home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- Terrain the Manual
-
-
- CAUTION this program, TERRAIN, is habit forming and has been known to cause severe stress for
- loved ones of those who use this program. Please be aware that you can become so immersed in the
- abilities of TERRAIN that you may not come up from the computer room for days and days.
-
- Caution number two, This program is simple to use and therefore does not require a lengthy manual.
- We have decided, here at Impulse, that long manuals are possibly an excuse for hard to use software or
- for software that is very complicated. Terrain is neither of these. if you are not familiar with the
- conventions of the Amiga, such as using both the Mouse buttons or using Hot Keys, it might he a good
- idea for you to review your owners manual before pressing onto Terrain. Just what does Terrain do?
- Simply stated, Terrain generates Mountains, Valleys, Rivers, Rolling Hills, Caverns, Canyons, Water,
- and Several different types of grounds that can be used in Turbo Silver.
-
- When one thinks of Terrain and the like being generated by a computer the first thought from most is
- "Does it use Fractals?". NO, Terrain does not use Fractals. What Terrain does do however, is generate
- random triangle patters that Silver and Turbo Silver can interpret for you as Terrains. Terrain does not
- use Fractals for one simple reason. The amount of triangles needed to do effective fractal topography is
- Immense and the size of the files that Terrain can he rather large.
-
- Consider that not all of us have 300 Gigabyte hard drives and 9 megs of RAM. Were we to have used
- true Fractal topography you might have needed these items. In short, we were thinking of you when we
- wrote this program. Keep it simple, powerful and fast As you become familiar with Terrain, we are sure
- that you will find that we have met all of these goals.
-
- LET'S GET GOING AND DO WHAT TOOK NATURE YEARS TO DO, BUILD A MOUNTAIN.
-
- Make a backup copy of the Terrain disk, it is not copy-protected and you are given the right to make
- backup copies for your own personal use. Please, don't give out copies to friends, relatives and others
- that want something for free. You have paid for this program and so should they. if you have a hard
- drive, copy Terrain to the main root directory or any subdirectory. If you are making a floppy backup,
- use the Amiga Diskcopy command to make a backup. Once again, if you are not familiar with the
- process of making a backup please check your Amiga users guide for instruction. Store the original in a
- safe place.
-
-
- You will notice that Terrain is not shipped with a system, in other words, you can't boot your computer
- with the Terrain master disk. All you need to run Terrain is system 1.2 or greater. We have not included
- a system for two reasons. One, we wanted to put some pix files that were generated using Terrain; Two,
- there are so many viruses floating around out there that we don't want to be responsible for giving your
- system a bummer disease.
-
- If you would like to see the pixs that are on this disk use the show command followed by the name of
- the file you would like to see. The other way to view these files is to use a HAM paint program like
- Diamond (The Impulse Paint Program). You may edit these files and use them in Silver as IFF brushes,
- or you can give them to your friends to show them what Terrain does. Undoubtedly you will want to
- make your own pixs so let's get to the meat of the matter Either from the Work Bench or CLI load
- Terrain by double clicking on it's ICON or type, in CLI "Run Terrain". For those of you who have a
- 68020 Accelerator board, click on Terrain.FP or from CLI type "Run Terrain.FP".
-
-
- NOTE:
-
- The FP version of Terrain will run much faster than the regular version because it takes advantage
- of the 68020 and co-processor chips. It will not however run unless you have an accelerator board
- installed.
-
- Once Terrain has loaded you will he see a with a black screen with a white boarder around it. You
- have entered Terrain. Review the menu bar by depressing the right mouse button. As we said
- previously. Terrain is very straight-forward, it might be safe to say that you can probably run Terrain
- after spending a few moments with the menu bar. Instead of trying to explain each feature of the menu
- bar at this point with manual in hand or on the desk (the latter will probably be easier) let's make a
- mountain out of a bunch of pixels. Under the Project Menu, the menu farthest to the right, you will see
- the following options.
