
LANDSCAPE 0.3 - third release
==============================

by Jonathan Belson (jon@dookie.demon.co.uk)


What Is It?
===========

Landscape is a program to create and render fractal landscapes created
using fractal Brownian motion.  The algorithm used is similar to that
introduced by R. F. Voss, whereby a process of interpolation and the
addition of Gaussian random numbers of decreasing standard deviation
are used to add increasing amounts of detail to an array of height
values.


Why Does It Have Such A Crap Name?
==================================

Well, all the obvious ones have been used 8^P.  I was thinking of changing
it but I can't think what to - any suggestions?


What's New In 0.3?
==================

Some major changes in the user interface, hopefully it will make the
program easier to use.


What's new in 0.2?
==================

I've changed lots of stuff, but the main addition is the ability to
rotate the preview window view.  Simply click in the preview window,
drag the mouse left or right, then release.  You can render the terrain
from your new vantage point.  Note that you may get jaggly artifacts
appearin in some rotated views - this is due to the lack of z-buffering.


How Do I Compile It?
====================

Should be fairly simple.  You need to have GTK and GTK-- installed on
your system (check out http://www.gtk.org for these), and you need
gcc 2.7.2 or later.  With a bit of luck you'll just have to type 'make'
to get it to compile, but if you're not running Linux you may need
to do a bit of jiggery-pokery with the makefile.

If you get it to compile under another system, I'd be interested in
getting hold of the makefile changes.


How Do I Run It?
================

Just type 'landscape' at the prompt.  *NOTE* Landscape currently only
runs in 16-bit mode on small-endian machines.  Sorry.  I keep meaning
to do something about this but other things seem more important.


Wow! It's So Great, To Whom Do I Send Huge Amounts Of Money?
============================================================

<chuckle>  Landscape is freely distributable, and you can feel free
to study it, change it, or use bits of it in your own freely
distributable programs.  However, I do ask that any such works credit
me in the documentation (and *tell me* too 8^).

Any commercial use of Landscape code is forbidden.


Notes:
======

The fractal creation routine is based on algorithms pilfered from
several textbooks on fractals.  When I've tidied the program up a
bit more I'll do some more research on the subject and hopefully
improve the quality of the generated landscapes.  (I'm appalled at the
amount of maths I've managed to forget since I graduated).

The Gouraud shading code is pretty ropey at the moment.  Make that
extremely ropey.  Please don't judge me by it.


To Do:
======

Lots and lots -

Tidy up quitting.
Proper clipping of views.
Movement within preview area.
Make Gouraud shading routine interpolate colour as well as intensity.
Ability to adjust palette.
More controls.
A BeOS port.
More things that I could possibly write here...

