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- Part 2 -
Working with TerraScene

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We must create three different projects; i.e render three .tga pictures that will help produce the final rendering. The water mask and night scenery can be made during the rendering of your choice, preferably the first one.
The idea is to handle separately the relief shadows and the land use textures map. Mostly, the enhancements will be done on the shadow layer, before merging again the two layers. Moreover, we’ll need one more map, drawn with pure colors only, that will help to select some areas.

Important note: If you render a large area, a Globe Tile for example, TerraScene cuts it into pieces, smaller than the “max segment size” in the RENDER box. TerraScene will rename the first image Project1-1.tga, and so on. This first segment will have exactly the same bounds as ProjectSelect1-1.tga and ProjectShadow1-1.tga (see below). And this stays true for each following segment (1-2, 1-3, …) if the projects bounds stay exactly the same during each of the three renderings.

Be careful to deselect the “Delete segments after merge” option.
Also, for each of the three projects be sure to keep the same bounds and the same segment size.

2.1 The texture layer project

  •  Create a standard project. For the forest and urban areas, only use the texture which have the corresponding “texture for selection” prepared.
  •  Before to render, deselect the relief shading. (Back to the early TerraScene days!).
  •  Generate the day scenery and the water mask, the night scenery is to your choice.
  •  Name the file “Project” in the project dialogue box and render.


2.2 The shadow layer project

  •  This time, set all land types and line textures to none. Except for the background texture, which is set to 80% grey : (H,S,B)=(0,0,80).
  •  Select “Relief shading”, sun color to white.

NOTE : Here I chose the position of the sun 220° from North, and 45° elevation.

  •  Name the file “ProjectShadow” in the project options and render (this one takes a while).

NOTE : Convert this picture to greyscale before working on it. It saves a lot of RAM.


2.3 The selection map project

  •   Go into “Land Types – Day”.
  •   For each forest and urban area, choose the SEL texture that goes with the TerraScene texture of the first project (2.1).
  •   Set the background color to white.
  •   You can assign any color not yet used to land types you would like to work on later (it’s a good idea, for example, to color water). Else, white or “none” are ok.
  •   In the “Lines” box, select a color for the roads, railroads, streams and power lines. Choose the widths and colors you want, but remember they have to be drawn.
  •   Deselect the shading option.
  •   Name the file “ProjectSelect”.

In this example red is suburban – magenta : industrial and commercial buildings – green : mixed and deciduous forest – turquoise : evergreen.