-
- NEW
- OPEN
- READ
- SAVE AS
- ABOUT
- QUIT
-
- Before you can begin a project you must start off with the New command. Because our first project
- involves a mountain we do not have to reset any other options. There is however, another Menu called
- OPTIONS. In this menu we can select other types of terrains or grounds, in reality the other type of
- Terrain is Water. The ground options are not really Terrains they are grounds that have a pattern to
- them. As we move through the manual, we will get to the differences of alt these options. For now let's
- stick with a mountain or two.
-
- Choose the NEW option horn the Project Menu.
-
- Once you have done so you will see a requester similar to the one shown in Diagram #1. The requester
- that you see is asking you for the size of the grid that you want to work with. Notice that the
- information is input into one of the four boxes. Upper left option is E-W option, this is the size of the
- grid from left to right. (or east to west). The Box directly below E-W is N-S this is the north to south
- option. You will see this as a grid line running from the depth of the screen away from you. E-W relates
- to the X axis co-ordinate in Silver N-W relates to the Y axis co-ordinate in Silver The other two options
- are the cells or sets of triangles that will be computed on the grid. Notice that the default for all of these
- options are as follows.
-
- E-W 1000 30
-
- N-S 1000 30
-
- These numbers will give you a grid of 1000 units by 1000 units in X And Y. The number in the cell
- boxes of 30 and 30 will give you 800 triangles.
-
- This may not sound like a lot of triangles, it is, however, more than enough to make some very striking
- mountains. There are two last boxes the OK box, by clicking this box it means that you are pleased
- with the numbers and wish to move to the next set of functions. By hitting CANCEL you will be
- returned to the first screen of Terrain, waiting for you to either quit, or load an old tile.
-
- Let's change the numbers in the E-W and N-S to the following.
-
- E-W 500 20
- N-S 500 20
-
- This will give us a 500 square grid and 400 triangles. You can make the grid as big as you like, be
- forewarned that the larger the numbers, the more triangles, the more the triangles, the larger the cell, the
- larger the cell, the longer it ~l take for Silver to load and redraw. The only major factor that is not
- affected by the increase or decrease in these numbers is the trace time. We have found that in most
- cases the amount of triangles and size will not effect the Ray Tracing engine of Silver very dramatically.
- This is because Silver uses Octree Volumes making the trace time of most cells as fast as they can be.
- Once you have the numbers typed into the requester click on the OK box.
-
- As soon as you have done this, on the right side of the screen will appear the main Terrain requester.
- With this requester most of your work will be done. (See diagram #2) In the middle of the screen
- surrounded by the second white border is the CAMERA. The camera is the same camera that is used in
- Silver. When you save the terrain as a cell the camera position and angle will be saved in the position
- that you have set. To begin, choose from the top of the Master Terrain Requester the Add Peak Option.
- Move your mouse to the Add Peak option and click once. This action has told Terrain that you want to
- add your first peak. It will however not appear that any thing has happened until you move the cursor
- to the area in the middle of the screen and click again with the mouse. Once you have done so you will
- see a cross-hair appear that should look like the one shown in diagram #3.
-
- NOTICE - in the upper right hand portion of the screen is a cursor locator. Without depressing the left
- mouse button move the mouse around the screen to get a feel for position. Once you have mastered
- this activity move the cursor to a value of 0, 126. The first number is relative to the X axis and the
- second number is relative to the Y axis. (Notice that all of the functions of Terrain are directly related to
- the operations of Silver and Turbo Silver, we planned it that way, really.) Once located at X4) and
- Y=126 (close Is good. you don't hove to be right on the money for this tutorial,) depress the left mouse
- button to place a peak at this point As staled before you should see the cross hair appear. Notice that
- there are also some numbers clustered in the right hand side of the cross hairs. These numbers relate to
- some other features of the peak that we will get to in just a moment. For this mountain, we are going to
- make it rather wide and deep. The cross-hair once added is colored blue, this means that it has been
- selected and active. if for some reason your cross hair is white simply move the mouse pointer to the
- middle of the cross hair and depress the left mouse button. The cross hair will turn blue. Now depress
- the X key on the keyboard or choose the Size X option from the Master Requester. The X axis will now
- become active and will grow or decrease with the movement of the mouse. Move the mouse around to
- get a feel for how the X axis grows or shrinks in size. Notice that once the cursor has left the second
- bordered area the axis will discontinue to grow or shrink. In order for the axis to be manipulated you
- must keep the mouse in the area of the second border. Move the mouse around until the X axis is
- about three quarters of the screen. Now click the left mouse button once again. The cross hair should
- still be blue but the X axis will no longer grow or shrink in size. Use either the Master Requester or the
- keyboard and choose the size Y option. This will activate theY axis. it will petform in the same manner
- as the X did with the exception that the cross hair will now move up and down on your screen. Make
- the Y axis about 113 of the screen. Once again accuracy is not that important.
