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LANDSCAPE (c) June 1991 Version 2.6 (c) July 1992 Version 2.7 (c) June 1993 A Fractal scenery generator. Programmed by Andrew Kreibich with AMOSv1.35 (C) 1990 Mandarin/Jawx and compiled with the AMOS compiler. LANDSCAPE V2 docs This doc file applies to the full version. You may have the landscape demonstration version. The only difference between the two is that all saves have been disabled in the Demonstration version and you can only choose a SEED between 40 and 50. You can save a lot of calculation time and time spent copying parameters, generate many more scenes and be able to save your pictures by registering. (see DISTRIBUTION, below) NEW IN VERSION 2! ***************** Faster rendering times. Much better interface. Nearly all parameters are now operated by slider bars. New features include shadows, waves, rivers and lakes, speed increases in rendering and calculations, change of viewing direction and more. Read on! Version 2.7 has been compiled using amos 1.35 so it should run on A1200s. Note to users of earlier versions. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I think you can still use the data files from earlier versions in version 2. I have tried a few without any problems so far. All parameters which are new to version 2 will remain unaltered when you load a version 1 file. HOWEVER!! You cannot load a version 2 file into a version 1 programme!!! You might get away with a parameter file (NOT TESTED!) but any attempt to load a version 2 MAP file into earlier versions will almost certainly crash the machine! All calculation times quoted below are for the compiled version. If you have registered and are playing around with the source using the AMOS interpreter then the routines will take from 2 to 4 times as long. ##################### Memory requirements ##################### This programme needs 1 meg. You may still have a few problems if you are running from workbench, although version 2.5 uses memory more efficiently than earlier versions. If you have trouble try putting it on its own boot disk. Then replace your startup sequence with Run > Nil: landscape endcli (Make sure you have Run and endcli in your C directory) You can also use the above command to run from CLI. Purpose: This programme generates Fractal scenery. There are already a few commercial programmes which do this but this is written in AMOS. (Runing from the AMOS interpreter is a bit slow, although the compiled version is a lot quicker and rivals the others in most areas.) It does this by generating a square array of random points and then converting these to heights before plotting them on the screen as a set of polygons. In the highest resolution there are 131072 polygons in a picture. I used the midpoint displacement algorithm on page 100 of "The science of fractal images" by Pietgen and Saupe Springer-Verlag 1988 to generate the array of points and the projection and illumination formulae on pages 126 to 128 of the same book to get me started, although all of the routines have been modified many times since I read the book. ################ DISTRIBUTION ################ THIS PROGRAMME IS SHAREWARE! This means that my ego and my wallet would appreciate a little feedback for all my efforts! You may (and are encouraged to) distribute the Landscape demonstration version to anyone providing you observe the following conditions. (a) You don't make any money from it (apart from a nominal copying fee) without my prior written permission. (b) You may not include it or any routines from it in any commercial release (including SHAREWARE or one of its variations) without my prior written permission. (c) You distribute this entire doc. file all the readme files and all example files with the programme. The only exception to this is for magazines using it on a coverdisk. If space is needed you may delete the .DATABK and .IFF files in the example drawer, but NOT the .REND files. Everyone else please leave them intact. (d) You do not distribute the full version of LANDSCAPE to anyone. (e) You may use the demonstration version on the coverdisk of a magazine providing you include all files except for those mentioned in (c) above. (f) If you use it you write back and let me know what you think of it along with a shareware donation. (minimum $20 Australian) To Andrew Kreibich Box 333 Wantirna South Victoria Australia. 