Terrain the Manual 

 
CAUTION this program, TERRAIN, is habit forming and has been known to cause severe stress for 
loved ones of those who use this program. Please be aware that you can become so immersed in the 
abilities of TERRAIN that you may not come up from the computer room for days and days. 
 
Caution number two, This program is simple to use and therefore does not require a lengthy manual. 
We have decided, here at Impulse, that long manuals are possibly an excuse for hard to use software or 
for software that is very complicated. Terrain is neither of these. if you are not familiar with the 
conventions of the Amiga, such as using both the Mouse buttons or using Hot Keys, it might he a good 
idea for you to review your owners manual before pressing onto Terrain. Just what does Terrain do? 
Simply stated, Terrain generates Mountains, Valleys, Rivers, Rolling Hills, Caverns, Canyons, Water, 
and Several different types of  grounds that can be used in Turbo Silver. 
 
When one thinks of Terrain and the like being generated by a computer the first thought from most is 
"Does it use Fractals?". NO, Terrain does not use Fractals. What Terrain does do however, is generate 
random triangle patters that Silver and Turbo Silver can interpret for you as Terrains. Terrain does not 
use Fractals for one simple reason. The amount of triangles needed to do effective fractal topography is 
Immense and the size of the files that Terrain can he rather large. 
 
Consider that not all of us have 300 Gigabyte hard drives and 9 megs of RAM. Were we to have used 
true Fractal topography you might have needed these items. In short, we were thinking of you when we 
wrote this program. Keep it simple, powerful and fast As you become familiar with Terrain, we are sure 
that you will find that we have met all of these goals. 
 
LET'S GET GOING AND DO WHAT TOOK NATURE YEARS TO DO, BUILD A MOUNTAIN. 
 
Make a backup copy of the Terrain disk, it is not copy-protected and you are given the right to make 
backup copies for your own personal use. Please, don't give out copies to friends, relatives and others 
that want something for free. You have paid for this program and so should they. if you have a hard 
drive, copy Terrain to the main root directory or any subdirectory. If you are making a floppy backup, 
use the Amiga Diskcopy command to make a backup. Once again, if you are not familiar with the 
process of making a backup please check your Amiga users guide for instruction. Store the original in a 
safe place. 
 
 
You will notice that Terrain is not shipped with a system, in other words, you can't boot your computer 
with the Terrain master disk. All you need to run Terrain is system 1.2 or greater. We have not included 
a system for two reasons. One, we wanted to put some pix files that were generated using Terrain; Two, 
there are so many viruses floating around out there that we don't want to be responsible for giving your 
system a bummer disease. 
 
If you would like to see the pixs that are on this disk use the show command followed by the name of 
the file you would like to see. The other way to view these files is to use a HAM paint program like 
Diamond (The Impulse Paint Program). You may edit these files and use them in Silver as IFF brushes, 
or you can give them to your friends to show them what Terrain does. Undoubtedly you will want to 
make your own pixs so let's get to the meat of the matter Either from the Work Bench or CLI load 
Terrain by double clicking on it's ICON or type, in CLI "Run Terrain". For those of you who have a 
68020 Accelerator board, click on Terrain.FP or from CLI type "Run Terrain.FP". 
 
 
NOTE: 
 
The FP version of Terrain will run much faster than the regular version because it takes advantage 
of the 68020 and co-processor chips. It will not however run unless you have an accelerator board 
installed. 
 
Once Terrain has loaded you will he see a with a black screen with a white boarder around it. You 
have entered Terrain. Review the menu bar by depressing the right mouse button. As we said 
previously. Terrain is very straight-forward, it might be safe to say that you can probably run Terrain 
after spending a few moments with the menu bar. Instead of trying to explain each feature of the menu 
bar at this point with manual in hand or on the desk (the latter will probably be easier) let's make a 
mountain out of a bunch of pixels. Under the Project Menu, the menu farthest to the right, you will see 
the following options. 
 
