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World Construction Set
© 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995 by Questar Productions
Principal Authors: Gary R. Huber and Chris "Xenon" Hanson
Questar Productions
Version 1.105
March 20, 1995
*************************************
*******************************************************
**************************************************************************
* *
* IMPORTANT! *
* *
* This is a complex program and not one which lets you *
* throw the Operator's Manual in a drawer and forget about it. We *
** expect that you will be referring to it a lot (or missing a lot **
** of program features). **
** **
** We have included some tutorials that will help familiarize **
** you with WCS. One is found in the "Getting Started" chapter. **
** The rest are in a chapter of their own near the front of the **
*** book. There are also about 100 pages of tips and tricks to help ***
*** you get the most out of your investment. ***
*** ***
*** The tutorial in the "Getting Started" chapter is simply to ***
*** render an image. Do not be discouraged by either the quality of ***
*** the final image nor the time it takes to render. We thought it ***
** would be good for you to see an aerial view of the terrain **
** supplied with the program and aerials take a while to render. **
** If you then read the "Data Types" chapter and do the other **
** tutorials you will find out how to improve the looks of the **
** initial image. **
** **
* There is only so much room on five diskettes and we chose *
* to give you as much primary data as we could. Additional data *
* needs to be generated to optimize image quality. This data will *
* be generated automatically the first time it is needed so do not *
* be dismayed at the rendering time required for the tutorials. *
* *
**************************************************************************
*******************************************************
*************************************
Greetings, fellow scenery lovers!
WCS has been shipping for quite a while now and we've been getting a
lot of feedback from our users. Most of it has been positive we are pleased
to say.
We've also gotten a lot of comments and suggestions which indicated there
was still some work to do. We've been very busy putting those suggestions
into the program and generally making it a lot more user-friendly. We feel
we've gained a lot of ground since the first versions of this program were
shipped.
There are some features such as clouds and fractal terrain generation
that we would have loved to include but simply couldn't get done for this
version. If we do clouds they are going to be GREAT clouds and that will
take some time. We'll let you know about later releases and provide a
comfortable upgrade path.
Be sure to register the program and while you are at it, tell us a little
about your computer system, other platforms that we should support with
stand-alone renderers, improvements you would appreciate, and anything else
you think is important for us to know in order to serve you well.
As a little added incentive for you to send in that registration card,
when you do so we will send you a complimentary copy of the 30 arc-minute
(Low-res) global DEM set (a $25 value) so please just go ahead and send it
in before you lose the card.
/***************************************************************************/
To those who question the sanity of developing for the Amiga nowadays,
perhaps you have good reason. We prefer to think that a machine with the
Amiga's capabilities and potential can't just die. We are committed to
helping keep it alive by providing quality professional software for its
owners. We hope that perhaps by doing so at least a few more folks, such
as yourself, will stay loyal to the beleaguered machine we love.
This said, we have to keep our heads above the sand and smell the winds
of change. Irregardless of the outcome with Commodore and the Amiga
technology, the fact is that many of our users already own or have access
to other equipment, Alphas, SGIs, Pentium PCs, Power Macs, Raptors, etc.
Undoubtedly this multi-platform phenomenon will increase in the future.
Our first move in attempting to support the owners of such "alien" devices
will be to develop some stand-alone, command line renderering engines for
them. As you will notice when you try rendering very large scenes in WCS,
the rendering times slow down. We think that there are many users, especially
among those who make a living doing animations, who will really have a
need for the faster processors coming out on other platforms. In the near
future you will see us beginning to support those other systems in a
limited way.
What the future holds, we cannot foretell but our vision is to reach out
to as many computer owners as we can. Eventually there may be full GUI
versions of World Construction Set for all the major operating systems.
/**************************************************************************/
Bugs...
But first things first.
You can help us by reporting promptly any bugs that you find (heaven
forbid there should still be any!). At this point I can honestly say I know
of no serious bugs in the program. Be sure before reporting a bug that it
isn't really a feature in disguise. Please read the section of the manual
dealing with whatever function you are concerned about to make sure there
isn't something the program is waiting for you to do or some reason we
thought the program should do things the way it does. In those cases, where
you disagree with us, let us know. Perhaps others feel the same way and we
need to change its behavior.
/**************************************************************************/
Visual feedback...
Also show us some pictures: Perhaps we can give you some extra tips on
using the program and at the same time learn how accessible various features
are to our users. This is already a feature-packed program and it promises
to become even more so with your support. Some of these features are
difficult to describe and the current preliminary manual is devoid of
pictures. We realize that deficiency and intend to remedy it. Your input
can help us put our effort in the most useful places.
/**************************************************************************/
Addenda...
The manual is hot off the press so additions are rather few at this point.
======================= Contour Map Style ===========================
One in fact concerns a new map drawing style in the Map View
Module. It is called "Contour" and when selected it will give you a real
contour map presentation. It works best at map scales larger than 2. The
contour inteval is set by the Exag field in the Map View Control window.
It is the same interval as is used for the "Multi" gradient drawing style.
The units are in meters.
It is sometimes difficult to see the Interactive elements (Camera, Focus,
Haze, Sun) in Map View against one of the gray-scale topographic backgrounds.
Contour style lets you see some of the elevation information while clearly
letting you see the Interactive elements. This can be a big help when laying
out key frames for an animation.
======================= DTED Format Import ==========================
There is a new DEM import format available in the DEM Converter (in the
Data Ops Module): DTED which stands for Digital Terrain Elevation Data.
DTED is an internationally accepted standard for terrain model data. We have
found a source for Canadian DEM data and it is in DTED format.
To import a DTED file, follow all the same steps as you would to load a
VistaPro* or IFF file using the DEM Converter except set the input format
cycle gadget to DTED before selecting the input file. When the file is
selected all of the other input format options will be automatically set.
You need to set an output file name and should set the number of desired
output DEMs. Typically you will use four DEMs column-wise in all cases and
four DEMs row-wise if the input columns is 1201, two DEMs row-wise if the
input columns is 601 and one DEM if the input columns is 301. Other numbers
of input columns will be less common: Try and get about 300± columns in each
output DEM by adjusting the number of "Output DEMs Row-wise" accordingly.
This will maintain consistency with the data we supply. Consistency really
isn't the important issue here but we do think those numbers make sense in
most cases.
WCS will supply DEM Registration latitudes and longitudes based on the
values found in the DTED file header. You can change these if you like or
accept them as supplied to position the data on the globe.
* VistaPro is a trademark of Virtual Reality Laoratories, Inc.
====================== Render Start Segment ============================
In the Render Settings window you will find one change: There is a string
gadget labelled "1st Seg" on the Render & Size page. Use this if you are
rendering an image in segments (e.g. a large print resolution image) and
for some reason have to interrupt the rendering. You can restart the
rendering on the segment following the last complete segment rendered.
Be aware that segment numbers start with zero. Segment numbers are posted
to the Status Log so you can see what the segment number is at the time the
rendering is cancelled and start with this segment number when you resume.
/*************************************************************************/
That's it for now. Have fun and good luck.
Gary Huber & Chris Hanson
Questar Productions
1058 Weld Co. Rd. 23.5
Brighton, Colorado 80601
USA
(303) 659-4028
garhuber@burner.com