3D views of the White Mountains/ Lefka Ori, West Crete
by Steve Crow, UK
These 3D views of the Lefka Ori were rendered using a program called TERRAGEN - a freeware terrain generator.
You can click on the sample photos below to see the full size ones.
The Lefka Ori - White Mountains - West Crete - click to see full size pic
First of all, the contour lines of a Harms Verlag 1:100,000 map were manually traced and digitised to produce a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of the area.
The DEM was then deformed (rotated, resized and stretched) until it lined up and matched with part of a satellite image of West Crete available from NASA.
The DEM was then opened in TERRAGEN and the satellite image "draped" over it.
Once this is done the terrain can be viewed from any angle.
View from the South East: The Lefka Ori - White Mountains - West Crete - click to see full size pic
Above Omalos: The Lefka Ori - White Mountains - West Crete - click to see full size pic
Above Kastro: The Lefka Ori - White Mountains - West Crete - click to see full size pic
The terrain can also be exaggerated vertically and the lighting changed.
With Vertical Exaggeration: The Lefka Ori - White Mountains - West Crete - click to see full size pic
There are a couple of problems with all these views.
Firstly if you look there are two Aradena gorges running parallel with each other. This is because I couldn't get the underlying terrain to exactly match the satellite photo.
Secondly the peak of Gingilos is missing! This is because the Harms Verlag 1:100,000 map I used to digitise the contours has left out 5 or 6 contour lines at the peak. I've seen this omission on other maps as well.
Can you help me?
I can improve these views and sharpen up the definition of the terrain if I could only get my hands on better maps. German WW2 1:25,000 invasion maps are very good and obviously out of copyright. Also US Army (1:50,000 10 meter contours) exist, I have seen the index and have the sheet number but have never actually seen one. I have also seen small section of Greek Cyrillic maps with 20m contours.
Maps with bathymetric information (sea depth) would also be useful as I could show underwater terrain.
If anyone has any scans or sources of maps, Arial/satellite photos this would help me a great deal. Even fragments of maps would be useful as these would help me add local detail.
Also does anyone know of a program (preferably freeware) which will deform an image to match another?
Thanks in advance.
Steve Crow