NEW 
OPEN 
READ 
SAVE AS 
ABOUT 
QUIT 
 
Before you can begin a project you must start off with the New command. Because our first project  
involves a mountain we do not have to reset any other options. There is however, another Menu called 
OPTIONS. In this menu we can select other types of terrains or grounds, in reality the other type of 
Terrain is Water. The ground options are not really Terrains they are grounds that have a pattern to 
them. As we move through the manual, we will get to the differences of alt these options. For now let's 
stick with a mountain or two. 
 
Choose the NEW option horn the Project Menu. 
 
Once you have done so you will see a requester similar to the one shown in Diagram #1. The requester 
that you see is asking you for the size of the grid that you want to work with. Notice that the 
information is input into one of the four boxes. Upper left option is E-W option, this is the size of the 
grid from left to right. (or east to west). The Box directly below E-W is N-S this is the north to south 
option. You will see this as a grid line running from the depth of the screen away from you. E-W relates 
to the X axis co-ordinate in Silver N-W relates to the Y axis co-ordinate in Silver  The other two options 
are the cells or sets of  triangles that will be computed on the grid. Notice that the default for all of these 
options are as follows. 
 
E-W 1000 30 
 
N-S 1000 30 
 
These numbers will give you a grid of 1000 units by 1000 units in X And Y. The number in the cell 
boxes of 30 and 30 will give you 800 triangles. 
 
This may not sound like a lot of triangles, it is, however, more than enough to make some very striking 
mountains. There are two last boxes the OK box, by clicking this box it means that you are pleased 
with the numbers and wish to move to the next set of functions. By hitting CANCEL you will be 
returned to the first screen of Terrain, waiting for you to either quit, or load an old tile. 
 
Let's change the numbers in the E-W and N-S to the following. 
 
E-W 500 20 
N-S 500 20 
 
This will give us a 500 square grid and 400 triangles. You can make the grid as big as you like, be 
forewarned that the larger the numbers, the more triangles, the more the triangles, the larger the cell, the 
larger the cell, the longer it ~l take for Silver to load and redraw. The only major factor that is not 
affected by the increase or decrease in these numbers is the trace time. We have found that in most 
cases the amount of triangles and size will not effect the Ray Tracing engine of Silver very dramatically. 
This is because Silver uses Octree Volumes making the trace time of most cells as fast as they can be. 
Once you have the numbers typed into the requester click on the OK box. 
 
As soon as you have done this, on the right side of the screen will appear the main Terrain requester. 
With this requester most of your work will be done. (See diagram #2) In the middle of the screen 
surrounded by the second white border is the CAMERA. The camera is the same camera that is used in 
Silver. When you save the terrain as a cell the camera position and angle will be saved in the position 
that you have set. To begin, choose from the top of the Master Terrain Requester the Add Peak Option. 
Move your mouse to the Add Peak option and click once. This action has told Terrain that you want to 
add your first peak. It will however not appear that any thing has happened until you move the cursor 
to the area in the middle of the screen and click again with the mouse. Once you have done so you will 
see a cross-hair appear that should look like the one shown in diagram #3. 
 
NOTICE - in the upper right hand portion of the screen is a cursor locator. Without depressing the left 
mouse button move the mouse around the screen to get a feel for position. Once you have mastered 
this activity move the cursor to a value of 0, 126. The first number is relative to the X axis and the 
second number is relative to the Y axis. (Notice that all of the functions of Terrain are directly related to 
the operations of Silver and Turbo Silver, we planned it that way, really.) Once located at X4) and 
Y=126 (close Is good. you don't hove to be right on the money for this tutorial,) depress the left mouse 
button to place a peak at this point As staled before you should see the cross hair appear. Notice that 
there are also some numbers clustered in the right hand side of the cross hairs. These numbers relate to 
some other features of the peak that we will get to in just a moment. For this mountain, we are going to 
make it rather wide and deep. The cross-hair once added is colored blue, this means that it has been 
selected and active. if for some reason your cross hair is white simply move the mouse pointer to the 
middle of the cross hair and depress the left mouse button. The cross hair will turn blue. Now depress 
the X key on the keyboard or choose the Size X option from the Master Requester. The X axis will now 
become active and will grow or decrease with the movement of the mouse. Move the mouse around to 
get a feel for how the X axis grows or shrinks in size. Notice that once the cursor has left the second 
bordered area the axis will discontinue to grow or shrink. In order for the axis to be manipulated you 
must keep the mouse in the area of the second border.  Move the mouse around until the X axis is 
about three quarters of the screen. Now click the left mouse button once again. The cross hair should 
still be blue but the X axis will no longer grow or shrink in size. Use either the Master Requester or the 
keyboard and choose the size Y option. This will activate theY axis. it will petform in the same manner 
as the X did with the exception that the cross hair will now move up and down on your screen. Make 
the Y axis about 113 of the screen. Once again accuracy is not that important.
 
