Readme.txt for Terragen v0.9.43

This software is Copyright  2005 Planetside Software and
may only be redistributed according to the requirements
specified in the file Redist.txt. Use of this software is
subject to the conditions in License.txt, the License
Agreement. Registration is compulsary for commercial use, as
specified in the License Agreement.
See http://www.planetside.co.uk/terragen/register.shtml for
information about registering and registration requirements.

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NEW FOR v0.9.43
===============

The 3D Preview
--------------

The 3D Preview helps provide an effective preview of the
landscape, camera position and scene composition, all in
real time. It's configurable to allow good performance
across a wide range of machines; you don't even need a 3D
card for it to be usable.

Complete documentation of the 3D Preview can be found here:

  http://www.planetside.co.uk/terragen/guide/3dpreview/

Unfortunately the 3D Preview can only be used with the
"standard" terrain sizes that have buttons in the Landscape
Settings window (257x257, 513x513, 1025x1025, etc.)

3D Preview Key Commands:

Move forward                  Up arrow or W key
Move forward a small amount   Ctrl-Up arrow or Ctrl-W key
Move backward                 Down arrow or S key
MOve backward a small amount  Ctrl-Down arrow or Ctrl-S key

Turn left                     Left arrow or A key
Turn right                    Right arrow or D key

Move left sideways            Ctrl-Left arrow or Ctrl-A key
Move right sideways           Ctrl-Right arrow or Ctrl-D key

Raise camera position         + key
Lower camera position         - key
Pitch up (tilt up)            P key
Pitch down (tilt down)        Ctrl-P key
Bank right                    B key
Bank left                     Ctrl-B key
Orbit right around target     O key
Orbit left around target      Ctrl-O key

Toggle frame rate display     F key
Toggle mini map               M key

You can also click and drag with the mouse to move the view,
much like in a first person game. If you also hold down the
Shift key while pressing many of the above you will move
twice as fast, much like running in first person games.

SGI/TGA Terrain Import and Export
---------------------------------

The Terrain Import window has options to load terrains
from SGI images or TGA images. Both 16-bit and 8-bit
greyscale SGI formats are supported. For TGA images, only
24-bit uncompressed RGB TGA images can be used, and they
are interpreted as greyscale images.

The Terrain export window allows you to export a greyscale
SGI image, either 8-bit or 16-bit.

Import and Export of SGI or TGA images uses two adjustable
settings: Height Scale % and Height Offset %. These allow
you to export images that only use a portion of the full
range of values in the image so that peaks can be raised
and valleys lowered if you make changes outside of Terragen.
Provided the Height Scale % and Height Offset %
are the same when you export and when you import, the
proportions of your landscape should remain the same.
These two settings are stored in the World File so that
consistency can be maintained with repeated export and
import of a terrain throughout the life of a project.

The resolution of the imported image must match the terrain
you currently have loaded.


Bug Fixes
---------

The infamous "black water triangles", or gaps that appear
along the shoreline, are gone. Problems remain in small
preview renders or renders that are not at maximum detail,
but full detail renders are free of gaps.

Nasty terrain spikes were sometimes created when saving
terrain, and these would not be noticed until the terrain
was re-loaded next time. The bug that caused that is fixed.

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IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS WHEN USING
TERRAGEN v0.9.43
===================================


WORLD FILES AND TERRAIN FILES
=============================

World files contain most scene information and render
settings, except for the terrain. Both the world file
and the terrain MUST be saved and loaded individually if you
want to exactly recreate a previous scene.
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SKY AND CLOUDS
==============

If areas of the rendered image are being left black, it is
usually because the cloud layer is not covering enough of
the sky. You can fix this by increasing 'Sky Size'.

Sometimes, however, black areas can appear on the horizon
if your atmosphere 'Half-Heights' are very low or you are
using very large terrains. See 'Other Known Bugs / Problems'

Cloud Layers are saved with world files and/or
atmosphere files.

There are still problems with the 3D clouds, so it is
unadvisable to enable the '3D' option in normal
circumstances. 3D clouds are only worth using if you have
'cloud accuracy' set very high (in Render Settings). For 2D
clouds this will not have much noticeable effect, but it
adds a huge amount of detail to 3D clouds.
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RENDER SETTINGS
===============

Render Settings can be found by clicking on the appropriate
button in the Render Control window. The Atmospheric
Accuracy setting can be changed, but high accuracy settings
mean longer rendering times.

To achieve the shortest possible render times, do not set
the accuracy higher than the middle setting, even for full
renders. However, in some scenes a higher accuracy may be
needed. Increase the Atmospheric Accuracy if you notice
strange dark bands or lines in areas of clear sky.
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LANDSCAPE
=========

Surface maps can now be saved. They are also saved with
world files, and surface map data can be loaded from world
files. Surface map data can also be loaded into or saved
from a surface layer, because layers are themselves mini
surface maps.

Terrains can now be exported as LightWave 3D objects (*.LWO)
although this is currently limited to the lower left 255x255
datapoints (full-size meshes will be supported in the
future). Full detail of the exported region is preserved,
and the distance between elevation points can optionally be
scaled up according to the spacing settings of the terrain.
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ANIMATION
=========

Animations can be rendered by using a script to inform
Terragen of camera motion, etc. See Example.tgs for a
description of commands and syntax. For third party
animation tools for Terragen, see
http://www.planetside.co.uk/terragen/resources.shtml
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OTHER KNOWN BUGS / PROBLEMS
===========================

If you find that regions of the image are being left black,
this is usually because the clouds and landscape are only
rendered over certain areas of the image. If areas are being left
black, you should try increasing the 'Sky Size' of the
cloud layer.

If you still have problems with black sky near the horizon,
it may be due to known bug. You should avoid using very low
atmosphere 'Half-Height' values, especially if your terrain
is very large (or has a "metres point spacing" that is much
larger than the default of 30m).

Missing polygons can result at lower detail settings or in
the small preview render. At full detail, these problems
should disappear. If they do not, try increasing the size of
the Render Buffers (in "Render Settings", under "Advanced").
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