3152 When you register (In Australian dollars please, our banks charge a fortune to convert:- another benefit of deregulation?), you will receive the latest compiled version with all features enabled, together with the source code to this programme (in AMOS). Naturally if you think I have done a really fantastic job on this and you cannot help but show your appreciation by sending more money (Australian Dollars!) etc. then I will happily accept it! If you are having trouble getting your hands on Australian money I can change Pounds (sterling), USA dollars and Dm, but it costs me money so please send the equivalent of $25 if you wish to use one of these currencies. PLEASE DO NOT SEND A EUROCHECK!!! My bank wants to charge over $40 to convert them! If you have the full version and have already registered: Thankyou If you have the full version and have not registered: Please do so and may the person who supplied it to you be rendered in the gobberwarts with a blurglecruncheon! USAGE ***** This programme is driven by the menus. There are two stages to drawing a picture. STAGE 1. Calculate the array of data points for the map. Use "Map Points" menu. STAGE 2. Render the data as a picture. Use "Render" menu. The parameters which control various aspects of the picture (rivers, lakes, height etc.) can be changed from the Data Screen. THE AMOS FILE REQUESTER *********************** All loads and saves use the AMOS file requester. The parent gadget is the small circle on the top left corner. The list of files and directories can be scrolled using the slider bar or the arrows on the left. A list of all available volumes can be obtained by clicking in the window which lists the files with the right mouse button. To get the file list back click in this window with the right mouse button again. Directories are prefixed with a * Everything else is self explanatory (I think). MENUS ***** PROJECT:- ABOUT: try it! LOAD IFF: Loads a picture from disk. I put this in so that you could see all of your creations without having to exit the programme. You can't actually do anything with the picture. You should make sure that you are in the right screen resolution (standard or interlace) before you load or you will get a squashed or stretched picture. This is inactive during CALCULATION and RENDER. SAVE IFF: Saves the current screen to disk. This is inactive during CALCULATION. AND DISABLED IN THE DEMONSTRATION VERSION. ADVERT: Try it! IFSgen is an iterated function system generator. It allows you to generate (and save) IFS codes and produce pictures of self-similar objects (ferns, trees, Sierpinski triangles etc). Fully driven by mouse and menus. The mouse is used to define and manipulate the images. You can save IFS data and IFF picture files of your creations. Many example pictures and IFS code files are included IFSgenV2.1 is shareware and requires 1 Meg. If you want a demo version of it see Fred Fish disk 554 If you want the full version (now ,up to V2.2) all you have to do is write and send me $20. SCREEN Toggles interlace and standard screens. WARNING: your picture will be wiped when you make the change but you do get a requester in case you choose this by mistake. You will not be able to change to interlace if you have insufficient chip memory. This is inactive during CALCULATE and RENDER. QUIT: say bye-bye. MAP POINTS:- All items in this menu are to do with generating the array of data points to make the map (STAGE 1). (If you haven't got any points then you don't get much of a picture!) The data points are stored in an AMOS bank (7). To fill this bank with data select CALCULATE from the DATA POINTS menu. This will generate a set of points using the data in the parameters table. A default set of parameters based on a random number seed of 42 is provided so that new users can easily generate a set of points to play with. PARAMETERS: This brings up a table of parameters which you can change to get different sets of data points. RESOLUTION: There are four calculation resolutions 1: Calculates every point in the 256X256 array 2: Calculates every second point. 4: Calculates every fourth point. 8: Calculates every eighth point. Just click the button you want with the left mouse. The more points you get, the better the resolution of final picture, but more points take longer. The following are typical calculation times. Resolution Time Available plotting resolutions 1 1 min. 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 2 15 sec. 2, 4, 8, 16 4 3 sec. 4, 8, 16 8 1 sec. 8, 16 EXTRA RANDOM: ON/OFF If this is on it adds an extra random value to every point after it has calculated the random midpoint displacement (see "The science of fractal images", above) When this is on it has one obvious effect (It takes about 50% longer to generate the points) and one not so obvious effect (Without it you sometimes get rows of mountain peaks in a straight line across your picture. Turning it ON reduces the effect). The times above were calculated with this ON. PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTION. This changes the probability distribution of the random numbers NORMAL uses a gaussian (symmetrical) distribution and SKEWED uses an highly asymmetrical distribution (based on a geometric probability distribution). A symmetrical distribution will make the valleys look the same as upside down mountains. This is obviously wrong as it does not simulate erosion. So I have provided two ways of getting around this. (a) use the POWER buttons on the other screen (see below) to modify the symmetrical distribution by setting them to 2 or 3. This makes the mountains taller. (b) Use the skewed distribution. You can also use the POWER buttons to modifiy a skewed distribution even further. Try it and see which you like. FRACTAL PARAMETER: This