Before we move onto the other options let's take a look at the mountain. Depress the tight Amiga key 
and the C key. This will give you the view from the East of  the Mountain. Unless we miss our guess or 
you haven't done something like skip over this part of the manual you will, in a few seconds, see a 
rather pitiful small and obscure mountain. No purple mountains majesty here, YET. To return to the 
Terrain work surface depress the left mouse button. Using either the mouse or the keyboard choose 
Size Z. Of course you must still have the peak select or blue in color. 
 
Move the mouse around the inner bordered area. The top number in the right hand side of the cross hair 
will either grow or diminish in value, depending on the area that you move the mouse to. By moving 
the mouse make this number change to a value of 250. This may be a bit difficult the first time out so 
just try and get close to a value of 250. Once you have that value shown depress the left mouse button. 
Again, depress the Right Amiga and the C key for a view from the East. 
 
Now we are getting somewhere. You just made your first mountain peak, and what a peak it is. Take a 
break and have a libation. Just think how hard you worked to make a mountain, Whew!. For those of 
you who wish to forge on. let's take another view of the same mountain. Click the left mouse button to 
return to the main program. These key combinations will show you different views of your creation: 
 
Right Amiga A = North View 
Right Amiga B = South View 
Right Amiga C = East View 
Right Amiga D = West View 
Right Amiga E = Camera View 
 
Try all of these views and see which you like the best. Because we have done nothing with the camera 
as of yet, this view will most likely be the one that you like the least. However, the camera is the next 
option that we shall deal with. 
 
Before we move on to any new subjects, lake a few moments to reflect on the functions of the camera 
and how it is oriented in the terrain world. 
 
THE CAMERA 
 
The camera acts much the same as it does in Silver. The only difference is the camera doesn't track to 
the terrain. Once you have exported the terrain to Silver, you can decide where you would like the 
camera to track to by using the auto track function. Select the camera by placing the mouse pointer over 
the center of the camera and depressing the left mouse button. The camera should turn blue. To move 
the camera, simply depress the M key, or select move from the Master Requester. Once again, there will 
not be any apparent explosion of fireworks telling you that you may now move the Camera. Move the 
cursor to the lower right hand portion of the inner border and depress the left mouse button. With no 
fanfare the camera will move to the point where you have clicked. just for practice move the camera 
around to a few locations, just to get a feel for doing so. Now that you've had a little fun, move the 
camera back to the lower right hand portion of the screen. The camera has a straight line coming 
directly form the center of the circle, this is the lens, (sort of a lens) this is also the indicator 
showing the direction that the camera is pointing. We can rotate that pointer by depressing the R key 
or selecting rotate from the master menu. Make sore that the camera is selected and (blue in color) 
depress the R key. 
 
Move the mouse around the inner border area. Make the lens or pointer of The lens pointer go to 145. 
Use the Right Amiga key and the E key to get a camera view of the mountain. Much better right. What 
you have done is to rotate the camera in a downward orientation. If you would like to practice a little try 
a few different values for the F setting. A value of  1 will point the camera straight up, a value of 0 will 
point the camera straight down. Depending on the distance that you are away from the terrain the 
results will be very interesting. 
 
Under the options menu are several different ways to view your creation. The view modes are the last 
selection in this pull down menu. 
 
The choices are: 
 
WireFrame  Right Amiga W 
Polygon    Right Amiga P 
Filled	 Right Amiga F 
 
Try selecting the polygon mode either by using the pull down menu or using the Right Amiga P. Now 
choose Right Amiga E, the results are quite different. You are now seeing your mountain with the 
hidden lines removed. The picture that you see is going to be much more like the final render because 
the lines that you can not see have been removed to add more realism. 
 
