Lunar elevation maps: next generation

[martins]

I am currently working on a revision of the lunar elevation map

• improved accuracy by combining the LOLA data with altitudes derived from the SELENE Terrain camera http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0019103515003450, reducing the stripe artefacts from the LOLA data and providing more high-frequency content
• Vertical resolution doubled from 1 to 0.5m

The bad news is that you will have to download another 10-15GB to get the benefit of the new map, once it's finished.

The good news is that it will look even better!

Copernicus, current revision:

Copernicus, next revision:

 

[Ripley]

Wow! Gorgeous!
Will it need the current 2016 HiRes Moon textures as a base, or will it be an autonomous set?

 

[fausto]

Better than real one!!

 

[martins]

Wow! Gorgeous!
Will it need the current 2016 HiRes Moon textures as a base, or will it be an autonomous set?

It will be a complete replacement. It will still cover quadtree levels up to L12, so the uncompressed size is the same, but since it contains more high frequency data and less redundancy, the size of the compressed tree file will be 3GB larger than the current one. Those 3GB are hard at work to make the surface look sharper ...

 

[fort]

It will be a complete replacement. It will still cover quadtree levels up to L12,

So from 10, included, to 12, included ( actually from 10, included, to 11, included ).

I don't think that it will not be possible to cut the global packages to download it by part under 4 Go but...

 

[Abloheet]

any way this will be available as download in the slightly older form?
a global lev 9 base package, along with hi res tiles? or will it be completely in .tree?

 

[martins]

It will ship together with the first patch release, in the same format as the lunar textures of the current 2016 release (low-res version in the base package, separate high-res download).

The current 2016 release version isn't capable of using this new dataset, because it doesn't contain support for sub-metre elevation resolutions. So it wouldn't make sense to release this before the patch.

 

[jroly]

Thank you Martin, the Moon already looks excellent but I guess there is room for improvement. What's great about non Earth bodies is they don't have vegetation so making them look realistic is easier than the Earth. I think Brighton Beach needs an upgrade too, part of the base is in a ravine.

 

[Abloheet]

It will ship together with the first patch release, in the same format as the lunar textures of the current 2016 release (low-res version in the base package, separate high-res download).

Well, will this high-res package be available only as a .tree archive? Or the orbiter beta textures page contain the high res tile map selector as well, linking to these new textures? Because I dont want to download the entire high res moon textures.

 

[fausto]

Is there any elevation map datas for other planets like Mercury (from Messenger) Venus (From Venus Express)?

 

[Linguofreak]

To keep download sizes down, would it be possible to create a differential format for terrain updates, or possibly use an existing solution for binary diffing and patching?

 

[Post much?]

martins,

Are you merging the new data with the existing map, to cover the remaining +-30 degrees missing?

 

[jroly]

To keep download sizes down, would it be possible to create a differential format for terrain updates, or possibly use an existing solution for binary diffing and patching?

Martin does a lot of post work on the data with algorithms to smooth things out like the stripping, the whole thing changes and differential won't make any difference as the previous data will be reprocessed differently so there is nothing similar to make downloads smaller. I don't mind greater downloads if it is for the greater good.

 

[jalexb88]

Looking forward for this one. Ive been doing the Apollo 11,12,13 lunar landings with NASSP, now that the vAGC is functional in the LEM. It would be awesome to land at Hadley, Descartes and Taurus-Littrow (Apollo 15-17) With the new maps!

 

[n72.75]

Now I need to buy another hard drive.

 

[Abloheet]

Sorry for necroposting, but was this next gen lunar terrain map ever released for download?

 

[FordPrefect]

Hello all, has this project by martins been released? It looks very promising.