Aerial Imagery Tool

Import and configure aerial imagery files

Description

The Aerial Imagery Tool enables you to import and configure aerial imagery files. RoadRunner imports geolocated aerial imagery for visual reference and for mapping textures onto surfaces. You can import geolocated imagery from a variety of common file formats such as GeoTIFF (.tif, .tiff) and JPEG 2000 (.jp2). These images contain the necessary map projection information to accurately position them on the surface of the Earth. You can also use this tool to import and adjust nongeoreferenced imagery, such as JPG files. For more information about supported file formats, see Aerial Image Assets.

To provide full coverage of an area, you can import multiple images of it, in which case some of the imported maps might overlap in certain regions. You can adjust the priorities of the images to determine which one takes priority in overlapping areas.

If you do not have geolocated scene imagery, you can obtain geographic information system (GIS) data compatible with RoadRunner from various sources. For more information on where to obtain RoadRunner-compatible GIS data, see Download GIS Data for Use in RoadRunner.

Open the Aerial Imagery Tool

On the RoadRunner toolbar, click the Aerial Imagery Tool button:

Examples

Import Georeferenced Aerial Image

1. Click the Aerial Imagery Tool button.

2. In the Library Browser, navigate to the directory containing the aerial image file you want to import. For more information about supported aerial image file formats, see Aerial Image Assets.

3. Right-click the asset and verify that the Default Type is set to Aerial Image.

4. Drag the asset from the Library Browser to the scene canvas.

   Note

   If you have not set the geographic position for the scene, RoadRunner sets the scene center to the latitudinal and longitudinal center of the image. You can change the scene center using the World Settings Tool.

   If you have already set the geographic position of the scene, but the imported image is outside of the maximum range of the scene, an error dialog box appears and RoadRunner cancels the import.

Import Nongeoreferenced Aerial Image

To correctly display satellite imagery, RoadRunner must know how to position the image on the Earth. For best accuracy, obtain satellite imagery that contains geolocation information by using a format such as GeoTIFF or JPEG 2000. For links and examples about obtaining GIS data compatible with RoadRunner, see Download GIS Data for Use in RoadRunner. If your imagery does not have geolocation information, you can manually set geolocation information using the following steps.

1. If you already know the specific projection to use (that is, you have a proj-string or WKT projection string), you can associate it with the file:

   1. Click the Aerial Imagery Tool button.

   2. In the Library Browser, navigate to the directory containing the image file you want to import.

   3. Right-click the file asset and verify that the Default Type is set to Aerial Image.

   4. In the Attributes pane, click the Set Custom Projection button.

   5. In the Custom Projection dialog box, specify WKT/Proj String as your proj-string or WKT projection string.

   6. Click OK.

   7. Scale the image by adjusting the Resolution to match the meters per pixel of the image.

      

   8. Drag the image asset from the Library Browser into the scene canvas.

2. If you do not know the projection, you can experimentally try different projection values on the image file. These instructions apply a Transverse Mercator projection to the file.

   This process enables you to use arbitrary images, such as a screenshot from a separate application. However, the result is not as accurate as a known projection or georeferenced image.

   1. Click the Aerial Imagery Tool button.

   2. In the Library Browser, navigate to the directory containing the image file you want to import.

   3. Right-click the file asset and make sure that the Default Type is set to Aerial Image.

   4. In the Attributes pane, click the Set Custom Projection button.

   5. In the Custom Projection dialog box, specify Lat and Long as the latitude and longitude, respectively, of the center point of your image.

      

   6. Click Use Transverse Mercator At. Then, click OK.

   7. Scale the image by adjusting the Resolution to match the meters per pixel of the image.

      

   8. Drag the image asset from the Library Browser into the scene canvas.

Remove Aerial Image

1. Click the Aerial Imagery Tool button.

2. Select the aerial image you want to delete in the scene canvas. RoadRunner highlights the selected image with a red bounding box.

3. Press Delete, or select Edit > Delete from the menu bar.

Adjust Resolution of Loaded Aerial Imagery

1. Click the Aerial Imagery Tool button.

2. In the Attributes pane, in the Global Aerial Imagery Settings section, adjust the Meters Per Texel value to change the resolution of the aerial imagery in the scene.

Adjust Properties of Aerial Image

1. Click the Aerial Imagery Tool button.

2. Select the aerial image you want to edit.

3. In the Attributes pane, adjust the aerial image attributes as desired.

   Note

   When multiple aerial images overlap at a location, RoadRunner must decide which one to use. To resolve overlaps by adjusting the priority of an aerial image, select it and click Push to bottom or Bring to top in the Attributes pane.

Assign Aerial Imagery Material to Surface

By default, RoadRunner displays an aerial imagery for only visual reference. You can optionally apply the aerial imagery to terrain surfaces by creating a new material and applying it to the surfaces.

