This is the main window of Geoscape3d and it is separated into several main areas.
This panel displays the two dimensional version of the terrain. This is the heightmap where the terrain tools alter the terrain. This view may be altered by the 2d navigation tools detailed below.
These buttons alter the current view of the heightmap. They allow the user to zoom in or out, move the heightmap around ( Pan ) and reset the view ( Zoom Reset ). If you have a mouse wheel you may also move in / out of the heightmap with it if the cursor is over the heightmap.
Light allows the user to view the 2d view and the window mode overview map with a light source or to see the heightmap unlit. The lit view gives better visual feedback of slopes, but the unlit view shows the pixels as they are. Blue areas in the unlit view are below the zero height mark.
Geoscape3d uses this panel to show how the current heightmap looks in a three-dimensional view. As the user alters the heightmap, the 3d view updates in real-time allowing instant feedback of changes made to the terrain. While the mouse is over this view, the user may move left ( left cursor ), move right ( right cursor ), forward ( up cursor ) and backwards ( down cursor ).
There are two distinct camera modes that can be used in Geoscape3d.
Free Look - this allows the user to move the camera to any view point over the terrain, by pressing the camera mouse button. The mouse wheel will move the camera view forward and backwards from the current point.
Fixed Rotate - this keeps the camera in a fixed location and rotates the terrain around the camera when the mouse is moved and the camera mouse button is pressed. The mouse wheel will move the camera view forward and backwards from the current point.
In either mode press and hold the camera mouse button to allow the user to alter the angle of the current view. Holding the control key down while the left mouse button is pressed activates camera pan mode in X and Y axis. Holding the shift key down while the left mouse button is pressed activates camera pan in the Z axis.
When zooming with the mouse wheel, control will speed up down the rate of movement and shift will decrease it.
The movement on the view may be constrained and configured by various settings. The 3d view can be altered by the 3d view options detailed below.
Click the tool mouse button to run the tool directly on the terrain. This will use the currently selected tool.
The camera mouse button and tool mouse button can mapped to either the left / right or right / left buttons dependant on user preference. Use the settings dialog and edit the Mouse Button Usage to alter this configuration.
These allow the user to alter how the 3d view looks. These are split into various groups
Water - toggles the display of the water level at the level specified in the settings dialog.
Filter - toggles the filtering of the texture to make it look les "blocky".
Detail - toggles on a detail texture that makes the ground look less plain closer up.
Textured - shows the 3d view with the current texture on it. If there is no texture generated then, a default grey texture is used.
Shaded - shows the 3d view with shaded detail to allow the user to view terrain in a "solid" mode without generating a texture. The light source is the one specified in the texture generation dialog. This allows the user to preview how the shadowing option will affect the terrain texture.
Wireframe - shows the view in "see through" mode to allow ease of visualisation when the user manipulates the terrain with the tools. The number of lines drawn is set in the in the settings dialog.
Points - shows the view in an alternative "see through" mode using points at the line intersections of the wireframe mode.
If the project has texture settings Create Texture generates a new texture based on those settings. Without any settings created, this button will take you to the Edit Texture Settings dialog.
These allow the user to move the current view of the 3d panel around. There are several presets. In addition to this you may specify up to 8 custom viewpoints that allow you to store the current 3d view. Move the camera into the position you wish to store and select View3d|Set Viewpoint and the number you wish to use. You can then quickly naivgate back using the menu or the buttons on the navigation bar. These positions are stored in the gsp file.
This is the area that the terrain tools can be selected from. The bottom area will show various options depending upon which tool is running,
Several standard functions are implemented on the plugin menu system. Geoscape3d ships with several standard plugins and these are:
Raise: This will raise or lower the entire heightmap by the specified amount of height units.
Scale: This scales the entire heightmap by the factor specified.
Single Point Edit: This allows the user to edit the height of a single pixel on the heightmap.
Select Height Range: This allows the user to specify a range of heights that will be selected.
If you install more plugins they will appear on the menu system.
This shows the overview of the currently loaded project. Right clicking a node gives various options. Each type of node has various optiuons detailed below.
