Thank you for trying Terrainman! Many improvements have been made to the program since version 1.5.1:
• The program now draws in true 3D (with optional perspective) instead of isometric.
• Terrain can be rotated to any of 64,800 views instead of just, um, four.
• Predefined views (front, side, top, etc.) let you see your model's true proportions.
• Pictures can be pasted from the clipboard or opened from files.
• A "clipping plane" can be used, which will omit all polygons below a certain altitude.
• The display now offers your choice of colors.
• Now saves DXF files much MUCH faster.
• Will optionally strip leading spaces from DXF files, to make the files smaller.
• Even unstripped DXF files are somewhat smaller than they used to be.
• Sports a slick new animated splash screen.
• Sports several slick new interface graphics.
• And finally, Terrainman now sports a slick new PRICE: $10. Freeware no more.
To learn what Terrainman is and how to use it, launch the program and choose "Help me!" from the Apple menu. Please read the whole help file at least once, because there ARE some modifier keys and other less-than-apparent things you might want to know.
System Requirements:
3MB minimum free RAM (5 MB or more preferred)
8-bit color or greyscale display (or better)
32-bit QuickDraw or System 7
Terrainman has not been tested under System 6. If you are using it with System 6, please contact me and let me know if it works! I tested it briefly under System 7.5, and it seems to work fine.
Questions and Answers (optional reading material - perfect for the bathroom)
Q: Is there a native PowerMac version available?
A: No, not at this writing. Nobody wants to see this thing scream through a PPC more than me, but I am at the mercy of my compiler, which does not do PowerMac code. If and when I can do it, I'll do it (there will be a new verison number so you'll know).
Q: Why aren't there any scroll bars?
A: You can scroll the image of the terrain by holding the Option key while you click and drag in the View window. See? I told you you should read the online help!
Q: When I drag the upper dots up and down to change the height of the terrain, they don't follow the mouse accurately. And the lower dots seem even more sluggish. Why?
A: Since you are working in 3D, it's difficult to map the 2D movement of the mosue precisely to a 3D location in space. For instance, you are allowed to drag the dots around even when you're looking straight down. If you do this, a single pixel of movement might double the height of the terrain. So instead I map each pixel of mouse movement to the same 3D distance no matter what view you're in. As for the lower dots, each pixel of mouse movement equals one height level. Since there are 256 possible levels in a terrain, you'd have to move the mouse 256 pixels upward to bring the clipping plane all the way to the top, even if the terrain appears to be only 50 pixels tall on the screen. This gives you a fine level of control without having to zoom in. There may be times, therefore, when you'll move the mouse a small distance and nothing will move on the screen, because the distance is too tiny to show up. But when you release the mouse, you'll find that you did make a small adjustment. Also note that when you change the height of a terrain, the height is changed relative to the original ground level, not relative to the clipping plane. So as you make the terrain taller, the clipping plane will move upward as well, so that it's always at the correct altitude relative to the rest of the terrain.
Q: Why do some of the buttons and windows look funny when I run Terrainman in black & white?
A: I made some effort to adapt the program to black & white, but I did not go all out. I assume that anyone who needs Terrainman is using a color monitor, and probably runs it in color most of the time. Terrainman will work fine in black & white. Some things will just look sloppy.
Q: When I use clipping planes, the bottom edge of the terrain appears really jagged. Why?
A: What Terrainman does is this: if any of the four corners of a face is below the clipping plane, the whole face is omitted. Perhaps in the future I will add something to clip more cleanly by making triangular faces at the edges, but for now you can just sink that mountain down into a ground plane or something once you get it into your modeler. The main reason for the clipping planes is not to cut out distinct shapes, but merely to remove extraneous faces which would have wound up underground in your modeler anyway.
Q: Why don't you do spherical and cylindrical projections like CyberMesh?
A: Because that kind of math is (still) way over my head, and because CyberMesh already does it (really well). Hopefully Terrainman's fonkay interface and its variable-level clipping planes will be its distinguishing features. CyberMesh is awesome, though, and I recommend it.
Q: What makes you think I'll pay $10 for something that used to be free?
A: Are you saying I don't trust you? I resent that!
Q: I think BRYCE is really cool. Can you add nifty raytracing like that to Terrainman?
A: Not bloody likely.
A final, important note:
Terrainman is software. Like any piece of software, it might have bugs in it. Like any bugs, these bugs might be harmful. In over a year testing and of development, I have never had any serious problems with it. But I cannot guarantee that Terrainman will be compatible with every extension, system, and circumstance. Use the software at your own risk.
