旼컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� � VIRTUAL LANDSCAPE � 읕컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� INTRODUCTION Virtual landscape allows you to explore the country without ever leaving your armchair. All you need is an Ordnance Survey map and your Psion. You enter height data from the map into your Psion. Choose where you want to "stand" and the Psion will plot the view for you. Put together a sequence of views from slightly different viewpoints and produce an animated tour through the landscape. You can even plot a stereoscopic 3D view! Note - Virtual Landscape is shareware. If you enjoy using it, please register your copy. This will encourage me to produce more programs, makes your continued use of the program legal and also gives you the following benefits: - Access to the INTERPOLATE feature. This allows interpolation between points on the map meaning that you have to enter much less data to produce a map. - Acetate grids for easier data entry at a variety of scales. - A printed, illustrated copy of this manual. GETTING THE FILES ONTO THE PSION (If you received the files on an SSD you can ignore this bit) Virtual Landscape must be copied into the correct subdirectories in order to work. Having turned the remote link on, the easiest way to do this is as follows. Choose "Copy" from the system screen. Set "From" to the \LND\ directory on the floppy on which you received Landscape - the actual directory name, not that of any files within it. Set "To" to "\LND\" on whichever disk of the Psion you want to install to. Set "Subdirectories" to Yes. 旼컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴커 � Copy File � 쳐컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴캑 뇝From file: Name LND\ � 뇝 Disk REM::A: � 뇝To file: Name \lnd\ � 뇝 Disk Internal � 뇝Subdirectories Yes � 뇝Modified only No � 읕컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴켸 This should copy all the files into the correct subdirectories, which specifically are as follows. File Subdirectory *.opa \LND\ *.opo \LND\ *.pic \LND\ *.rte \LND\ROUTES\ *.map \LND\MAPS\ INSTALLATION You can now install the two .opa files "Land.opa" and "Animate.opa" onto the system screen using Psion-I. You'll have to press tab and navigate to the \LND\ directory in order to find them. Once you've installed them, Land should have "Example" listed underneath the icon, Animate should merely say "Animate" under it at this point. EXAMPLE Entering map data is rather laborious, so in order to get an idea of how Virtual Landscape works you can use the example map and the two example route files, View and Flight. Pressing with "Example" highlighted on the system screen opens the map file called Example. After a moment you'll see the map appear on the right hand side of the screen (darker areas are higher) while on the left it says "EDITING Map" and gives the coordinates and height of the flashing cursor. If you had created a new map then at this point the map would be blank - you would need to move round the map, entering the height in every grid square (or, with the registered version, just the key peaks and valleys). However, the map data is already entered, so instead we need to choose a position to "stand" and view the landscape. The details of this position must be recorded in a Route file. Choose "Open" from the "Route" menu and select the file "View". The title will change to "VIEWING Frame 1 of 1" and on the map the cursor will have been moved to the position at which you are "standing" while two lines indicate your field of view. At this stage you could edit this frame and save the new details, add the next frame in an animated sequence or delete the frame - all these options are on the "Frame" menu. However, for now, choose "Plot" from the "Route" menu to make the Psion plot the view from your chosen viewpoint. Plotting takes 3-4 minutes, so don't panic - the program hasn't crashed! (You can abandon plotting by pressing Escape and waiting a few moments). After about a minute of "Computing positions", you will be able to watch as the picture is built up on the screen. Once the view has been plotted, it is automatically saved, with the same filename as the route file that generated it, in the \LND\VIEWS\ subdirectory. From here, it will appear under the "Animate" icon. Choosing this file from the Animate icon allows you to see the view without the delay of plotting it each time. After the plotting has been done, any key will return you to the map screen. WHAT NOW? I suggest that you now experiment with the program to see what it can do. A few suggestions - � Using the same Route file, try changing some of the options on the "Advanced" dialogue of the "Route" menu and replotting. � Try editing this frame of the route file - you can move the viewpoint around with the cursor keys and on saving the frame are prompted for height, angle (0-360) and horizon (0 - top