-
- Before we move onto the other options let's take a look at the mountain. Depress the tight Amiga key
- and the C key. This will give you the view from the East of the Mountain. Unless we miss our guess or
- you haven't done something like skip over this part of the manual you will, in a few seconds, see a
- rather pitiful small and obscure mountain. No purple mountains majesty here, YET. To return to the
- Terrain work surface depress the left mouse button. Using either the mouse or the keyboard choose
- Size Z. Of course you must still have the peak select or blue in color.
-
- Move the mouse around the inner bordered area. The top number in the right hand side of the cross hair
- will either grow or diminish in value, depending on the area that you move the mouse to. By moving
- the mouse make this number change to a value of 250. This may be a bit difficult the first time out so
- just try and get close to a value of 250. Once you have that value shown depress the left mouse button.
- Again, depress the Right Amiga and the C key for a view from the East.
-
- Now we are getting somewhere. You just made your first mountain peak, and what a peak it is. Take a
- break and have a libation. Just think how hard you worked to make a mountain, Whew!. For those of
- you who wish to forge on. let's take another view of the same mountain. Click the left mouse button to
- return to the main program. These key combinations will show you different views of your creation:
-
- Right Amiga A = North View
- Right Amiga B = South View
- Right Amiga C = East View
- Right Amiga D = West View
- Right Amiga E = Camera View
-
- Try all of these views and see which you like the best. Because we have done nothing with the camera
- as of yet, this view will most likely be the one that you like the least. However, the camera is the next
- option that we shall deal with.
-
- Before we move on to any new subjects, lake a few moments to reflect on the functions of the camera
- and how it is oriented in the terrain world.
-
- THE CAMERA
-
- The camera acts much the same as it does in Silver. The only difference is the camera doesn't track to
- the terrain. Once you have exported the terrain to Silver, you can decide where you would like the
- camera to track to by using the auto track function. Select the camera by placing the mouse pointer over
- the center of the camera and depressing the left mouse button. The camera should turn blue. To move
- the camera, simply depress the M key, or select move from the Master Requester. Once again, there will
- not be any apparent explosion of fireworks telling you that you may now move the Camera. Move the
- cursor to the lower right hand portion of the inner border and depress the left mouse button. With no
- fanfare the camera will move to the point where you have clicked. just for practice move the camera
- around to a few locations, just to get a feel for doing so. Now that you've had a little fun, move the
- camera back to the lower right hand portion of the screen. The camera has a straight line coming
- directly form the center of the circle, this is the lens, (sort of a lens) this is also the indicator
- showing the direction that the camera is pointing. We can rotate that pointer by depressing the R key
- or selecting rotate from the master menu. Make sore that the camera is selected and (blue in color)
- depress the R key.
-
- Move the mouse around the inner border area. Make the lens or pointer of The lens pointer go to 145.
- Use the Right Amiga key and the E key to get a camera view of the mountain. Much better right. What
- you have done is to rotate the camera in a downward orientation. If you would like to practice a little try
- a few different values for the F setting. A value of 1 will point the camera straight up, a value of 0 will
- point the camera straight down. Depending on the distance that you are away from the terrain the
- results will be very interesting.
-
- Under the options menu are several different ways to view your creation. The view modes are the last
- selection in this pull down menu.
-
- The choices are:
-
- WireFrame Right Amiga W
- Polygon Right Amiga P
- Filled Right Amiga F
-
- Try selecting the polygon mode either by using the pull down menu or using the Right Amiga P. Now
- choose Right Amiga E, the results are quite different. You are now seeing your mountain with the
- hidden lines removed. The picture that you see is going to be much more like the final render because
- the lines that you can not see have been removed to add more realism.
