GenesisIV Tutorial: Terrain Layers

Use Although GenesisIV will generate realistic looking surfaces automatically, geographic users will want to control the details of the surface rendering directly. To facilitate this GenesisIV uses the concept of Terrains or Terrain Layers.

Each terrain describes a set of characteristics that can be applied to the landscape, for example surface color or vegetation. Terrains are defined in the Terrain Layers Editor. Most common terrains are placed on the landscape surface using shapes such as polygons, lines or points. This vector placement is controlled using the 2D view in the main window, or where more advanced editing is required, the Heightfield Editor. Professional users will probably import data from GIS files using the MapInfo or ArcView plugin.

In addition to shape terrain layers, GenesisIV also supports layers to drap images (such as maps or satellite photographs), place vegetation according to ecological algorithms, or place hotspots linking to photographs or video.