Natron seems to not be loading all of the TIFF data for USGS National Map Dowloader and USGS Explorer TIFFs.

[Buddy1 (Buddy)]

*Please forgive me because I have no idea where I’m supposed to post this. *Please forgive me again because all I know about Natron at all comes from this youtube tutorial to obtain a good heightmap PNG.

Natron version 2.5 Release.
Win10 64

I’ve downloaded 1 Arc-second TIFFs, using the 3DEP elevation option from the USGS National Map here:

TNM Download v2

My problem is when I add the image to the viewer, it only shows the bottom-left corner of the image. It doesn’t load the whole image.

I R-click in Node Graph > image > Read to add the TIFF file. I connect the image node to the viewer node. Then I click the contrast button in the viewer window to see the inverse.

However, it’s always only that bottom-left corner of these TIFFs.

Now, if I download the elevation images from USGS Explorer, SRTM 1 Arc-second, then Natron shows that whole TIFF image in the viewer, but the height data seems messed up.

I’ve been following a tutorial on youtube here:

When it gets to the point after causing the Image Statistics ‘Min a’ value to move to 0, the ‘Max a’ value of the USGS Explorer TIFF doesn’t even go above 1, and according to the instructor, that’s supposed to be height.

In contrast, Natron seems to see the height data just fine for the TIFF files downloaded using USGS National Map Downloader where Natron only loads the bottom-left corner. It gets over 1000 as its ‘Max a’ at this point in the tutorial, which makes sense due to the small mountains covered by the TIFF. I’m not sure where the USGS National Map TIFF images are taken from, but the USGS Explorer SRTM 1 Arc-second TIFFs are taken from a space shuttle.

Is it a problem with the TIFF itself, (the govt IS infamous for never doing things right after all) or is there perhaps some settings I can change to get Natron to load the entire image?

[El_Artista (TheFckinUnicorn)]

@Buddy1

My problem is when I add the image to the viewer, it only shows the bottom-left corner of the image. It doesn’t load the whole image.

I have never used USGS, nor have I ever used Natron for the purpose that you are trying to use it…
However, if Natron is showing you only the bottom left part of the image, are you sure that the whole image is being read but cropped to the project settings/RoD? Or is nothing other than the bottom left part of the file being read by Natron? It helps to post a screenshot of what you are seeing in Natron when describing issues like these since it’s really hard to imagine from text alone.
Also the video you have linked is from 2016. A lot may have changed since 2016, both in Natron and also in the USGS.

@Buddy1

Now, if I download the elevation images from USGS Explorer, SRTM 1 Arc-second, then Natron shows that whole TIFF image in the viewer, but the height data seems messed up.

I would check the color management. For heightmaps or any other textures that are carrying ‘data’, there should be no color management applied. These types of files are usually in linear gamma and should be left as linear gamma. However if the files have an sRGB tag or have none, then it’s possible that they’re read as being sRGB and therefore a gamma correction will be applied to them, causing them to look “messed up”. Check the color management, specifically ‘File Color Space’ and ‘Output Color Space’ in the Read node and the ‘Viewer Color Process’ in the viewer. Try setting all three to Linear and see if it fixes how the heightmap looks.

@Buddy1

When it gets to the point after causing the Image Statistics ‘Min a’ value to move to 0, the ‘Max a’ value of the USGS Explorer TIFF doesn’t even go above 1, and according to the instructor, that’s supposed to be height.

Heightmap data is usually normalized (clamped within the 0-1 range). 0 means minimum (lowest), 1 means maximum (highest). Gray values define everything in the middle. You might have the option to decide what is minimum (could be 0 or a negative or a positive number) and maximum (could be 0.01 or 1000000000) in the tool you are using to generate the height map. Then that minimum and maximum will get mapped to 0 and 1 respectively and everything in between will be compressed into a grayscale range of values (also usually linearly). Im not sure if this is what is happening here.

@Buddy1

In contrast, Natron seems to see the height data just fine for the TIFF files downloaded using USGS National Map Downloader where Natron only loads the bottom-left corner. It gets over 1000 as its ‘Max a’ at this point in the tutorial, which makes sense due to the small mountains covered by the TIFF

I presume that the files you are getting from the USGS National Map Downloader are in ‘open domain’, which is why you are seeing values above 1. Conversely, the files you’re getting from the USGS Explorer may be in ‘closed domain’ (normalized to 0-1 range)…

@Buddy1

Is it a problem with the TIFF itself, (the govt IS infamous for never doing things right after all) or is there perhaps some settings I can change to get Natron to load the entire image?

If you can open the tiff properly in some other software (Photoshop, etc) then the file should be fine. If it loads in the same broken way in other software, then the file is broken. If the file is fine, then Natron is having trouble reading it, which is weird. We’ll need a screenshot of what you see in Natron to be able to confirm what the issue could be.