changes the FRACTAL DIMENSION of the data. The fractal dimension is equal to 3 minus the fractal parameter. This controls the roughness of the surface. You should normally set this to BETWEEN 0.5 and 1, although any numbers BETWEEN 0 and 1 will do. For a smoother surface set this close to 1, for a rough surface set it a bit lower. Default is 0.85 which seems to work fairly well for most scenes. If you are not sure about this then try a few different values on resolution 1. Just drag the slider bar with the left mouse button to change this SEED: This seeds the random number generator. Change this value to get different scenes. Click in the box with the left mouse button and the cursor will appear. Type in the number you want (40 - 50 in the demonstration version) and then press return. *************************** By the way, if you have been playing around with the AMOS random number generator and had trouble regenerating the same sequence of random numbers from the same seed, the following may be of interest. If you use Randomize 42 (or any number) you should (according to the manual) get the same set of random numbers each time. In fact you get a different set (at least with AMOS 1.21) every time, just as if you had used Randomize Timer. If you want the same set each time you must use a negative value for the Rnd function. eg. Rnd (-10) generates a random number between 0 and 10 and you will get the same series of numbers each time you randomize with the same seed. Rnd (10) will generate a random number between 0 and 10 but it will be (truly?) random and does not seem to depend on the seed value. I hope this is of some use, it had me stumped for a while! ************************** DEFAULT: Returns all settings to their default setting. RESTORE: Returns all settings to what they were before you started fiddling around with them after you chose this menu item. QUIT: Accepts the current parameters and returns you to the main screen. (Back to the main MAP menu now.) LOAD MAP: Loads a bank of map points (and the data parameters) from disk. This is included to save you the trouble of waiting for the calculation, although with the compiled version you may prefer not to waste the disk space. However if you have modified the data with rivers, lakes or dig, build, you should save it if you want to keep these changes. All Map files are suffixed with ".DATABK". SAVE MAP: Saves a bank of map points (and all the Map and Rendering parameters) to disk. DISABLED IN THE DEMONSTRATION VERSION. CALCULATE: Calculates the data (map) points using the parameters you specified. If you have not specified then the default values will be used. STOP CALC: Stops the calculation. This could leave you with a data bank which contains a mixture of two sets of data, so either recalculate or load another bank before you render it. Naturally you can only use this while you are CALCULATING and all other menu items will be disabled while you are calculating. RENDER MENU: All items in this menu are to do with rendering the picture (STAGE 2) DATA SCREEN: Brings up a screen of parameters which you can change. These are operated by slider bars or press buttons. There are a number of main panels and a window in which you can generate a 2D picture of the scene. All of the buttons in the border of this window can be used to modify the actual data points. If you want to work on your data another time it is a good idea to save it after you have used the buttons. All of the sliders and the other buttons are used to modify the picture as it is rendered. Their settings can be saved using the SAVE DATA menu option from the other screen or the Dsave button on this screen. Starting at the top left corner.... RESOLUTION: This is similar to resolution of Map Points, except that there is a 16 button which plots every 16th point. This changes the resolution in which the pictures (2D and 3D) are drawn. As before small numbers are high resolution. You cannot plot in a higher resolution than the resolution which the map was generated in. Eg. if you generated the map at resolution 4 you can only render in 4, 8 or 16. The other buttons (1 and 2) will be inactive. The main purpose of this is so that you can preview a scene quickly. Typical scene rendering times (using the default data and plotting parameters) and running from the Compiled version are shown below. Running from AMOS takes about twice as long. The improvement is not much because most of the time is taken in the graphics operations (drawing the polygons) and AMOS is already pretty quick at this. 3D rendering Resolution Time 1 16 min. 22 sec 2 4 min. 19 sec 4 1 min. 10 sec 8 20 sec. 16 6 sec. These times will vary depending on the scene and on the status of the PATTERN menu(see below) With this on it takes longer to draw rocks, trees and waves than it does to draw snow and sea, so pictures with lots of snow and few waves will be faster. With PATTERN off you can reduce these times by up to 30%. 