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Virtual Reality Homebrewer's Handbook
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1996-03-19
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Demo of Height-Field Terrain Rendering
======================================
What This Is
~~~~~~~~~~~~
This program is a demonstration of the height-field rendering graphics
"engine" I have been working on for the past few months. For the most
part I have used it as a test harness to explore the visual results of
various "speed-up" techniques. It is not a game (yet), but intended
to be used in one.
System Requirements
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- 386 or 486
- VGA
- 5M memory
Running The Program
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Use the + and - keys (on the keypad) to increase/decrease speed, and
the arrow keys to steer. In addition, the first six Function keys
have the following actions:
F1 - Toggle step size (1,2,4). The "engine" employs a basic
"ray-casting" algorithm. Step size is how far to jump between
locations inspected.
F2 - Toggle pixel size (1,2,4). Using ModeX alter the width of the
pixels being plotted. The wider the pixel, the fewer columns
that have to be plotted.
F3 - Toggle between maximum distances checked (300,600,900). Tells
the program when it can stop "stepping" along the ray.
F4 - Drawing method (DDA or Fixed-Point). I originally started
with a DDA algorithm for calculating each step. This method
introduces some distortion, so I tried using a fixed-point
math technique and was surprized to find that it was almost as
fast.
F5 - Toggle between screen layouts (views). The "engine" is quite
flexible w.r.t. viewport size and location.
F6 - Toggle "overhead" map on and between resolutions (1x,2x,4x).
Status
~~~~~~
The upper left corner of the landscape viewport has the current status
of the above "toggles" and an indication of the frame rate the engine
is achieving.
Landscapes
~~~~~~~~~~
The landscape data included was generated by me. Height-field data
(heights.pcx) was created with a home grown fractal technique. These
values were then imported into Vista Pro 3.0 where the colour-field
(colours.pcx) was generated.
Mike Gardi
Useful Software
Voice: (519) 746-2931
FAX: (519) 746-5972
Internet: megardi@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca
CompuServe: 70242,3102
GEnie: M.Gardi