Maps

Files loaded under the maps list define the color of the 3d terrain. ECW, JPEG2000 and Tiff files in WGS84 can be loaded directly. Other common raster formats and projections can be converted and used by the [Import Wizard]. If the default maps layer was removed, it can be added back with the “Open Blue Marble” entry. It shows the data set “world.topo.bathy.200407” from http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov. Gray scale rasters can be colored by enabling color mapping and setting a color map with [Configure Color Map]. Sometimes raster files contain false values, e.g. a black border. Biosphere can ignore them with the skip custom color which takes a single value for grayscale images or up to four values for color rasters (red, green, blue and alpha channel).

Added files are shown in a list that can be controlled as described in [Table of Content]. For rasters and shapefiles, an animation can be activated with [Layer Animation].

Additional layer types are:

• Derive from height
• Solid
• Shapefile

Derive from height

Colors the terrain according to its height. The used default color map can be changed with [Configure Color Map]. It consists of altitude / color pairs. Values in between are interpolated.

Solid

Uses a custom color for the whole planet, it can be changed with [Configure Color Map] (the map should consist of just a single entry).

Shapefile

This option uses shapefile polygons to draw textures on the ground. The following attributes are available:

• GrndColor - a string to specify a color which is used as a solid color, or to colorize a given texture (examples)
• GrndTextur - a string to specify an image file to use as a texture, just filename with extension if the file is in the same folder as the shapefile, absolte path (e.g. F:\Work\texturestore\SoilSand0011_1_M.jpg) or relative path (relative to shapefile, e.g. ../texturestore/SoilSand0011_1_M.jpg)
• GrndTAngle - a double to rotate the texture in degree
• GrndTSize - a double which scales the texture, enter the size of a pixel edge in meter
• GrndTOffX and GrndTOffY - a double which moves the texture in x- or y-direction
• TexBorder - a positive or negative double value in meter which blends the texture outward or inward by the given amount. Currently one texture can only use one distance. If the texture is assigned to multiple polygons, the maximal value is used for all those polygons. If blending is used, the number of different textures is limited, depending on the GPU, to about 30. Blending may look wrong, if to much textures are used.

The layer options have the following specific settings:

• to enable a detail texture with a detail texture size in meter, which shows in the area around the camera a higher resolution texture
• to enable grass which adds short grass with a set height in cm and a set grass quality, which influences somewhat the render speed
• animation can be activated with [Layer Animation]