Instant Terra Forum

Instant Terra => Discussions => Topic started by: HorribleGoat on May 22, 2022, 06:17:15 PM

Title: Large heightmap import speeds
Post by: HorribleGoat on May 22, 2022, 06:17:15 PM

Hello!

Im building rather large piece of terrain and I was wondering if there are loading  speed differences in different heightmap source datatypes.

I have 32768px/point resolution heightmap in ASC format at the moment, it loads for quite some time into memory and I have not yet had a chance to try it in PNG or TIFF but would those load any faster?

Also accidentally clicked the import node off and back on and it restarted the import..

Some additional details:

• asc file size hefty 8.12gb
• when loaded IT takes 8.8gb of ram (got 64 so no problem so far with that)
• loading seems to be 1 core only

Title: Re: Large heightmap import speeds
Post by: Alexis Vaisse on May 23, 2022, 08:34:17 AM

Hi,

TIFF and PNG imports are usually much faster than ASC import.
It will probably be worth it to convert your data to TIFF or PNG. Instant Terra can export 16-bit TIFF, 16-bit PNG, and 32-bit TIFF.

If you have to handle large terrains, such as 32K x 32K, it may also be interesting to upgrade to Instant Terra Pro. You can send an email to support@wysilab.com to get to information on how to proceed.
Instant Terra Pro offers better performance on large terrains. It also has a cache system to speed up import process (first import is slow, next imports are at least one order of magnitude faster).

Title: Re: Large heightmap import speeds
Post by: HorribleGoat on May 23, 2022, 11:00:37 PM

Hey Alexis!

Thanks for answer! Pro version could indeed be useful and I'll inquire after it.

I suspected TIFF and PNG might be faster so I'll try those out!