-
- Depress the Right Amiga F key and then the Right Amiga E combination. With this option you will get
- an even better view of the mountain, all of the polygons have been filled the hidden lines removed all
- that is left now is to give it a good ray tracing.
-
- Well.....not quite, there are still many other features that can be used to enhance and alter the terrain.
-
- ADDING MORE MOUNTAINS
-
- Although your creation is quite nice, it should have a friend to share the beauty with. let's add another
- mountain to the work surface. This can be done in two different ways. You can, as we have already
- done, add another peak with the add peak command. Or you can copy the mountain that we made and
- place it somewhere else on the work surface. Let's do the latter. Move your cursor to the mountain that
- we have already created and select it Depress the C key or use the mouse to select the copy command
- from the master requester. Now move the mouse to a distance of about 100 units south (or downward
- on the screen), from the first mountain that we have created. Depress the P key or choose paste from
- the Master Requester. Click the left mouse button and you should now have a second peak
- approximately 100 units south of the first peak.
-
- This is not going to be a real good place for this mountain so let's move it a bit to the left of it's present
- position. Make sure that this new peak is selected and depress the M key or choose Move from the
- Master Requester.
-
- Move the mouse about 100 units West of it's present position and depress the left mouse button. The
- peak should now be below and to the left of the first peak. Choose the View Option for Camera from
- the options menu or use the Hot Key Right Amiga F. Now we are getting some place.
-
- You have created two mountains in no lime at all. The only difference in add peak and copy peak is the
- obvious, with add peak you begin with anew peak, with copy you have an exact duplicate of the peak
- that has been copied, see we said it was obvious. The last command that you should become familiar
- with is a command that we have already used on the Camera it is rotate. Rotate is used by first selecting
- the peak or camera and then using the R key or choose Rotate from the Master Requester. Once again
- move the mouse around to get a feel for the rotation of the selected peak. Once you get a feel for the
- movement of the rotation activity, rotate the mountain peak so that it is at a 45 degree angle to the other
- peak.
-
- If all has gone well it should look something like Diagram #4. Use the Camera View to get an idea of
- what has changed. Use all other views in all view modes. In this manner you will get a feel for how the
- views work and what to expect when you develop your own terrains. There are other commands on the
- master requester are used in much the same way as ail of the other commands. The last of the
- commands that we have not looked at are SET XY. Delete, CUT and Info. The last command on the
- requester is the redraw command. In order to invoke the redraw simply press the space bar at anytime.
- To use Cut, simply repress the X key after you have selected the peak that you wish to cut from the
- work surface. Cut is like Delete which can also be invoked after you have selected the peak of your
- choice. The only difference between these two commands is that the Delete command will not allow
- you to re-paste the peak back to the work surface with the P command, whereas the Cut command
- allows you to paste the peak back to any point on the work surface that you desire, by using the P or
- paste command. In the event that you might make a mistake you can always use the UNDO command
- by depressing the U key. The only problem with UNDO is that it is a "one back" command. This is to
- say that if you have cut a peak from the work surface and then deleted another without first pasting the
- initial cut peak back to the work surface, the first peak will be gone. UNDO should always be used as
- soon as you realize that you have made a mistake. UNDO is a FIFO buffer that eliminates the first
- action when another action is executed.
-
- Within the Master Requester is the Scale Command. Scale is to X, Y and Z what size is to these values
- with the exception that the action taken on the axis values is much greater and more dramatic than Size.
- As in Silver you can affect change on any axis or group of Axis by holding down the left shift and
- clicking in succession on different axis points. Please be aware of the fact that of you select this feature,
- MULTI MODE, and attempt to rotate these axis they will all rotate around the frrst axis that was
- selected. this can cause a problem, one or more ofthe axis may move off the work surface. If this
- happens click the left mouse button and those axis that are not seen will appear, it would be a good idea
- to delete these axis at this time, as they will not have any effect on the overall terrain. The Multi Mode
- 'will work with all functions such as Cut Copy, Paste, Delete, Move, Rotate, scale and Sizing in all axis.
