Dynamic Hill Shading

Shader Drop-down

The Shader selection box allows for the selection of the algorithm used to color and shade any loaded elevation data.

The shader drop-down is found on the Viewer Toolbar. It can also be accessed from the Configuration Vertical Options section, or the Dynamic Hill Shading tool.

The following default shaders are available:

• The Atlas Shader is the default shader. It generally provides good results for any loaded elevation data. Like most of the options below the color ramp will scale to the data range.
• The Color Ramp Shader displays ramps color from blue for low elevations to red for the highest elevations by default.
• The Daylight Shader colors all elevations the same and is only useful when hill shading is turned on.
• The Global Shader is designed for shading elevation data sets covering large areas of the earth such as Terrain Base and GTOPO30. The results are quite stunning for data sets such as these. This shader uses fixed elevation values, so elevations values will be colored the same from workspace to workspace.
• The Gradient Shader moderates the color with elevation between the low elevation and the high elevation. The actual colors ramped between can be selected on the Shader Option panel.
• The HSV Shader maps the elevations onto the HSV (hue saturation value) color space. The mapping can be configured on the Shader Options panel.
• The Inferno Shader is useful for visualizing data in the style of a heat map. Similar to the Viridis Shader, it is useful for printing in black and white, or for users with colorblindness.
• The Magma Shader covers a wide perceptual range in brightness and purple-yellow. Similar to the Viridis Shader, it is useful for printing in black and white, or for users with colorblindness.
• The Plasma Shader is another color option similar to the Viridis Shader. This color palette is useful for printing in black and white, or for users with colorblindness.
• The REM Shader is designed to highlight trends at the lowest elevation of the data. Enabled by default when generating REM layers.
• The Slope Shader colors loaded terrain data by the slope of the terrain rather than the absolute elevation. This shader allows you to identify the portions of the terrain that are
  relatively flat vs those that are relatively steep. The definitions of "flat" and "steep" are user configurable on the Shader Options panel. *requires Advanced
• The Slope Direction Shader colors loaded terrain data by direction in which the terrain faces rather than the absolute elevation. This shader allows you to easily identify things like the portions of the terrain that face south, or any other direction. The colors to use for each direction are user configurable on the Shader Options panel. *requires Advanced
• The Viridis Shader covers a wide perceptual range in blue-yellow, and does not rely as much on red-green contrast. This color palette is useful for printing in black and white, or for users with colorblindness.
• The NDVI Shader (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) is used for multi-band imagery that has had the NDVI Calculation applied to it.
• The NDWI Shader (Normalized Difference Water Index) is used for multi-band imagery that has had the NDWI Calculation applied to it.
  
• The Curvature Shader colors the grid values on a white to black gradient over values around zero with positive values being white and negative values being black. This is a fixed range shader for values [-2, +2] and will be automatically applied to generated curvature grid layers.
• The Sun/Shadow Shader is designed to color the output grids created using the Solar Shadow Calculations tool representing shadow count or shadow percentage.
• The Solar Shader offers a range of colors designed to be applied to the output grids created using the Solar Shadow Calculations tool representing shadow count or shadow percentage.
• If any custom shaders have been created, they will be available as well. *requires Advanced

Shaders control exactly how elevation data is rendered in terms of how pixel values relate to colors. Custom Shaders allow the user to determine color in relation to specific ranges of elevation or slope values. Custom Shaders are saved in the Global Mapper workspace and, once created, can be edited in the Configuration menu.

To edit an existing custom shader, navigate to the Edit... button in Configuration Shader Options Custom Shader section.
The Delete button in Configuration Shader Options removes the currently selected custom shader.
Pressing the New... button displays the Custom Shader dialog (pictured below) which allows the user to create a new custom shader. New shaders can also be created from the Add Custom Shader...option on the Shader drop-down in the Viewer toolbar, or the Custom Shaders button on the Dynamic Hill Shading tool.

The Custom Shader dialog specifies a custom elevation data color palette, and the relationship to the pixel values.

Name

The Name field provides a place to enter the name to associate with the shader to allow the user to select it. The Elevation Colors section display the elevations and their color values associated with the custom shader.

Type

Choose to create the shader based on Elevation values, or Slope values.

Units

Changes based on Type. This determines the units that the shader is created with. It does not need to reflect the native units of the shaded or displayed layer.

Elevation/Slope Colors

This list displays the defined colors and values used in the shader, and can be edited by right clicking, or through the buttons listed below.

Add: Choose an elevation/slope value, and assign a color.

Edit: Change the value or color associated with the current elevation selected in the Colors list.

Delete Value: deletes the currently selected elevation.

Delete All: deletes all elevations.

Initialize From

This allows users to import an existing shader, either custom or built in, to easily create a slightly modified version of an existing shader. Choose a shader option or import file to display an existing list of color/elevation pairs to those used by the chosen shader.

Palette File initializes the list of color/ elevation pairs from a color palette file in any recognized format (like a comma-delimited file of R,G,B components on each line). Since palette files don't contain elevation values, the elevations will be incremented by one for each color and set to automatically scale the colors between loaded elevation values.

Surfer CLR File initializes the list of color/elevation pairs with a CLR file created by the Surfer application by Golden Software. You can use the Save to Surfer CLR File button to save your custom shader to a CLR file. This is useful for making copies of a custom shader and providing them to other users.

Modify Values

The Evenly Space Elevations Starting at Arbitrary Base Elevation button will allow you to quickly populate the list of elevation values with a series of evenly spaced values starting at some specified elevation. You can then assign the colors as desired after that. For example, you could use this to quickly populate the list with all elevations from 0 meters to 5000 meters with an elevation every 500 meters, then modify those as desired.

The Set Elevations to match REM shader… adjusts the elevation ranges for the currently selected colors while making the custom shader. This option lets you mimic the default REM shader with different colors, and further refine the elevations. To use this option, first specify your min and max elevation values or choose to Initialize from Other Shader.

REM shaders typically have bright colors at low elevations. To match this you will be prompted to reverse the colors in your chosen ramp.

Save to Surfer CLR File

Export the custom shader as a CLR file to be shared with another Global Mapper user. Note that custom shaders are saved in the workspace, and are included in Exported User Settings.

Additional Options

Elevations shaded with a custom shader will use the color specified for each elevation value. Any elevation values between two elevation/ color values will be a blend of the two bounding colors if the Blend Colors Between Elevation/ Slope Values option is checked. For example, if an elevation of 500 meters was set to black and an elevation of 1000 meters was set to white, an elevation of 750 meters would be colored a medium shade of gray. Any elevations below the minimum specified elevation will use the same color as the minimum elevation. The reverse is true for any elevations over the maximum elevation. If the blend colors option is not checked, any elevation between two elevation values will be set to the color associated with the lower of the elevation values.

To scale shader to the elevation range of the currently loaded data rather than stay at fixed elevation values, check the Scale Shader to Loaded Elevation Values. This will make your shader behave similar to most of the built-in shaders, like the Atlas or Color Ramp shaders. For example, if you check this option and specify that an elevation of 0 meters is blue and 1 meter is red, and the actual loaded data has a range of 100 meters to 500 meters, then 100 meters will be blue and 500 meters will be red, with the values gradually shaded in between (if you have the blend colors option checked).

Use the option to Repeat Color Range for Elevations Outside Range to repeat the defined colors for an elevation range when they go outside a specified range.