spire
JPEG of a bitmap rendered in Terragen
dec/1999 © Michael McCue
So, there I was, Dec. 1999 began
with a quick trip to www.nonags.com for a freeware hex to RGB color identifier
utility to help with website development. To my surprise I stumbled upon
Terragen which is a shareware 3d landscape render program that uses a
Digital Elevation Model. DEM's are 256 color 2d maps where the value of
each color correlates to an elevation in a 3d coordinate space. Terragen
lets you cover the 3d model with a texture or skin that approximates rocks,
grass, even snow. You can add water to any level. The sky and the lighting
controls are amazing for a shareware program. There is even a third party
scripter called Terrannim. It will create a sequence of images which can
be opened in Quicktime Pro and presented as a movie. You can animate camera
positions, lighting schemes, sky conditions, and cloud movements.
This is a landscape I made while experimenting.
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