Depress the Right Amiga F key and then the Right Amiga E combination. With this option you will get 
an even better view of the mountain, all of the polygons have been filled the hidden lines removed all 
that is left now is to give it a good ray tracing. 
 
Well.....not quite, there are still many other features that can be used to enhance and alter the terrain. 
 
ADDING MORE MOUNTAINS 
 
Although your creation is quite nice, it should have a friend to share the beauty with. let's add another 
mountain to the work surface. This can be done in two different ways. You can, as we have already 
done, add another peak with the add peak command. Or you can copy the mountain that we made and 
place it somewhere else on the work surface. Let's do the latter.  Move your cursor to the mountain that 
we have already created and select it Depress the C key or use the mouse to select the copy command 
from the master requester. Now move the mouse to a distance of about 100 units south (or downward 
on the screen), from the first mountain that we have created. Depress the P key or choose paste from 
the Master Requester. Click the left mouse button and you should now have a second peak 
approximately 100 units south of the first peak. 
 
This is not going to be a real good place for this mountain so let's move it a bit to the left of it's present 
position. Make sure that this new peak is selected and depress the M key or choose Move from the 
Master Requester. 
 
Move the mouse about 100 units West of it's present position and depress the left mouse button. The 
peak should now be below and to the left of the first peak. Choose the View Option for Camera from 
the options menu or use the Hot Key Right Amiga F. Now we are getting some place.
 
You have created two mountains in no lime at all. The only difference in add peak and copy peak is the 
obvious, with add peak you begin with anew peak, with copy you have an exact duplicate of the peak 
that has been copied, see we said it was obvious. The last command that you should become familiar 
with is a command that we have already used on the Camera it is rotate. Rotate is used by first selecting 
the peak or camera and then using the R key or choose Rotate from the Master Requester. Once again 
move the mouse around to get a feel for the rotation of the selected peak. Once you get a feel for the 
movement of the rotation activity, rotate the mountain peak so that it is at a 45 degree angle to the other 
peak. 
 
If all has gone well it should look something like Diagram #4. Use the Camera View to get an idea of 
what has changed. Use all other views in all view modes. In this manner you will get a feel for how the 
views work and what to expect when you develop your own terrains. There are other commands on the 
master requester are used in much the same way as ail of the other commands. The last of the 
commands that we have not looked at are SET XY. Delete, CUT and Info. The last command on the 
requester is the redraw command. In order to invoke the redraw simply press the space bar at anytime. 
To use Cut, simply repress the X key after you have selected the peak that you wish to cut from the 
work surface. Cut is like Delete which can also be invoked after you have selected the peak of your 
choice. The only difference between these two commands is that the Delete command will not allow 
you to re-paste the peak back to the work surface with the P command, whereas the Cut command 
allows you to paste the peak back to any point on the work surface that you desire, by using the P or 
paste command. In the event that you might make a mistake you can always use the UNDO command 
by depressing the U key. The only problem with UNDO is that it is a "one back" command. This is to 
say that if you have cut a peak from the work surface and then deleted another without first pasting the 
initial cut peak back to the work surface, the first peak will be gone. UNDO should always be used as 
soon as you realize that you have made a mistake. UNDO is a FIFO buffer that eliminates the first 
action when another action is executed.
 
Within the Master Requester is the Scale Command. Scale is to X, Y and Z what size is to these values 
with the exception that the action taken on the axis values is much greater and more dramatic than Size. 
As in Silver you can affect change on any axis or group of Axis by holding down the left shift and 
clicking in succession on different axis points. Please be aware of the fact that of you select this feature, 
MULTI MODE, and attempt to rotate these axis they will all rotate around the frrst axis that was 
selected. this can cause a problem, one or more ofthe axis may move off the work surface. If this 
happens click the left mouse button and those axis that are not seen will appear, it would be a good idea 
to delete these axis at this time, as they will not have any effect on the overall terrain. The Multi Mode 
'will work with all functions such as Cut Copy, Paste, Delete, Move, Rotate, scale and Sizing in all axis. 
Remember that you must use the LEFT SHIFT KEY and hold it down while you pick the peaks that 
you wish to work on. if you have picked several peaks and find that you wish not to have one or several 
picked, simply click on these peaks once again, they will become un-selected.
 
