I HAVE DISCOVERED A METHOD FOR IMPORTING DEMS FROM NOAA AND USING FREELY ON EE2
Here is my humble, and I hope not too complex tutorial:
1. First step. Download from
https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/topo/gltiles.html the tiles you are interested in or all the tiles as is explained in that page (A, B, C,....P) or all of them zipped.
2. Save the tile specifically you are interested in, rename it to whatever you like with extension .bin and rename any .hdr and .fmt files from the game with the same name, for example, "ATLANTIC.bin", "ATLANTIC.fmt" and "ATLANTIC.hdr" for tile F
3. Insert the three files in Sierra/Empire Earth 2/Import folder (create folder if doesn't exist)
4. Leave .bin file as it is. We will be working on .fmt (Where we only need to edit the x and y coordinates for latitude (N-S) and longitude (W-E)) and .hdr
5. LEt's edit ATLANTIC.hdr:
------file_title= "ATLANTIC.hdr"
------data_type=raster
------grid_cell_registration = center
------map_projection = Lat/Lon
------**MINIMUM HEIGHT: 1
------**MAXIMUM HEIGHT: whatever, but be smart (which is the highest peak on that tile? no more than 8848 mts I guess lol)
6. Wee need the number of rows and columns and the coordinates for x and y (latitude and longitude). We download the hdr corresponding to our tile (F) from the url:
https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/topo/elev/esri/hdr/
We download f10g.hdr from the list of files and copy these registers to ATLANTIC.hdr.
7. Run EE2 / Art of Supremacy UP15 (or any other mod) , go to map editor, choose File>>Import DEM and you will see a list of your dems, if any. choose Atlantic.bin and click "Accept"
A dialog box should appear where you can set the height, roughness, size etc of your map. click "Ok"
8. DONE!!! =)
I post here the "Atlantic.hdr" and "Atlantic.fmt" files for further reference:
//-----------------Atlantic.fmt
Code: Select all
input_eqv
begin name_equiv
$minimum_value min__value
$maximum_value max__value
end name_equiv
begin constant
data_byte_order text little_endian
file_title text My%Selection
end constant
ASCII_input_file_header_separate_varied "selection header"
create_format 0 0 text 0
binary_input_data "PC binary::elev_m"
elev_m 1 2 ARRAY["lat" 45.000000 to 35.000000 by 0.00833333333]["lon" -8.000000 to 0.000000 by 0.00833333333] OF int16 0
//-----------------Atlantic.hdr
Code: Select all
file_title = Atlantic.hdr
data_type = raster
grid_cell_registration = center
map_projection = Lat/Lon
left_map_x = -89.99583333333
right_map_x = 0.08333333333
upper_map_y = 0.08333333333
lower_map_y = 49.99583333333
number_of_rows = 6000
number_of_columns = 10800
grid_size = 0.00833333333
elev_m_unit = meters
min__value = 1
max__value = 4984
elev_m_min = 1
elev_m_max = 4984
elev_m_missing_flag = -500
number_of_display_colors = 256
data_value_unit = elev_m
data_byte_order = little_endian
Hope this tutorial isn't so badly-explained, after all....expecting feedback and comments/questions
Meanwhile I continue to research how to paste two or more tiles so that big countries are covered...
Added after 4 minutes 50 seconds:Added after 25 minutes 15 seconds:Here is my example:
Added after 1 hour 44 minutes :Another proof in my defence: