For a while I’ve been looking at GIS data as a way of creating environments. Vue can import a DEM file and create a terrain directly, or else use a grayscale image as a heightmap.

Various governments, including the Australian government through Geoscience Australia, makes mapping data available over the web, but getting it into a format that Vue can use is a problem. Trouble is I don’t know enough about the area to know what file formats and mapping formats I should be getting, nor how to convert it all to a usable form.

So, I figured there must be GIS for Dummies, and there is, and it’s available for Kindle, so perhaps I can get my head around the possibilities well enough. I have already purchased some software and got some kind of result, but I’m sure I can do better with a little knowledge of the subject.