2D rendering (in the window on the right) Resolution FAST off FAST on 1 6 min. 52 sec. 3 min. 2 1 min. 51 sec. 48 sec. 4 27 sec. 12 sec. 8 7 sec. 3 sec. 16 2 sec. 1 sec. NOTE: There is little point in rendering a 2D plot on resolution 1 as you will see very little difference from resolution 2. (In fact resolution 4 will usually be good enough) You will need to generate a 2D picture to allow you to control sea, tree and snow levels, to add rivers and lakes and dig or build. MLOAD and MSAVE: Loads and saves a map. Identical to LOAD MAP and SAVE MAP on the MAP menu. DLOAD and DSAVE: Loads and saves the rendering parameters. Identical to Load data and Save data on the main menu. These buttons are provided to save you the trouble of going back to the main screen. SHADOWS: Press this in to generate shadows on the 3D picture. Shadow calculations take about 2 - 2½ minutes and are performed just before the picture is rendered. You should not turn this on when you are rendering a quick preview screen as you would still have to wait for the full 2 - 2½ minutes. (You can cancel it if you leave it on by mistake). You only have to calculate the shadows once for each scene, but you will have to recalculate if you change the HEIGHT, PERSPECTIVE, AZIMUTH, ELEVATION or SEA LEVEL, use DIG, BUILD or add a RIVER or LAKE. The programme will keep track of this and will automatically recalculate next time you render in 3D. DEFAULT: Restores all parameters to the programmes default values. RESTORE: Restores all parameters to what they were when you opened this screen. EXIT: Returns you to the main screen. PT.HEIGHT: This box displays the height of the point in the picture window which is under the crosshairs. It cannot be selected so don't waste your time clicking it! It is only used to display the heights for other buttons. (Build, Dig, River, Lake, and all the Level buttons.) The next set of buttons are in the border around the picture window. FAST: This hides the 2D screen while calculations are taking place. This is to speed up the calculation by a factor of about 2. It works with all of the data modification buttons around the border of the 2D window except build and dig, (see below) and also works with the DRAW button. If you have turned this on and you want to see the 2D screen just press the left mouse button to toggle the 2D and main screens. Remember that while the 2D screen is visible the calculation will only run at half pace! DRAW: Draws a 2D plot in the window. Usually you will do this first so that you can see how you wish to modify the data. Start off with resolution 8 or 16 (use N.S,E,W, FLIP, <> and up-down if you want to change the view ) and get the sea level right first, then use resolution 4 to adjust the snow and tree levels and put in rivers etc. There are 2 types of drawing depending on which mouse button you used to press DRAW. (a) Left mouse button colours the map according to the tree and snow levels. (b) Right mouse button colours the map according to height above sea level green is low, brown medium and white high. lighter colours are higher ground. To cancel a drawing press the right mouse button. Left mouse button toggles screens if you have already pressed FAST. When the picture is finished some diagonal lines will appear. These show the approximate viewing area. They will be automatically redrawn whenever you change any of the parameters which effect this (eg. perspective) Calculation buttons (still in the border around the picture window) NOTE: You can stop any of these by pressing the right mouse button. Left mouse button toggles screens (only if you have previously activated FAST) RIVER Makes a river. When you press this the mouse will become a crosshair in the window. Click on the place you want the river to start from and the programme will start water flowing from this spot. It will find the lowest point next to the end of the trickle of water and fill this with water. The process continues until the water reaches the sea. If you run water into a valley and it can't get out the other end it will (slowly!) fill the valley until it overflows. Just so that you can see that something is happening the crosshairs will follow the end of the trickle of water. LAKE Same as RIVER except the water will stop when it fills the valley up to the height of the point you started on. If it reaches the sea it will fill the sea up to the start level. This could take a very long time so be prepared to stop it (right mouse button). This is very similar to rivers except that rivers only stop when they reach the sea. Both rivers and lakes can take anywhere from 0 to 10 minutes (or even much longer), depending on how many deep valleys need filling. DRAIN Emptys all the rivers and lakes, and fills them with dirt. You could use this to generate flat areas in the valleys by filling them with water and then draining them. You could then send another river through to obtain a meandering effect. When you fill an area with a lake or river the height of the data points is modified, so the only way to get your original data back is to regenerate using the main menu. DRAIN takes 13 seconds on FAST and 39 seconds without FAST. <>, FLIP, N,E,W change the data around so that you are looking