VistaPro uses a combination of artificial intelligence, chaotic math and a user definable set of values to simulate landscapes in their natural state.
VistaPro is a single frame generator, meaning that it acts like a camera; every time you point the camera and click, it renders a new view of the landscape. You can view landscapes from a practically infinite combination of heights, angles and distances. Using the combination of user controllable values and VistaPro's built-in routines, you can make landscapes as realistic or as surreal as you desire. It is easy to alter tree and snow lines, haze , exposure, rivers, lakes and light sources to customize the appearance of the landscape.
VistaPro uses data derived from United States Geologic Survey Digital Elevation Mapping files for generating its images. These files contain coordinate and elevation data at 30 meter (roughly 100 ft.) increments. At present, the USGS has converted about 60% of the United States and its territories to DEM files which can potentially be used with Vistapro.
Each Small VistaPro DEM file contains about 65,000 elevation data points and generates 130,000 Polygons. A Large Vistapro DEM file contains about 256,000 data points and generates 512,000 polygons, and a Huge Vistapro DEM file contains about 1,000,000 data points and generates over 2,000,000 polygons.
VistaPro doesn’t know anything about what covers the terrain. It doesn’t know where the trees, roads or buildings are. It does its best to color each polygon (based on a few numbers that you input) in a realistic way. However, it can’t draw each rock and tree. Adding texture and trees can result in images containing as many as a hundred times as many polygons as the landscape by itself.
VistaPro makes pictures of landscapes from two different types of data. Pictures of real landscapes are made from U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Digital Elevation Model (DEM) data. You can also explore billions of imaginary fractal landscapes generated from data produced by Vistapro itself. |
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