- Remember that you must use the LEFT SHIFT KEY and hold it down while you pick the peaks that
- you wish to work on. if you have picked several peaks and find that you wish not to have one or several
- picked, simply click on these peaks once again, they will become un-selected.
-
- The final command in the Master Requester is the Info command. Once you have selected any peak or
- the camera you can invoke the INFO command by selecting the letter I using the mouse to select it
- from the master requester. (Diagram #5). The Info box has several pieces of information which relate
- directly to the actions that we have taken in relation to the peaks or camera. Select any peak on the work
- surface and depress the I key to activate the Info command. There are several boxes that relate to the
- following. EW relates directly to the position of the selected peak or camera. This is the position of the
- center of the peak in it's relationship to the East and West poles. NW relates directly to the position of
- the selected peak or camera. This is the position of the center of the peak in it's relationship to the North
- and South poles. The X size and Y site ofthe peaks can be adjusted by typing in new values to the
- boxes that relate to X and Y size. Other features of the Info box include. Altitude, by changing the value
- in (his box you can increase the height of the peak.
-
-
- NOTICE....
-
- By giving the Altitude a negative value you can create canyons and rivers. Roughness, is directly related
- to our Pseudo-Fractal handler By changing this number you can make the peak of the Mountain or
- water either more severe or more docile. It is through this command that you can make Mountains that
- look like the Alps, (very severe) or mild rolling hills. The other three boxes, OK, SHOW and CANCEL
- work in the following manner. if you have made and viewed all of the changes click the OK box. In so
- doing, you will be brought back to Main Program. if however, you have made changes to values in the
- Info Boxes and decide that they are not what you wanted, click on the cancel box, all of the changes
- will be null and void.
-
- On the return to main program you will see that all is as it was before you entered the Info requester.
- The final box in the Info Requester is the SHOW command. This command gives you a sine wave of
- the information that you have either started with or the changes that you are proposing to make. You
- can click on the Show command at anytime. Note that you may not get the full sine wave of any peak
- due to the fact that it may be very tall or long. These features work exactly the same for mountains as
- water. The grounds that are supplied with the Terrain program are not affected by roughness or altitude.
- More on grounds later, Lastly, when in the creation of Mountains you can click several times on the
- Show command and the sine wave will change uisng several different seed numbers for a distinct
- randomness.
-
- You now know how to make Mountains, and valleys. You just might want to save your creations, so let
- us go over the different ways to save those peaks and valleys. There is a fourth option in the menu bar
- at the top of the Main program called, Silver. In this menu option you have two sub options Save Cell
- and Save Object. If you save the present Terrain as a Cell, it will save the Terrain as a green mountain,
- with a light soturce and the camera in its present position. In this way you can begin a animation or
- trace knowing just exactly what the results will be. You can also, once having saved the cell, call this
- cell into Silver and add other items or features to the Terrain that you have created. If you decide to set
- different camera and light parameters in the creation of your Terrain, save the terrain as a simple object.
- When you use the Save Object option you must remember that the camera and light source will not be
- brought down into the saved file.
-
- The file requester works as you might expect, the top requester box asks for the drawer that you want
- to save the cell Or object to and the bottom box asks for the name that you wish to save the cell or
- object under.
-
-
- Special NOTE
-
- when you attempt to save an object as a cell we have added a special save requester that appears before
- the cell save, it is called IFF save. This feature allows you to define an IFF image that you have created
- or digitixed and have this image wrapped around the mountain. This function is in direct relation to the
- normal manner in which you wrap brushes around objects in Silver. The difference is thai the wrapping
- is done automatically, once saved to disk and recalled into Silver the mountain will already be wrapped.
- If you decide that you don't want to have a brush used simply click on cancel, the next save requester
- will appear allowing you to save the object as a stand alone object.
-
- More Special Notes...
-
- When you are viewing any of your creations in the view mode of Terrain, you may save this picture to
- disk by depressing the S key. The pict file will be stored to the current opened directory. These pict files
- are stored as High Res, and Interlace. Once the files have been saved you can recall them with various
- paint programs. Impulse produces Diamond, a Paint program that is a companion to Terrain and Silver.