The final command in the Master Requester is the Info command. Once you have selected any peak or 
the camera you can invoke the INFO command by selecting the letter I using the mouse to select it 
from the master requester. (Diagram #5). The Info box has several pieces of information which relate 
directly to the actions that we have taken in relation to the peaks or camera. Select any peak on the work 
surface and depress the I key to activate the Info command. There are several boxes that relate to the 
following. EW relates directly to the position of the selected peak or camera. This is the position of the 
center of the peak in it's relationship to the East and West poles. NW relates directly to the position of 
the selected peak or camera. This is the position of the center of the peak in it's relationship to the North 
and South poles. The X size and Y site ofthe peaks can be adjusted by typing in new values to the 
boxes that relate to X and Y size. Other features of the Info box include. Altitude, by changing the value 
in (his box you can increase the height of the peak. 
 
 
NOTICE.... 
 
By giving the Altitude a negative value you can create canyons and rivers. Roughness, is directly related 
to our Pseudo-Fractal handler By changing this number you can make the peak of the Mountain or 
water either more severe or more docile. It is through this command that you can make Mountains that 
look like the Alps, (very severe) or mild rolling hills. The other three boxes, OK, SHOW and CANCEL 
work in the following manner. if you have made and viewed all of the changes click the OK box. In so 
doing, you will be brought back to Main Program. if however, you have made changes to values in the 
Info Boxes and decide that they are not what you wanted, click on the cancel box, all of the changes 
will be null and void. 
 
On the return to main program you will see that all is as it was before you entered the Info requester. 
The final box in the Info Requester is the SHOW command. This command gives you a sine wave of 
the information that you have either started with or the changes that you are proposing to make. You 
can click on the Show command at anytime. Note that you may not get the full sine wave of any peak 
due to the fact that it may be very tall or long. These features work exactly the same for mountains as 
water. The grounds that are supplied with the Terrain program are not affected by roughness or altitude. 
More on grounds later, Lastly, when in the creation of Mountains you can click several times on the 
Show command and the sine wave will change uisng several different seed numbers for a distinct 
randomness. 
 
You now know how to make Mountains, and valleys. You just might want to save your creations, so let 
us go over the different ways to save those peaks and valleys. There is a fourth option in the menu bar 
at the top of the Main program called, Silver. In this menu option you have two sub options Save Cell 
and Save Object. If you save the present Terrain as a Cell, it will save the Terrain as a green mountain, 
with a light soturce and the camera in its present position. In this way you can begin a animation or 
trace knowing just exactly what the results will be. You can also, once having saved the cell, call this 
cell into Silver and add other items or features to the Terrain that you have created. If you decide to set 
different camera and light parameters in the creation of your Terrain, save the terrain as a simple object. 
When you use the Save Object option you must remember that the camera and light source will not be 
brought down into the saved file. 
 
The file requester works as you might expect, the top requester box asks for the drawer that you want 
to save the cell Or object to and the bottom box asks for the name that you wish to save the cell or  
object under. 
 
 
Special NOTE  
 
when you attempt to save an object as a cell we have added a special save requester that appears before 
the cell save, it is called IFF save. This feature allows you to define an IFF image that you have created 
or digitixed and have this image wrapped around the mountain. This function is in direct relation to the 
normal manner in which you wrap brushes around objects in Silver. The difference is thai the wrapping 
is done automatically, once saved to disk and recalled into Silver the mountain will already be wrapped. 
If you decide that you don't want to have a brush used simply click on cancel, the next save requester  
will appear allowing you to save the object as a stand alone object.  
 
More Special Notes... 
 