at it form the North, East and West respectively. The <> button reverses the data from left to right and the up and down arrow button (on the bottom of the left border) reverses the data from top to bottom and FLIP flips the data upside down so that the mountains become valleys and the valleys become mountains. Each of these takes about 10 seconds. S This button restores the display to what it was before you started playing with all of the buttons mentioned in the above paragraph. This will take either 0, 10, 20 or 30 seconds depending on how much you fiddled with it all. This routine works by using 0, 1, 2 or 3 of the above routines to restore it. It will calculate the most efficient way of doing this. NOTE: if you stopped one of these routines before it is finished then S will not be able to restore it and will not bother trying. End of calculation buttons...... BUILD and DIG buttons. These allow you to raise and lower the height of the data points. When you click on these buttons you will get a crosshair pointer in the map window. Place this on the point you wish to raise or lower and hold down the left mouse button. Let go when the point has reached the required height or just move the mouse. As long as you are holding the left mouse button and you have not moved the crosshairs from the point it will continue to DIG or BUILD. The height will be displayed in the PT. HEIGHT box so you can see where you are up to. When you have finished with this point you can move on to another point and adjust this if you wish. To exit press the right mouse button. The height of the point under the crosshairs will be displayed in the PT. HEIGHT box and will change as you move the crosshairs or press the left mouse button to change the height. *********************************************************************** The rest of the screen is divided into a number of boxes which are used to change the way the 3D picture is rendered. LEVELS (% OF HEIGHT) ********************************************************************** Each of the slider bars in this box defines the level at which each type of cover begins. The numbers are a percentage of the maximum possible height for the scene. You can change each by either (a) using the slider bar or (b) clicking on the button (eg sea level) with the left mouse. You will then be presented with the crosshairs in the 2D window. Just click on a point on the map and the programme will use the height of this point as the level for that button. The height of the point under the crosshairs will be displayed in the PT.HEIGHT box. To quit this function without making any changes just press the right mouse button. Full Snow: All points above this height will be rendered as snow. Patchy Snow: Points between this height and Full Snow may or may not be snow. I have tried to programme it so that the snow sticks to the flatter parts and you get less snow cover as you get lower. (This replaces the BLEND function in earlier versions) Max Trees: No trees will grow above this level. Patchy Trees: Similar to patchy snow. Sea Level: Any point lower than this will be under water. Blending: Sometimes you will find that the transition from patchy to full (snow or trees) does not happen very smoothly. This transition depends on the height and power parameters and can sometimes make the snow (and trees) change to almost complete rock at the patchy level. Adjust this to make it more gradual. ************************************************************************** VIEW ************************************************************************** The 3 parameters in this box define the way the picture is viewed. Elev. Angle: angle of elevation which you view the scene from. Must be between 0 (low view) and 90 (viewed from directly overhead). The actual appearance also depends on the height scale used. Horizon: This is the level of the horizon measured down from the top of the screen, assuming you are looking at it from zero elevation. Higher elevation angles push the horizon higher up, and the perspective control has a small effect at high elevations as well. Change this to move the picture up and down the screen, the smaller the number the higher the picture. Making this larger can stop the picture finishing before it reaches the bottom of the screen. Perspective: As the picture is generated the points nearest the front are made larger (just like in real life). This parameter controls how much larger. The smaller the number the larger the effect. *********************************************************************** SCALING ************************************************************************ The first 3 define the scaling factors used in each direction. Horizontal: Magnifies the picture horizontally. Any number less than about 1.3 will not fill the screen. Vertical: Magnifies the picture vertically. Make this a little bigger if the picture doesn't reach the bottom of the screen. Both Horizontal and Vertical should be above about 1.3 (or else you will get blank bits at the edges) but can get bigger. Height: changes the height