Virtual landscape allows you to explore the country without ever leaving your armchair. All you need is an Ordnance Survey map and your Psion. You enter height data from the map into your Psion. Choose where you want to "stand" and the Psion will plot the view for you. Put together a sequence of views from slightly different viewpoints and produce an animated tour through the landscape. You can even plot a stereoscopic 3D view!
Note - Virtual Landscape is shareware. If you enjoy using it, please register your copy. This will encourage me to produce more programs, makes your continued use of the program legal and also gives you the following benefits:
- Access to the INTERPOLATE feature. This allows interpolation between points on the map meaning that you have to enter much less data to produce a map.
- Acetate grids for easier data entry at a variety of scales.
- A printed, illustrated copy of this manual.
GETTING THE FILES ONTO THE PSION
(If you received the files on an SSD you can ignore this bit)
Virtual Landscape must be copied into the correct subdirectories in order to work.
Having turned the remote link on, the easiest way to do this is as follows. Choose "Copy" from the system screen. Set "From" to the \LND\ directory on the floppy on which you received Landscape - the actual directory name, not that of any files within it. Set "To" to "\LND\" on whichever disk of the Psion you want to install to. Set "Subdirectories" to Yes.
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³ Copy File ³
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³þFrom file: Name LND\ ³
³þ Disk REM::A: ³
³þTo file: Name \lnd\ ³
³þ Disk Internal ³
³þSubdirectories Yes ³
³þModified only No ³
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This should copy all the files into the correct subdirectories, which specifically are as follows.
File Subdirectory
*.opa \LND\
*.opo \LND\
*.pic \LND\
*.rte \LND\ROUTES\
*.map \LND\MAPS\
INSTALLATION
You can now install the two .opa files "Land.opa" and "Animate.opa" onto the system screen using Psion-I. You'll have to press tab and navigate to the \LND\ directory in order to find them.
Once you've installed them, Land should have "Example" listed underneath the icon, Animate should merely say "Animate" under it at this point.
EXAMPLE
Entering map data is rather laborious, so in order to get an idea of how Virtual Landscape works you can use the example map and the two example route files, View and Flight.
Pressing <Enter> with "Example" highlighted on the system screen opens the map file called Example. After a moment you'll see the map appear on the right hand side of the screen (darker areas are higher) while on the left it says "EDITING Map" and gives the coordinates and height of the flashing cursor.
If you had created a new map then at this point the map would be blank - you would need to move round the map, entering the height in every grid square (or, with the registered version, just the key peaks and valleys).
However, the map data is already entered, so instead we need to choose a position to "stand" and view the landscape. The details of this position must be recorded in a Route file. Choose "Open" from the "Route" menu and select the file "View".
The title will change to "VIEWING Frame 1 of 1" and on the map the cursor will have been moved to the position at which you are "standing" while two lines indicate your field of view. At this stage you could edit this frame and save the new details, add the next frame in an animated sequence or delete the frame - all these options are on the "Frame" menu.
However, for now, choose "Plot" from the "Route" menu to make the Psion plot the view from your chosen viewpoint. Plotting takes 3-4 minutes, so don't panic - the program hasn't crashed! (You can abandon plotting by pressing Escape and waiting a few moments). After about a minute of "Computing positions", you will be able to watch as the picture is built up on the screen.
Once the view has been plotted, it is automatically saved, with the same filename as the route file that generated it, in the \LND\VIEWS\ subdirectory. From here, it will appear under the "Animate" icon. Choosing this file from the Animate icon allows you to see the view without the delay of plotting it each time.
After the plotting has been done, any key will return you to the map screen.
WHAT NOW?
I suggest that you now experiment with the program to see what it can do. A few suggestions -
þ Using the same Route file, try changing some of the options on the "Advanced" dialogue of the "Route" menu and replotting.
þ Try editing this frame of the route file - you can move the viewpoint around with the cursor keys and on saving the frame are prompted for height, angle (0-360) and horizon (0 - top of screen, 80 - bottom of screen). Then replot.
þ Close this route file and open the other example file, "Fly". This contains data for a short animated "flight" (don't forget it'll take a long time to plot).
þ Create your own Route files and explore the example map.
þ Create a new map file (from the system screen) and enter data from your own map. Hints;
- don't be too ambitious with size, a 10 by 10 map needs the height of 100 points entered (unless you have the registered version and can "interpolate" between them)
- rule yourself a grid on acetate to cover the area you're interested in and number it 1-10 (or however big you've made your map) along each side to keep track of where you are.
- Note that the "Grid square size (m)" entry in the dialogue box when you create a new map should be the length in metres of 1 square of your grid. Eg 0.5cm squares on a 1:50,000 map are 250m in size.
The rest of this manual covers the various menus in detail.
LANDSCAPE
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MAP MODE
This is the mode you are in on first entering the program. It is where you can make alterations to the map itself rather than the positions from which to view it.
On the right of the screen is a grid with a flashing cursor on it. This is the map and shows heights by shading. High areas are dark, low ones light.
On the left of the screen is a small amount of text. At the top is a title, which on first opening a map will say "EDITING" (to show that you can make changes, as opposed to when "VIEWING") and "Map" (as opposed to a "frame" from a route for animation). Below the title is given the position of the cursor and the height of the map at that position.
THE MENUS
MAP MENU
This is the menu you use when entering the heights from a map at different points on the grid.
þ New Height - this option lets you enter the height at the cursor position. Note that this can also be done by pressing <Enter>.
þ Save as - to save the map with a different name.
þ Interpolate - provided that you have entered the heights in at least the 4 corners of the map you can use this option to interpolate between the points entered. Cubic interpolation is used, thus providing a relatively smooth and curvaceous appearance to the interpolated landscape. In practice, of course, it is necessary to enter much more data than just the heights in the 4 corners to get a reasonable representation of a map. However, this feature does allow you to minimise the chore of data entry, just concentrating on marking out the peaks and troughs of the landscape.
þ NOTE THIS FEATURE IS ONLY AVAILABLE IN THE REGISTERED VERSION OF "LANDSCAPE"
þ Grid Size - Although you enter heights in meters (or feet), the grid uses arbitrary units. In order to plot the landscape to the correct proportions, the program must know the horizontal distance represented by