1. To create a new material, follow these steps:

   1. Click the Aerial Imagery Tool button.

   2. In the Attributes pane, in the Global Aerial Imagery Settings section, select Generate Material.

      This action generates a new image file, Overlay.png and a new material file, Overlay.rrmtl in the current directory of the Library Browser. RoadRunner must create a new image because the original aerial imagery might be in an incompatible projection or consists of multiple separate images. In the latter case, the Generate Material operation combines the multiple aerial images into one final image that you can map orthographically to the terrain surface.

2. To assign the material to one or more surfaces, follow these steps:

   1. Click the Surface Tool button.

   2. Assign your material to a surface by dragging the material file from the Library Browser to the surface in the scene canvas.

Toggle Display of Aerial Imagery

In the menu bar, select View > Aerial Imagery, or press F4.

Parameters

When you import an aerial imagery file by using the Aerial Imagery Tool button, the Attributes pane displays the Global Aerial Imagery Settings and Aerial Image attribute categories.

The Global Aerial Imagery Settings attribute category contains these attributes:

Attribute	Description
Offset	The value by which to move the imported vector aerial image relative to the scene origin (0, 0, 0), in meters. Use the X and Y offset values to move the imported image along the x-axis and y-axis, respectively. Default: 0
Opacity	Opacity value of the aerial image in the scene editing canvas, specified as a scalar in the range [0, 1]. A value of 0 is fully transparent, while a value of 1 is fully opaque. Default: 0.5
Meters Per Texels	Resolution of the imported aerial image file in meters per texel. Use this attribute to control the sampling rate of the imported imagery. Increase this value to enable you to view larger areas at the expense of lower image quality. Default: 0.3
Generate Material	Use this attribute to assign an aerial imagery material to a surface. By default, RoadRunner displays aerial imagery for only visual reference. You can optionally apply the aerial imagery to terrain surfaces by creating a new material and applying it to the surfaces. For an example, see Assign Aerial Imagery Material to Surface.

The Aerial Image attribute category contains these attributes:

Attribute	Description
Priority	When you import multiple overlapping aerial images, you can adjust the priority of each image to determine which one applies in overlapping areas. Use the Push to bottom and Bring to top buttons to reduce or increase priority, respectively, for the selected image.
Assets	Displays the filename of the imported aerial image file.
Custom Local Adjustments	Specifies options to override the information of an imported aerial image file and assign custom offset and resolution to the texels of the image. Override File Info — Specifies whether to override file information. By default, this option is cleared. If you select this option, then RoadRunner enables the Meter Offset and Resolution (Meters/Texel) attributes. Meter Offset — Use the X and Y offset values to shift the texels in the imported elevation map along the x-axis and y-axis, respectively. Click Reset Offset to return to the default offset values specified in the imported aerial image. Resolution (Meters/Texel) — Use the X and Y values to change the texel resolution in the imported aerial image along the x-axis and y-axis, respectively. Click Reset Resolution to return to the default resolution values specified in the imported aerial image.

More About

Tips for Aerial Images in Large Areas

RoadRunner renders aerial images with a single texture image. If the size of the texture exceeds the maximum size supported by your GPU, the imagery fails to render. In this situation, RoadRunner returns an error message similar to this one:

ERROR: Unable to load overlay: Max byte count exceeded. Max: 16k x 16k texels with 4 channels.

When working with imagery of large areas, consider following these.

• Verify that your workspace size is no larger than needed.

  The Workspace and World Origin settings in the World Settings Tool determine the portion of the image loaded by RoadRunner. Ensure that your workspace covers only your area of interest.

  In particular, if you georeference your scene by dragging Aerial Image Assets into the scene, RoadRunner centers the scene on the middle of the image. If you want only a portion of the scene in the corner of the image, rather than increasing the extents of the workspace, try one of these options:

  • Before adding the aerial image to the workspace, use the World Settings Tool to specify your latitudinal and longitudinal center of interest.

  • Use the World Settings Tool to move the workspace to the center of interest. Then, adjust the extents to cover only your area of interest. RoadRunner loads the imagery within only the workspace extents.

• Decrease the imagery sampling rate.

  The Meters Per Texel attribute controls the sampling rate of the imagery. Increase this value to enable you to view larger areas at the expense of lower image quality.

• Adjust the workspace as you work.

  If you have high-resolution imagery and want to create a large area, you can adjust the workspace based on the current area you are working on. For example, when editing the northwest portion of your area, you can adjust the workspace to cover only that northwest portion. Then, you can adjust the workspace again when you need to work on the northeast area. If you use this approach, ensure you increase the extents of the workspace to cover your entire area when you export.

Version History

Introduced in R2020a