of screen, 80 - bottom of screen). Then replot. � Close this route file and open the other example file, "Fly". This contains data for a short animated "flight" (don't forget it'll take a long time to plot). � Create your own Route files and explore the example map. � Create a new map file (from the system screen) and enter data from your own map. Hints; - don't be too ambitious with size, a 10 by 10 map needs the height of 100 points entered (unless you have the registered version and can "interpolate" between them) - rule yourself a grid on acetate to cover the area you're interested in and number it 1-10 (or however big you've made your map) along each side to keep track of where you are. - Note that the "Grid square size (m)" entry in the dialogue box when you create a new map should be the length in metres of 1 square of your grid. Eg 0.5cm squares on a 1:50,000 map are 250m in size. The rest of this manual covers the various menus in detail. LANDSCAPE 컴컴컴컴� MAP MODE This is the mode you are in on first entering the program. It is where you can make alterations to the map itself rather than the positions from which to view it. On the right of the screen is a grid with a flashing cursor on it. This is the map and shows heights by shading. High areas are dark, low ones light. On the left of the screen is a small amount of text. At the top is a title, which on first opening a map will say "EDITING" (to show that you can make changes, as opposed to when "VIEWING") and "Map" (as opposed to a "frame" from a route for animation). Below the title is given the position of the cursor and the height of the map at that position. THE MENUS MAP MENU This is the menu you use when entering the heights from a map at different points on the grid. � New Height - this option lets you enter the height at the cursor position. Note that this can also be done by pressing . � Save as - to save the map with a different name. � Interpolate - provided that you have entered the heights in at least the 4 corners of the map you can use this option to interpolate between the points entered. Cubic interpolation is used, thus providing a relatively smooth and curvaceous appearance to the interpolated landscape. In practice, of course, it is necessary to enter much more data than just the heights in the 4 corners to get a reasonable representation of a map. However, this feature does allow you to minimise the chore of data entry, just concentrating on marking out the peaks and troughs of the landscape. � NOTE THIS FEATURE IS ONLY AVAILABLE IN THE REGISTERED VERSION OF "LANDSCAPE" � Grid Size - Although you enter heights in meters (or feet), the grid uses arbitrary units. In order to plot the landscape to the correct proportions, the program must know the horizontal distance represented by one grid square. You enter this on creating a new map, but this is an opportunity to alter it. The default setting is 250m, ie 0.5cm grid squares on a 1:50000 map. ROUTE MENU This menu deals with route files. These are files containing lists of one or more positions, heights etc from which to view a map. You must have opened a route file before you can plot a view. The options are self explanatory: � New � Open � Delete SPECIAL MENU This menu is the same in both map view and route view modes. � Units - This allows you to swap between meters and feet for viewing and entering map heights. Note that heights are only stored to the nearest 10m, regardless on whether they were entered in meters or feet. This can lead to the displayed height in feet being up to about 30 feet different from what you entered, which is confusing if you're not expecting it! � Version - The version number of Virtual Landscape. � How to Register - Gives details of how to register. To repeat them here, send a cheque for �10 to Mr P Fox, 50B Heber Rd, London, SE22 9JZ. It is important that you quote the version number in order to be sent the correct code - at the time of writing this is 1.2 but you can check using the "Version" option - see above. You will be sent the code which gives access to "Interpolate" (details above) and removes the registration reminder screens. Also included will be an illustrated manual and preprinted acetate grids for data entry from different sized areas of map. � Register - Allows entry of the code sent on registration, giving access to the full version of the program. � Exit - Exits the program, prompts to save the map if there have been any changes. ROUTE MODE On opening or creating a new route file, you enter Route mode. As well as some changes to the display, the Route menu changes and the Map menu is supplanted by the Frame menu. A route file contains information about one or more "frames". This information is used to when drawing views of the landscape. It tells the computer exactly where you want to look from and in what direction. If a file contains multiple frames with only subtle