When you are viewing any of your creations in the view mode of Terrain, you may save this picture to 
disk by depressing the S key. The pict file will be stored to the current opened directory. These pict files 
are stored as High Res, and Interlace. Once the files have been saved you can recall them with various 
paint programs. Impulse produces Diamond, a Paint program that is a companion to Terrain and Silver. 
If you would like further information regarding Diamond please call our offices at: 1-800-2328-0184. 
The other save functions that are available are in the first menu name Project. In this menu you can 
Save, Read and Open. Save simply saves the data that you have created in it's own unique file format, 
not in Silver format. You must use the Silver menu to export the terrain in a format that Silver can 
recognize. Open will eliminate the current work surface terrain peaks and bring in a previously saved  
terrain set. Read will however bring into the present terrain on the work surface another set of  
previously saved terrain peaks. In this manner you can create even more complex terrains by adding  
several different files to the present work file. Prior to moving to Water and Grounds it is important  
to discuss one other option under the Options menu. 
 
Set Seed is another factor that affects the randomness of the Set F value. You can Set Seed at any time. 
Note that the change of the seed should be no more than four numbers. If you still have our first 
mountain example on the work surface. either by using the Right Amiga and the = key or by choosing 
the Set Seed from the Options Menu, change 'he seed number to other than the default, then use one of 
the view options to see the changes that have been made. By now you can see a variety of ways of 
making you’re creations unique and exciting. Of course the most important comment that can be made 
about Terrain is that you must Experiment with all of the features. Don't be afraid of adding many 
peaks, rotate them all in different directions and place them in various ways to see how things work out. 
We have not set any standards for you to follow, you are the judge and jury as to the beauty of your 
terrains. This is as it should be, agreed?. 

 
WATER WATER EVERYWHERE AND NOT A DROP TO DRINK. 
 
One unique feature of the Waves Terrain is that you can make animations out of the waves terrain 
'hat you create. Waves is selected by choosing Waves from the Options menu just as you chose 
Mountains. There are no differences in Waves and Mountains other than the fact that Waves can be 
saved in a sequential series of animated cells. With waves you can create or add peaks to the work 
surface, size the X and V axis and increase the Z axis. You can apply the F command to the Waves to 
increase or decrease the severity of the waves. In short you can begin to make waves right away. after 
all you have already created some very interesting mountain, how hard can waves be. Add a few peaks 
to the work surface and take a view of them from the orientation of the Camera by using the master 
requester or using the Right Amiga F key set. You will see that the default setting for waves will 
generate a rather "choppy sea". By using the info command change the Wavelength of the water to a 
larger number like 300. Click on the show command and view the new sine wave of this peak. Now 
change the amplitude to a value of 0.8. the largest value that can be used in the amplitude box is the 
whole number I, the least value is 0.000. 
 
If you attempt to place a number that falls out of these values you will get the illegal dialogue box. If 
this happens simply change the values until they fall with in the envelope established by the Terrain 
program. 
 
As in the Mountain option the Z command relates directly to the Wavelength, the F command relates 
directly to the smoothness or choppiness of the waves and the angle relates directly to rotation of the 
peak or wave set. Waves seem to look better when you have larger X And Y axis and fewer of them, of 
course this is up to you and what you like. Also the movement of the water is along they axis. The best 
way to get a feel for waves is to experiment with them and create a few. 
 
You can read other wave sets directly into your' existing work area by using the Read command. Waves 
work just like Mountains, the only difference lies in the fact 'hat the peaks will not be quite as large and 
the F command will have a tendency to make the terrain look mote like water than a Mountain. 
 
 
SPECIAL NOTE:  
 
For those of you have 2.0 please note that when you save the waves they are saved with anew feature 
called, glossy. The glossy command is only available to users of Turbo Silver 3.0 or greater. If you have 
a version less than 3.0 go into the attributes menu and reset the Reflective value of the water. Bring the 
value of the reflectivity down to something lower than 64 across the three color guns. If you don't you 
will not get a terrain that looks like water. Some of you may wish to use the values that are saved with 
the wave, the best test is to trace a couple of cells and view 'he differences. If you have not received 
Turbo Silver 3.0 please call us so that you may get the most current version. 
 
 
SAVING YOUR WAVES... 
 
