max - newbie question: convert bitmap into triangle colours

[marcofera]

Greetings fellas. I'm new to the forum, plz help
I need to realize a realistic terrain form real data. I don't want to use textures on my elevation models because it would take too much memory (the data must be exported to be used in a real time visualization software). I would like to know if it is possible to use a texture (in my case a satellite image) and convert the texture mapping into material properties for every triangle the mesh is made of, or in other words to have a different colour per triangle which matches the most common colour of the portion of texture applied upon that same triangle. In this way I would have a 3d mesh with colours resembling those of the original texture. I hope I was clear enough. Is there a specific term for the technique I described? It doesn't sound too much complicated to add in a 3k $ 3d package for me! Is it possible with 3ds max alone? will I need a plug-in? or another program?
I must decide whether to purchase 3dsmax or not, this is the only feature I'm looking for.
Thanks in advance

[Antievo-3DT]

Quick Reply:
I guess you would have to use some sort of procedural map, but I would not know how to do that.

[marcofera]

Procedural texture, sounds complex.
However I found a different way to explain what I need: a tool which converts a bitmap texture into vertex colors of a given mesh. I'm looking for it on the web but it seems the most advanced programs can only paint vertices, but there's no automatic way to colorize all the vertices of a mesh.