.
  • Imported Models and other models are only displayed within a 35 km circle as measured from the current camera position.

3.2: You can assign a Landscape Material to the Imported Model, so that the model uses the same Landscape Textures as the Lumion Landscape:

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3.3: When you paint your Imported Model with the 4 Landscape Textures, the Lumion Landscape below your model will also be painted - and vice versa. Please note that you can only paint your Imported Model as long as it is inside the 10 x 10 km square of the Lumion Landscape:

3.4: After assigning a Landscape Material to the Imported Model, it is possible to add Landscape Grass to the Landscape Material of the Imported Model.

Note that Landscape Grass only appears inside the 2 x2 km square of the Lumion Landscape:

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