- If you would like further information regarding Diamond please call our offices at: 1-800-2328-0184.
- The other save functions that are available are in the first menu name Project. In this menu you can
- Save, Read and Open. Save simply saves the data that you have created in it's own unique file format,
- not in Silver format. You must use the Silver menu to export the terrain in a format that Silver can
- recognize. Open will eliminate the current work surface terrain peaks and bring in a previously saved
- terrain set. Read will however bring into the present terrain on the work surface another set of
- previously saved terrain peaks. In this manner you can create even more complex terrains by adding
- several different files to the present work file. Prior to moving to Water and Grounds it is important
- to discuss one other option under the Options menu.
-
- Set Seed is another factor that affects the randomness of the Set F value. You can Set Seed at any time.
- Note that the change of the seed should be no more than four numbers. If you still have our first
- mountain example on the work surface. either by using the Right Amiga and the = key or by choosing
- the Set Seed from the Options Menu, change 'he seed number to other than the default, then use one of
- the view options to see the changes that have been made. By now you can see a variety of ways of
- making youre creations unique and exciting. Of course the most important comment that can be made
- about Terrain is that you must Experiment with all of the features. Don't be afraid of adding many
- peaks, rotate them all in different directions and place them in various ways to see how things work out.
- We have not set any standards for you to follow, you are the judge and jury as to the beauty of your
- terrains. This is as it should be, agreed?.
-
-
- WATER WATER EVERYWHERE AND NOT A DROP TO DRINK.
-
- One unique feature of the Waves Terrain is that you can make animations out of the waves terrain
- 'hat you create. Waves is selected by choosing Waves from the Options menu just as you chose
- Mountains. There are no differences in Waves and Mountains other than the fact that Waves can be
- saved in a sequential series of animated cells. With waves you can create or add peaks to the work
- surface, size the X and V axis and increase the Z axis. You can apply the F command to the Waves to
- increase or decrease the severity of the waves. In short you can begin to make waves right away. after
- all you have already created some very interesting mountain, how hard can waves be. Add a few peaks
- to the work surface and take a view of them from the orientation of the Camera by using the master
- requester or using the Right Amiga F key set. You will see that the default setting for waves will
- generate a rather "choppy sea". By using the info command change the Wavelength of the water to a
- larger number like 300. Click on the show command and view the new sine wave of this peak. Now
- change the amplitude to a value of 0.8. the largest value that can be used in the amplitude box is the
- whole number I, the least value is 0.000.
-
- If you attempt to place a number that falls out of these values you will get the illegal dialogue box. If
- this happens simply change the values until they fall with in the envelope established by the Terrain
- program.
-
- As in the Mountain option the Z command relates directly to the Wavelength, the F command relates
- directly to the smoothness or choppiness of the waves and the angle relates directly to rotation of the
- peak or wave set. Waves seem to look better when you have larger X And Y axis and fewer of them, of
- course this is up to you and what you like. Also the movement of the water is along they axis. The best
- way to get a feel for waves is to experiment with them and create a few.
-
- You can read other wave sets directly into your' existing work area by using the Read command. Waves
- work just like Mountains, the only difference lies in the fact 'hat the peaks will not be quite as large and
- the F command will have a tendency to make the terrain look mote like water than a Mountain.
-
-
- SPECIAL NOTE:
-
- For those of you have 2.0 please note that when you save the waves they are saved with anew feature
- called, glossy. The glossy command is only available to users of Turbo Silver 3.0 or greater. If you have
- a version less than 3.0 go into the attributes menu and reset the Reflective value of the water. Bring the
- value of the reflectivity down to something lower than 64 across the three color guns. If you don't you
- will not get a terrain that looks like water. Some of you may wish to use the values that are saved with
- the wave, the best test is to trace a couple of cells and view 'he differences. If you have not received
- Turbo Silver 3.0 please call us so that you may get the most current version.
-
-
- SAVING YOUR WAVES...
