Getting Started
with WCS 6 Part 3C.
Terrain Basics
40. 10-meter data is great for
low level scenes like our Main camera view, but what about
aerial flybys higher up, like we'll be doing in the next section?
We don't need the extra terrain detail and render time cost that
comes with the higher resolution terrain. 90-m data would be
more than adequate for such an application. We could download
and import USGS 90-m data, but we already have a single 10-meter
DEM that we could import with the Import Wizard and resample at whatever resolution we choose.
41. Launch the Import Wizard and select our original YNP-10m.elev
file.
42. It will be correctly identified
as a WCS DEM.
43. Click Next twice to
the OUTPUT FILE TYPE AND NAME page and change the name to YNP-100m.
44. Go to the Next page
and select Change Settings.
45. Click Next 5 times
to the now familiar DEMs page. This time we're going to reduce
the Output Columns and Output Rows values to increase DEM cell
size. We'd like cell dimensions of approximately 100 by 100 meters,
so reduce the Output Columns and Output Rows values by a factor
of 10 by removing the last digit from each one. The Output Cell
Sizes will refresh to give you the new values. That looks good,
so let's Import
 .
46. You may have noticed the
Plan view changed slightly after the DEM was imported.
47. That's because we now have
the 100-meter DEM covering the same area as the 10-meter DEMs,
which leads to quite a bit of overlap. To see how the new 100-meter
DEM resolution compares in the Main camera view, select
any 10-m object in the list.
48. Select the 10m layer
and Disable.
49. Open another Main
view in the upper right quad and make a preview render.
50. You'll notice quite a render
time savings and a much lower level of terrain detail. Save the
project.
51. WCS doesn't limit you to
imported data for terrains. You can also create data with the
Terrain
Generator, now with realtime
preview. Create a new project and name it TG.
52. When asked if you want to
import data, answer No, as we'll be creating our own.
53. Open the Terrain Generator  and drag its window down to a lower Matrix
quad.
54. Open the default perspective
camera, and zoom back a notch with the - key.
55. Although we have terrain
visible in the camera view, you'll notice that we don't have
any DEM objects in the Database. That will remain the case until
we click the Terrain
Generator Create DEM
button. What we're seeing now is the default Terrain Generator texture, size, and elevation range.
56. Click on the Texture Operations
button and select Edit Texture.
57. Drag the Texture Editor out of the way so we can see our camera
view. We're currently looking at the Hybrid Multifractal
texture.
58. Open the Selected Element
dropdown box and select Turbulence.
59. The camera view will refresh
with the new texture element.
60. Try Pebbles next.
In addition to creating artificial terrain, the Terrain Generator
Texture Editor is a great place to experiment with different
textures and understand how they work in 3 dimensions.
61. Close out the Texture Editor and go to the Terrain Generator Coverage page. The default terrain size
is about 30 kilometers on a side and the elevation ranges
from 0 to 5000 meters.
62. To choose another area, use
the Area Presets dropdown box, for example Square Kilometer.
63. The elevation range and cell
size will scale accordingly.
64. The camera view will also
reflect the change as the nearly 800 square kilometer terrain
is reduced to a single square kilometer area.
65. Reset the TG Camera to its
default position to get a better look at it .
66. You can also set your own
values for DEM dimensions, bounds, cell size, and elevation range.
As with all WCS Components, you can load a prebuilt Terrain
Generator from the Component Gallery.
67. Select Open Component
Gallery on the right side of the Editor to open the gallery
to the Terrain Generator section.
68. Let's see what Groovy
looks like.
69. If you don't see any terrain,
go to the General page and check the Preview Enabled
box.
70. Click Create DEM,
save your project, and close out the Terrain Generator.
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