changes in position between them, the resultant views can be run together to produce an animation. On creating a new route, the right of the display remains the same. On the left hand side, the title changes to tell you that you are EDITING a New Frame. In the bottom left hand corner appear three additional parameters concerned with the current frame. These are the height from which you are viewing (which until you save the frame will be set to 100m higher than the height of the landscape at that cursor position); the angle at which you will look (0 looks "north", ie to the top of the map, 90 "east", ie to the right, 180 "south" and so on); and the horizon. The horizon is the only difficult figure here. It is the height in pixels from the top of the screen at which the "horizon" would appear if the view was of a perfectly flat plane. 0 is the top of the screen, 80 the bottom and values outside this range in either direction are perfectly allowable. The default setting of 20 works in many situations. You may need to change it if, for example, you are looking at mountains which rise above you. In order to see the top of them, you may need to place the horizon further down the screen, eg at 40. This is something you can experiment with after plotting a view. THE MENUS FRAME MENU � Next Frame � Last Frame - these two options allow you to step back and forward through existing frames in order to choose one to edit. The New Frame appears after any saved ones. The stepping wraps around, ie if you choose "Next Frame" when viewing the New Frame you go to the first frame. � Edit Frame - Having chosen a frame to edit using Next and Last, you will at first be "VIEWING" the frame (look at the title) which means you can't change it's position. To alter it's position you need to Edit it. � Save Frame - Once you've made changes to the position of a frame with the cursor keys, Save it. On doing so you will be given the option of altering the height, angle and horizon values. Once a frame is saved, it's position is locked (so you can't accidentally change it) and two lines from the cursor position indicate the area of the map which will be viewed. � Delete Frame - Use this to remove a frame from the sequence. ROUTE MENU � Advanced - use this to change the "Advanced plot options". These can all be left at their default settings and a satisfactory plot will probably be performed, but there are many extra options which can be changed. Plot frames - Initially set at ALL, this specifies which frames are plotted. you may wish to change this if, for example, you've made changes to only a couple of frames and don't want to replot the whole route. Frame numbers should be listed separated by commas or dashes. For example 3,6-8,11 would plot frames 3, 6 to 8 inclusive and 11. Sun from - squares of landscape slanting away from the sun are shaded darker than the others. Taking north as the top of the map, the options are north, south, east or west. Field of view - 55 degrees gives a fairly realistic view, but anything between 1 and 179 degrees can be set. Stereoscopic - if set to "yes", two views are plotted side by side from slightly different viewpoints and can be viewed with a traditional stereoscope or by looking "through" the picture in rather the same way as with "magic eye" random dot stereograms. Graphics - these can be solid or wire frame. Save views to drive - choose A, B or M. The view will be given the same filename as the route file which describes it, but will appear under the Animate icon in the directory \LND\ROUTES\. � Plot - this option starts plotting the frames. Note that each view takes about 3-4 minutes to plot (for a 21 by 21 map). � Close - to close this route and return to map mode. ANIMATE 컴컴컴� Use Animate to view files that have been created with Landscape. It can be used to view single frames or, if you've produced a sequence of frames, it will run them together in an animation. THE MENUS OPTIONS � Frame by frame advance - this allows you to advance one frame at a time through an animation rather than running the whole animation at once. � Alter speed of animation - the delay between frames can be varied (note that 0 does not produce an infinitely fast animation! There is a necessary delay while the next file is found). � Reverse animation direction - Once an animation has been run forwards, it automatically runs backwards on pressing any key. If, however, you are stepping through it frame by frame, this allows you to switch direction before reaching the end. � Delete this animation - if you're viewing a one frame "animation" there's no reason why you shouldn't delete it from the system screen. However, different frames are stored with different extensions (.1, .2, .3 etc) and it is only the first frame which appears on the system screen. Thus it is wise to delete an animation from within Animate, which ensures that all its frames are deleted.