What Is World Construction Set? - WCS is a 3D terrain modeling and animation program. It is a stand-alone product that does not require LightWave but will work with LightWave to create very realistic background images. WCS is available in two versions for the Amiga and the most recent version (V2) is also scheduled for release (under Windows NT) for the PC/Alpha late in 1995 and SGI in mid '96. Version 1 WCS features: Animation - Almost everything that defines the look and mood of a scene can be animated: Motion, color, ecosystems, snow line, sea level, haze, fog, lighting, and more. WCS uses the same key-frame system used by LightWave so the motions are compatible. Ecosystems - WCS lets the user have complete control over what covers the terrain. There are a lot of sophisticated features that let you recreate almost any type of landscape from desert to forest. There are textures to simulate conifer and deciduous trees or shrubs, grass, rock and ground. Color Maps - To tint the landscape a particular color or to precisely define where certain ecosystems exist you can use bitmapped images called Color Maps. Terrain - Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) are used to create the terrain. We can use any US Geological Survey model or you can create your own in a paint program and import it into WCS. DEM data is available for the entire United States at high resolution and for most of the world at medium resolution. Low res data is available for the entire globe so you can actually zoom in from out in space to a detailed area of the planet in one sweep. WCS can also load all VistaPro(TM) DEM files as well as convert any type of array data into a DEM. Global Rendering - WCS treats the world as if it were actually round! What a revolutionary idea. Most terrain modeling software operates on only a small geographic area and pretends that the earth is flat. With WCS and global data you can have a full view of the earth rotating in space. You will get a true horizon line and realistic curvaturewhen you zoom in close. Combined with the haze effect this provides a sense of enormous space and depth. On-Demand Loading - WCS can render an unlimited scene size in about 6 megs of RAM since only a small portion of the terrain is operated on at any given time during the rendering process. Data is loaded only as needed. LightWave 3D Motion Files - WCS can both import and export LightWave 3D motion files. These can be used to establish a consistent camera motion so that when a WCS image sequence is used as a LightWave background the motions are synchronized. 2D Mapping - WCS is actually a 3D geographic Information System (GIS) and Version 2 WCS features: LightWave 3D Tie-ins - In addition to importing and exporting LW motion files, WCS can now export an entire scene complete with the DEM data. Plug-ins are provided for LightWave to retrieve or provide a Z-buffer. The Z-buffer is used as a compositing mask either during WCS rendering or LightWave rendering to combine a WCS background with LightWave objects. 3D Clouds - All types of clouds can be created from whispy cirrus to billowy, ominous thunderheads. you can animate cloud density, thickness and coverage. Clouds are shaded and look strikingly realistic. Clouds can move across the sky and at the same time change shape or density to create time-lapse effects of building storms. Waves - Finally a terrain modeler that makes waves that really look like water. They are animated of course. You control how large the swells and how fast they travel. Very complex wave patterns are possible. Waves develop whitecaps and break on the shore. They can build in strength (perhaps in synchrony with clouds above) to create the effect of changing weather or rising tides. Two different slope-based ecosystems allow you to have sandy beaches and rocky cliffs washed by the waves. Reflections - Any water body can reflect the terrain and sky with breathtaking realism. The amount of reflection can be controlled (and animated). You could go from a calm glassy sea to an angry boiling froth as the clouds churn overhead. Reflections are especially awesome when combined with small waves. They wiggle and dance just like the real thing. Add a moon to the picture (see below) and you get that glowing-path-across-the-water effect. Rock Strata - Sedimentary rock strata can be created with no effort at all. They can slope or for really cool effects their structure can be controlled with a map that defines the highs and lows (We've even included the map builder). Colored Strata - For the ultimate rock effect, strata can be colored by layer to represent different rock types. Very dramatic or subtle effects are possible. Heavenly Bodies - The sun and moon can now be rendered, complete with haloes. And yes, of course they can be animated so they can rise and set or even change size and color. The moon in particular is very impressive since it is a highly detailed bitmap image. It looks great rising over a rippled, reflective body of water. Fractal Displacement Mapping - Great rock textures can be had by perturbing the DEM surface using fractal mathematics. For animation, this is the only way to go. Older (Version 1) texturing methods for rock surfaces were somewhat unstable when animated and caused flicker in the picture. Using fractal displacement mapping, all surfaces are "rock" solid. Fractal Depth Maps - To gain the best rendering performance and highest quality there must be a way to render each portion of an image at a fractal level that is appropriate. Too low gives a polygonal appearance and too high consumes rendering time needlessly. Fractal Depth Maps solve the problem of finding the right balance. They are generated automatically so are simple to use and can speed up rendering by an order of magnitude. DEM Builder - Many users have requested tools for building and editing Digital Elevation Models (DEMs). We have built a very sophisticated terrain generator into WCS. Far beyond the usual fractal terrain capabilities offered by other programs, WCS allows you to define the shape of the terrain in any level of detail. You can define one part of the model where you need closeup detail very explicitly while other parts may be only roughly sketched. You can import .XYZ files of control points (such as a land survey), digitize contours from a map or enter control points, contours and elevation gradients directly into the DEM Builder with the mouse. This promises to be a popular feature with the Sci-Fi crowd. Color Maps - Previous versions of WCS required a separate Color Map for any DEM that was to have features delineated in this way. New for V2 is the ability to have one Master Color Map that covers the area of the features. It can be any size image and any resolution. It can overlap multiple DEMs or cover only a part of a DEM. It lets you define very detailed features over small areas or more general features over large areas. See the Version 1 description of Color Maps above for more explanation of their uses. Tree Height and Density - These variables, present in version 1, can now be animated. You can grow a forest or re-populate a clearcut. Antialiasing - A much improved antialiasing algorithm is now in use providing very solid animated imagery. For WCS Info Contact: Gary Huber Questar Productions 1058 Weld County Road 23.5 Brighton, CO 80601 (303) 659-4028 garhuber@burner.com WCS Version 1 features continued... 2D Mapping - WCS is actually a 3D geographic Information System (GIS) and as such provides extensive 2D mapping capabilities including the ability to digitize vector objects and interactively adjust the Camera, Sun, and haze positions in a 2D map view. Vector objects can be used to represent roads, streams, boundaries and lots of other things in rendered images. Camera View and Preview Rendering - A wire frame preview window is available for setting up your scenes. It is fully interactive and integrated with other modules such as Map View to give you the finest control possible over the view. Previews can be rendered quickly to evaluate the motion, lighting and ecosystems. Non-modal GUI - WCS uses MagicUserInterface (by Stefan Stuntz) to create its windows, screens and gadgets. This allows us to make the entire program non-modal. You can have any of the editing controls open at once giving you instant access to all of the features and parameters that create a scene. What's more the windows all talk to each other so as you change the display in one window others will update simultaneously. Recommended Configuration - WCS requires v1.04 or greater of the Amiga operating system. Minimum memory requirement is 4 megs with 8 megs or more recommended. Both 68040 and 68030 versions of the program are supplied. Data Included - WCS ships with two large set of terrain data for the Rocky Mountains and the Grand Canyon. Additional data is available from Questar at nominal fees or over the Internet free of charge. A free low-res global data set is sent to users when they register the program.