Only one node exists per project and contains all the heightmap layers in the project beneath it. You may add a new mask layer to the project with the popup menu. You can also edit the texture settings or create texture from this node.
If there is more than one heightmap in the project you may alter the current heightmap using the Make Current option on the popup menu. The current heightmap is the one shown in the main editor and is highlighted by a green line in the project tree. Being able to see the mask layer in the main editor allows users to work with the terrain tools on that mask.
You may erode the terrain using the erosion tool.
You may Copy the current layer and create a new mask.
You may resize a layer.
You may merge two layers together using boolean operations.
You may delete any mask layer, but this option will be disabled for the main heightmap in the project.
You may preview the effects of the paint tool using the view paint option. This option is disable if there has been no user painting on the texture. You may alter the layer options by using the options... menu item. This option is disabled for the main heightmap as there are no options to edit.
The project tree also shows the current texture layers in each heightmap layer. You may edit these layers, but must remember to regenerate the texture before changes can be seen.
This is the root node for all the objects in the current project. You may choose to import a .gof file or export the current objects as a .gof file. You can also clear the objects from the current project. These functions can also be accessed through the File|Objects menu.
This is the root node for all markers. You may also add a new marker.
Each node is a separate marker in the project. You may alter the marker properties or remove the marker. You may drag and drop from a marker node on to the terrain and an insert will be generated at the point the mouse button is lifted.
Object Inserts
This is the master node for all object inserts currently in the project
You may add a new insert.
You may add a group.
You may add multiple inserts.
You may hide and show all inserts.
Object Inserts Nodes
Each node relates to a specific object insert within the current project. There are several options available per insert:
You may add an insert as a child of the current insert
You may add a group as a child of the current insert
You may add multiple inserts as children of the current insert
Copy the insert and all of its children. The copied objects are then selected.
You may remove the insert, which deletes the current insert.
Toggle select will select the object if it is currently unselected and vice versa.
Select Children will select all the object's children
Goto Insert will take the camera to the front of the object insert
Hide will make this insert and its children invisible, show will reverse this
You may also edit the properties of the insert
This allows users to work on smaller areas of large terrains to increase performance. Clicking on "Windowed" mode will allow the user to toggle between windowed and non-windowed modes. In windowed mode, a panel showing the whole heightmap is visible and the user see the currently active window within this highlighted by a red rectangle. The user may use the left mouse button to drag this window around. The snap button forces the window to specified points within the heightmap allowing editing of neighbouring areas with no overlap. The size of the window can be altered using the size dropdown list. Selection will be reset by toggling of windowed mode.
To record a set of points click the red record button. Run any of the terrain editing tools, you may run more than one, and when you have edited the points you wish to save click the black stop button. The saved points dialog will appear and you may specify a name for this set of points. The saved point groups dialog may be accessed through "... button" next to the point list drop down list. This dialog allows the user to edit and remove saved point groups.
To run a tool on a saved point group, select select the required group and then activate the required terrain tool. Press the green play button to run the currently selected tool on this group.
Point groups make it easy to run tools on a specified area of the terrain. The groups can be used on different heightmap layers. You may create a saved points group in the main layer and apply effects to a separate mask layer using the group.
Example
To texture a road:
1) Load an existing terrain
2) Start recording points
3) Run the road tool and create a road in the terrain, then stop recording and
save the points as "Road1"
4) Create a new mask on the project overview by clicking on the "height
maps" node and right clicking and selecting the "add" menu
option.
5) Make sure the mask is the currently selected heightmap and select the build
tool from the toolbar. Select the "Road1" points list and press play.
This runs the build tool on the points you used to create the road, but in the
mask layer.
6) Select the smooth tool and press play once more. This will smooth out the
mask.
7) Add texture layers to your mask layer and then generate your texture. The
mask will texture the road that you just created.
The select toolbar holds all the tools for altering the current selection.
The object
toolbar holds all the tools for editing objects.
This displays the current point the cursor is over in the terrain, the size of the current heightmap, whether the project needs saving ( a disk icon means the project has changed and needs to be saved ) and, if the help string exists, the text associated with the Windows control the cursor is over.