Hello Rob, The main site for the project is MeDEM - The Middle Earth Digital Elevation Model Project which has links into the gallery where most of the work is renders of works in progress. The project is basically always in progress where sometimes it gets more progress than at other times. There is a forum there which is quite rarely used and we started another forum for the 3D world of middle earth in the Outerra engine. So you can explore the world we made in 3D using the free Outerra program tech demo and using the extra download of the MEDem data for it. If people are interested then we would like to add 3D models of some of the 'man' made items in the world. There is a forum about those places which again is not heavily trafficked but post notifications do go out.
As for funding - its just a side hobby and its always been a free to download non commercial kind of thing with no affiliation to the Tolkien group so we cant take any monies for it. If you wanted to donate then making some 3D models for the lands would be the most useful and welcome.
Thank you for the quick respons and I will be sure to check out the website. All thow I doubt I can be of any help with making maps I'll give it a shot! I have one more question about this whole thing, what is the end goal? Will this just be a map of middle earth that you can explore? Or will this just go on indefinetly untill every detail of tolkien's world is spot on? No matter what I love what your doing, I just like having somthing to look forward to. Thank you!
The end goal is somewhat vague. If there is one then its to have fun making a map of Middle Earth. The problem is that Middle Earth spanned ages so were only drawing it at one point in time. Even then, people disagree about the exact shapes of things and the layouts of stuff - esp buildings. Tolkiens map was somewhat rough to say the least. Many people have interpreted a more detailed map based on Tolkiens and the text in the book. This is just one such interpretation tho we have tried to get physical geography correct so water flows downhill at all places etc. The lack of slope on the Anduin is a bit extreme tho.
Well for what its worth I think your interpretation is great. I have been looking into DEMs and at the things on the youtube chanel and I was wondering if you could tell me the most user friendly software for doing things like simulating mountains and landscapes. I would like to try and help but I will need to teach myself how. So if you could just give me one or two good programs and stuff, next time I post Ill have at least something to show for it. Thanks!
Hi, not been on here for a while- don't get notifications for some reason- I can reply shortly- just need to post this update.
Some piccys of the biomes. This is alpha though since it's a quick hack to preview a texture we kinda had lying around.
Full Size here: http://www.me-
dem.me.uk/galleries/Outerra1/gallery.htm
Looking ahead now to getting some better data into Outerra; terrain and biomes. We're going to do some development on the textures. Mordor colouration needs changing. Snow needs taking out. The whole northern end of the map needs tundra and much less snow. There's a few things we need to do...
monks
Hi Rob, I use World Machine Pro. That's the most important piece of software. I also use Photoshop CS6, and Global Mapper. Global Mapper is important to our project as everything is stored in there with earth coordinates. You don't necessarily need it though. Another useful software is Wilbur- it's free.
You can get involved with us if you want. We're looking for 3D modellers more than anything. We're currently in a bit of a hiatus but things will be moving ahead again in the coming months.
Register over here if you want
http://worlds.outercraft.com/forum/index.php
monks
Last edited by monks; 12-28-2013 at 08:02 PM.
This has been a bit of surreal weekend. I got a post saying reddit was going off the wall then next we had people asking us for interviews and video chat. Now we seem to have made front page of Boing Boing.
I hope this all isnt a prelude to us getting the infamous C&D from Tolkien estate now... that would suck big time. But you never know we might get some traction now on getting some help doing the 3D models for the world.
Working on the terrain to get it ready for models...! Finally had a chance to get it back out of storage.
New Outerra release also coming soon. Improved biomes!
monks
Wow nice project! Have you guys considered using VUE for the renders? As far as I know, you can easily export the files from WM to Vue, where you can get a better render quality and features also! Again great job!
My Gallery on DA:
http://felipecarbus.deviantart.com/gallery/
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