of the mountains. This actually determines the maximum THEORETICAL height which could be plotted. In most cases the highest height actually plotted will be less than this because your data points generated in stage 1 will often not reach the maximum possible level. Anyway if you want taller mountains make this bigger. If you make this large you may have to reduce the vertical scaling to compensate. Power: all heights are raised to this power (i.e. h^power) before plotting. This is used to simulate erosion by making the mountains steeper than the valleys. Higher numbers increase this effect. Power can be 1, 2 or 3. Smaller powers result in slightly quicker 3D rendering times. *********************************************************************** MAX. ANGLES *********************************************************************** These parameters set the maximum steepness for sand, trees and snow. Any slope steeper than this will be rendered as a rock. This is to simulate the fact that snow, sand and trees don't stick to very steep surfaces. Each is an angle (between 0 and 90) which measures the maximum possible slope for SAND, TREES and SNOW. (Experiment for best effect) *********************************************************************** LIGHT SOURCE *********************************************************************** These specify the position of the light source (i.e. the sun) and are used by the programme to calculate shading and shadows. Azim: Measures the azimuth (horizontal) angle of the sun (any number from 0 to 360). 0 is North. Some special cases:- 0 or 360 Light from back (north) 90 Light from right (east) 180 Light from front (south) 270 light from left (west) Elev: Measures the elevation of the sun in degrees between 0 (low) and 90 (high). ********************************************************************** THERE ARE 2 OTHER SLIDER BARS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SCREEN ********************************************************* WATERFALLS: Determines the angle at which rivers will be rendered as waterfalls (white water). Any river which is steeper than this angle will be a waterfall. WAVES: Determines the amount of waves in the sea. Keep this low for no waves and increase it for more. ********************************************************************** Back to the menu on the main screen................. LOAD DATA: loads all the Rendering Data (the stuff in the picture parameters), the Data points Data (seed, resolution Extra random) and the palette from disk. Files from earlier versions can be loaded into version 2. All the new parameters will have their default values. However, you cannot load version 2 files into earlier versions. SAVE DATA: saves all the Rendering Data (the stuff in the picture parameters), and Data points data (seed, resolution Extra random, lake, river and shadow calculations) and the palette to disk. DISABLED IN THE DEMONSTRATION VERSION. All Rendering Data files are suffixed with .REND, these files are just sequential data files. RENDER 3D Renders a 3 dimensional image using the parameters set up in the picture parameter screen and the data that is currently in the memory. If you haven't generated any data (Stage 1) then you will not get much of a picture. STOP RENDERING Stops the 3D rendering. Naturally this is inactive unless you are already rendering. You cannot use any of the other items in the picture menu (except PALETTE) or any of the items in the DATA POINTS menu or the LOAD IFF menu item while the picture is rendering. PALETTE Brings up a palette tool in case you don't like the default colours. This is a scaled down version of a general palette tool which I wrote (in AMOS), called Gumby's Palette V1.0. You will get the full procedure (which you can use in your own AMOS programmes) when you register if you want it (please ask if you do). The landscape version of this procedure supports the following features. DRAGBAR: This is the message (Gumby's Palette) at the top of the screen. Hold left mouse button down while you are over this and drag the palette screen up and down your screen. RGB sliders: These work in the usual way, just click on the slider with the left mouse button and drag it along, or just click on the spot you want it to go to. Up to 32 colours are displayed in little boxes on the right of the screen. You can select two of these at any time. Left mouse button selects the CURRENT colour. (The box will be outlined in white.) This will be changed by moving the slider bars. Right mouse button selects the TO colour(outlined in blue). This is used by COPY, SPREAD and CYCLE, to copy, spread or cycle from the current colour to the TO colour, and also by SWAP to swap the current colour with the TO colour. The TO and CURRENT colours are outlined in different colours so that you can see them. It is possible that the colours used by these outlines are hard to see because they are the same or similar to the colour used for the background of the box. COLOUR Buttons: There are 5 of these COPY, SWAP, CYCLE, SPREAD and SKIP. These are selected with the