-
- You can save 'he file that you have created under the project menu and Terrain will save the data in it's
- own unique fashion. Under the Silver Menu you can save the water as a cell or object. The same
- information applies to Waves as to Mountains. When you save the wave as an object the camera and
- light source will not be saved with the object. On the other hand when you save the object as a cell a
- very special action occurs. For the purpose of practice, make a couple peaks on the work surface and
- then store them as cells. The first action that will occur will be the requester asking you how many cells
- you wish to make. For this test type in the number 6. The next requester will the main file requester
- asking for the drawer or sub-directory for storage in the upper box, in the lower box Terrain will ask for
- a name for the cells. For this exercise, decide where you want the cells to placed and name them in the
- name box, waves. After you are sure all of the information is correct click on the OK box. Wait for a
- few minutes while Terrain figures out the movement of the waves and saves the cells to the disk. Each
- cell will have the prefix, waves and will be followed by a period and a number, ie... waves.1, waves.2
- and so on. Once this process is finished the software will return control to you. It might he a good idea
- for you to now run Silver or Turbo Silver and make six cells.
-
- Into each cell load the appropriate wave cell. In cell I load waves. I and so on through cell 6 and
- waves.6. Choose the wireframe mode, set loop on cell I and select all cells. Now choose make scene. In
- a few moments, you will have a wire frame pencil test of moving water. The interesting factor aboul
- water is that it is an object. As such, it can he wrapped by an IFF brush or have a Texture applied to it.
-
- By making several different mountain objects and rotating them you can make a cavern with stalactites
- and stalagmites. To be even more creative add a narrow river running down the cavern.The possibilities
- are endless, all you have to do is add the creativity to the process.
-
- NOW TO GROUNDS
-
- The grounds that come with Terrain are pre-set. Here is a rough idea of what they will look like.
-
- Ground 1 is a checkerboard
- Ground 2 is a Symmetrical flower pattern.
- Ground 3 is a Octagon pattern.
- Ground 4 is a Tile pattern.
-
- Better descriptions than this can't be given. You have to see them to understand just what they look
- like. Grounds, like Waves and Mountains are objects and are subject to all but the coloring function in
- Silver. The grounds differ in a couple of respects one from the other. Ground I should not be made with
- cells larger than 20 or it will eat up all the space on your disk drive.
-
- Remember these are objects and should be treated as such, be careful that you don't make a ground too
- big to fit into the Silver World. Keep your grounds no larger than 2048 by 2048. Keep the cell size on
- Ground 1 below 20. the others are not quite as critical in the cell size, but it would be wise to keep the
- cell size to 30 and below. The more the triangles the more space is going to be needed in order to load
- and save these cells or objects. Grounds can be saved in both manners under the Silver menu as either
- grounds or objects. Remember that the difference is only in the fact that if saved as a cell the camera
- and light source will be applied to the information that is saved. The other factor that can be applied to
- the grounds are the colors.
-
- In Ground 1 there are only two colors that have any bearing to the ground that is the Primary and
- Secondary. In Grounds 2 thru 4 all of the colors apply. there are three. Notice that when you apply
- color to the grounds the slider to adjust the color is the same that you will find in Turbo Silver. Once
- again you will have to make a few grounds and experiment with the colors that you like.
-
-
- CAUTION....
-
- There is no way within Turbo Silver, other than choosing faces, to select the two or three different
- colors of the ground. If, after you have traced a ground and decide that the colors don't meet you desire
- results. Return to Terrain and set up the ground using the same parameters as your first ground and
- reset the colors. This is much easier than trying to get at the faces in Silver. AS we said in the beginning
- of this brief manual, Terrain is a very straight forward program that is not only simple tour but very
- powerful in its output.
-
-
- The only limitation to Terrain is your creativity and experimentation.
-
-
- If you have any problems with Terrain please feel free to call us on the Tech Support line at
- 1-612-566-0221. We are there from 9:00 AM to 5:00PM CST Monday thru Friday. It always helps if
- you have the manual before you when you are going to ask a question or request assistance. We don't
- want you wasting any time talking about problems, it is our goal to help you get them solved in a
- speedy manner. In any event we encourage you to call us and let us know what you think of Terrain,
- and we are always interested in your input as to how we can improve and enhance any of the programs
- that Impulse produces, We are listening.
-