Future sky color and blank tile texture

[sanewcomb]

You may have already thought of this, but a couple of small improvements for the 3D viewing would be

1. colored horizon, gradient if possible to simulate sky

2. uniform tile texture option so elevation can be looked at by itself. Similar to download check tile, but just a uniform color. I personally like grey, but could be any color.

Great job guys!

[Alan]

Quote

1. colored horizon, gradient if possible to simulate sky

Kind of cheesy in my opinion, but very easy to add.

Quote

2. uniform tile texture option so elevation can be looked at by itself. Similar to download check tile, but just a uniform color. I personally like grey, but could be any color.

You can do white right now, just turn off the map and then go to 3d mode.

[sanewcomb]

Quote (Alan @ Feb. 06 2004,11:09)

Quote 1. colored horizon, gradient if possible to simulate sky Kind of cheesy in my opinion, but very easy to add. I like it, though one thing I consider cheesy is those simulated trees in TopoUSA 4.0. Quote 2. uniform tile texture option so elevation can be looked at by itself. Similar to download check tile, but just a uniform color. I personally like grey, but could be any color. You can do white right now, just turn off the map and then go to 3d mode. Cool, this is exactly what I was looking for. Never used that feature before. For those of you, like me, didn't know about this feature, it's the green and brown checkerboard button in the tool bar. One observation. The triangle mesh is very apparent and appears as diamond shaped crosses from the lighting reflecting off the faces. This is also noticable with maps on, but quite clear with the white texture. I think there is a way to minimize or even remove it. I know if you reduce the reflectivity and increase the emissivity, it will lessen it. VRML has a way of smoothing the edges between two polygons. Sorry if the quotes don't come out right. Trying to figure out how to quote with this message board.

Quote

1. colored horizon, gradient if possible to simulate sky

Kind of cheesy in my opinion, but very easy to add.

I like it, though one thing I consider cheesy is those simulated trees in TopoUSA 4.0.

Quote

2. uniform tile texture option so elevation can be looked at by itself. Similar to download check tile, but just a uniform color. I personally like grey, but could be any color.

You can do white right now, just turn off the map and then go to 3d mode.

Cool, this is exactly what I was looking for. Never used that feature before. For those of you, like me, didn't know about this feature, it's the green and brown checkerboard button in the tool bar.

One observation. The triangle mesh is very apparent and appears as diamond shaped crosses from the lighting reflecting off the faces. This is also noticable with maps on, but quite clear with the white texture. I think there is a way to minimize or even remove it. I know if you reduce the reflectivity and increase the emissivity, it will lessen it. VRML has a way of smoothing the edges between two polygons.

Sorry if the quotes don't come out right. Trying to figure out how to quote with this message board.

[sanewcomb]

Boy, that came out screwed up. I know how to use the quote brackets, but it eludes me how to get the person's name who I'm quoting next to it.

[Alan]

Quote (sanewcomb @ Feb. 06 2004,12:48)

One observation. The triangle mesh is very apparent and appears as diamond shaped crosses from the lighting reflecting off the faces. This is also noticable with maps on, but quite clear with the white texture. I think there is a way to minimize or even remove it. I know if you reduce the reflectivity and increase the emissivity, it will lessen it. VRML has a way of smoothing the edges between two polygons.

There is no reflectivity or emissivity being used here, only a diffuse component (the texture).  I'm calculating surface normals myself and handing them to OpenGL along with a light source for lighting.  What you're primarily seeing here is a model that's too simple.  The beta currently out uses a maximum of 20,000 vertices.  I left it low because there aren't any controls to change it (yet) and wanted it to run smoothly on slower computers.  By contrast, I'm currently running it with 130,000 vertices.

Additionally, I'm experimenting with different interpolation schemes that result in much smoother models at sub-DEM resolutions.