left (and sometimes right) mouse button. COPY and SWAP are explained above. CYCLE. Press Left mouse button to cycle forward and right mouse button to cycle backwards. Cycles all colours between TO and FROM. SPREAD spreads the colour from the current colour to the TO colour and works in conjunction with the SKIP button. If SKIP is 1 then the spread will skip 1 colour in between each one it spreads. Best way is to try it! I put this in because I thought it might be useful in a Mandelbrot type programme. SKIP can be any number you like providing it is between 0 and 9. I don't think it would be a very good idea to set it to a number greater than the number of colours between the two colours you are spreading between. This could cause some unpredictable results. Usually you will leave this set to zero. DEFAULT Returns to default palette. (Left mouse) Returns all colours to Landscape's default colours. (right mouse) Returns to the AMOS default colours (which are not much use in landscape!) Exit CANCEL cancels all changes and returns you to your programme. Exit ACCEPT keeps all changes and returns you to your programme. Back to RENDER MENU.... PATTERN ON/OFF Each of the polygons used to generate the 3D scene has a random pattern on it to help it blend in with adjacent polygons. Unfortunately this slows down the rendering a bit and looks a bit silly on low resolutions. If you don't like it just use this to turn it off. If you want it then turn it on again. OTHER FEATURES OF LANDSCAPE *************************** DRAGBAR. If you are not rendering, then the entire screen can be dragged up and down by holding down the left mouse button. This feature is inactive during all other menu operations, and only works on the screen which shows the 3D plots. This has been included so that those poor NTSC users can see what they are missing without moving the horizon and regenerating the whole thing again. When you let go of the mouse it will return to its usual position. TROUBLESHOOTING *************** If you want to copy a palette from one scene to another then save the source scene as an IFF file and load it into your new scene, then regenerate. If your picture is all sea, then increase the height and/or lower the sea level. If this doesn't help it may be because you have been a silly sod and forgotten to generate any data points! If all of your mountains are very pointy then decrease the height and/or the POWER parameters and/or use the Skewed probability distribution. (You may also have to decrease the sea level to compensate.) If skewed still gives pointy mountains then try FLIPPING the data. If the sides of your mountains are very smooth and you want to make them rougher then regenerate the data points using a different Fractal Parameter. Make it smaller for rougher terrain. While you are trying to adjust everything for a scene set the resolution on 8 or 16 and render in 2D. When this looks as if it might make something interesting then try it on resolution 16 with 3D and pattern and shadows off. This will allow you to adjust the horizon to get the scene to fill the screen. NTSC users can use the dragbar to see what they are missing. When it all looks about right then try it on a finer resolution. Sometimes you will generate something which has very high mountains at the front which block out the rest of the picture. These should show up if you render in 2D first. Then you can use the calculation buttons (N,E,W, FLIP etc) to change the data or you can pick another seed and recalculate. ############ BUGS ############ None. (That I know of!) All Bug reports and/or suggestions should be sent to the above address. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% I hope you find this programme and/or its procedures useful and that you bother to take the time to write back and register. If you have written anything that you would like to send me, please feel free to do so. BUT PLEASE DON'T SEND ANY SILLY SCROLLY DEMOS, MEGADEMOS, ULTRADEMOS, ULTRAMEGADEMOS, MEGAULTRADEMOS, ULTRACOSMICDEMOS, ALPHAGAMMAOMEGADEMOS, ZAPHODEFFINGBEEBLEBROXDEMOS OR ANYTHING ELSE VAGUELY RESEMBLING A DEMO! AMOS IS A BRILLIANT LANGUAGE SO HOW ABOUT USING IT TO WRITE SOMETHING REALLY USEFUL? Happy (real) programming. Andrew. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% The future??? Add Haze and/or clouds. Put the sun in the sky if visible. Allow different colour palettes for different times of day including night time (maybe even get the moon up?). Change viewpoint and direction of view. This could lead to some sort of animation. Thanks to everyone who requested this, I had thought of it but it will require a rewrite of some of the rendering code (which is long overdue in places!) and may slow down the rendering to some extent, definitely version 3 stuff! I would like to improve the dig and build tools so that you can alter large areas more easily, but still retain fine control. There must be a faster way of making the rivers and lakes fill up! All other suggestions are welcome and will be implemented if possible, time, memory and my newborn daughter permitting!