Analyzing Terrain

You can display a gradient on the ground to indicate the slopes, orientation, and elevation of the terrain.

Before you begin: This functionality is relevant for raster terrains only, not for geometric terrains.
  1. From the Tools section of the action bar, click Terrain Analyzer .
  2. In the Terrain Analyzer panel, select the rendering mode.
    Pixels are colored with respect to the color scale. This scale is divided into segments of color, and each color segment is assigned a range of values on the scale.
    Mode Description
    Elevation Displays a color for each pixel depending on its elevation (Z coordinate).

    • Every pixel with an elevation lower than the minimum height has the lowest color value.
    • Every pixel with an elevation higher than the maximum height has the highest color value.

    The lower and upper bound are defined by the minimum and maximum height. In this mode, the minimum and maximum heights are automatically computed according to the terrain dataset.

    The gradient is a continuous progression between a minimum and a maximum value.
    Slope Defines the angle of inclination of the terrain.

    Each pixel is colored depending on its vertical angle. A horizontal plane has the lowest color value, whereas a vertical cliff has the highest color.

    The gradient is a continuous progression between a minimum and a maximum value.
    Orientation Colors each pixel depending on its facing direction.

    The three color components (RGB) represent the coordinates of the facing orientation (X,Y,Z). Therefore, a horizontal plane will be more blue, a north- or south-facing terrain will be more green, whereas an east- or west-facing terrain will be more red.

  3. When in Elevation mode, adjust the minimum and maximum heights to point out zones of interest on your map.
    Elevation 1. Default values are kept when the terrain analyzer is run.

    Elevation 2. Minimum and maximum heights are modified.

    Important: Customized values are stored in the experience and persist across sessions.
  4. Click Reset to default value to restore the default values computed from the terrain dataset.