You can save 'he file that you have created under the project menu and Terrain will save the data in it's 
own unique fashion. Under the Silver Menu you can save the water as a cell or object. The same 
information applies to Waves as to Mountains. When you save the wave as an object the camera and 
light source will not be saved with the object. On the other hand when you save the object as a cell a 
very special action occurs. For the purpose of practice, make a couple peaks on the work surface and 
then store them as cells. The first action that will occur will be the requester asking you how many cells 
you wish to make. For this test type in the number 6. The next requester will the main file requester 
asking for the drawer or sub-directory for storage in the upper box, in the lower box Terrain will ask for 
a name for the cells. For this exercise, decide where you want the cells to placed and name them in the 
name box, waves. After you are sure all of the information is correct click on the OK box. Wait for a 
few minutes while Terrain figures out the movement of the waves and saves the cells to the disk. Each  
cell will have the prefix, waves and will be followed by a period and a number, ie... waves.1,  waves.2 
and so on. Once this process is finished the software will return control to you. It might he a good idea 
for you to now run Silver or Turbo Silver and make six cells.
 
Into each cell load the appropriate wave cell. In cell I load waves. I and so on through cell 6 and 
waves.6. Choose the wireframe mode, set loop on cell I and select all cells. Now choose make scene. In 
a few moments, you will have a wire frame pencil test of moving water. The interesting factor aboul 
water is that it is an object. As such, it can he wrapped by an IFF brush or have a Texture applied to it. 
 
By making several different mountain objects and rotating them you can make a cavern with stalactites 
and stalagmites. To be even more creative add a narrow river running down the cavern.The possibilities 
are endless, all you have to do is add the creativity to the process. 
 
NOW TO GROUNDS 
 
The grounds that come with Terrain are pre-set. Here is a rough idea of what they will look like. 
 
Ground 1 is a checkerboard 
Ground 2 is a Symmetrical flower pattern. 
Ground 3 is a Octagon pattern. 
Ground 4 is a Tile pattern. 
 
Better descriptions than this can't be given. You have to see them to understand just what they look 
like. Grounds, like Waves and Mountains are objects and are subject to all but the coloring function in 
Silver. The grounds differ in a couple of respects one from the other. Ground I should not be made with 
cells larger than 20 or it will eat up all the space on your disk drive. 
 
Remember these are objects and should be treated as such, be careful that you don't make a ground too 
big to fit into the Silver World. Keep your grounds no larger than 2048 by 2048. Keep the cell size on 
Ground 1 below 20. the others are not quite as critical in the cell size, but it would be wise to keep the 
cell size to 30 and below. The more the triangles the more space is going to be needed in order to load 
and save these cells or objects.  Grounds can be saved in both manners under the Silver menu as either 
grounds or objects. Remember that the difference is only in the fact that if saved as a cell the camera 
and light source will be applied to the information that is saved. The other factor that can be applied to 
the grounds are the colors.
 
In Ground 1 there are only two colors that have any bearing to the ground that is the Primary and 
Secondary. In Grounds 2 thru 4 all of the colors apply. there are three. Notice that when you apply 
color to the grounds the slider to adjust the color is the same that you will find in Turbo Silver. Once 
again you will have to make a few grounds and experiment with the colors that you like. 
 
 
CAUTION.... 
 
There is no way within Turbo Silver, other than choosing faces, to select the two or three different 
colors of the ground. If, after you have traced a ground and decide that the colors don't meet you desire 
results. Return to Terrain and set up the ground using the same parameters as your first ground and 
reset the colors. This is much easier than trying to get at the faces in Silver. AS we said in the beginning 
of this brief manual, Terrain is a very straight forward program that is not only simple tour but very 
powerful in its output. 
 
 
The only limitation to Terrain is your creativity and experimentation. 
 
 
If you have any problems with Terrain please feel free to call us on the Tech Support line at 
1-612-566-0221. We are there from 9:00 AM to 5:00PM CST Monday thru Friday. It always helps if 
you have the manual before you when you are going to ask a question or request assistance. We don't 
want you wasting any time talking about problems, it is our goal to help you get them solved in a 
speedy manner.  In any event we encourage you to call us and let us know what you think of Terrain, 
and we are always interested in your input as to how we can improve and enhance any of the programs 
that Impulse produces, We are listening.