Difference between revisions of "Tarsier tutorial: Renderer"

Revision as of 23:48, 20 February 2009

What is the 'Renderer'?

Strictly speaking, a renderer is any process that produces a visual representation of some data. So a RasterView is a renderer. However, the Renderer in Tarsier conventionally refers to the main 3D renderer that is used to produce most 3D visualizations.

The Renderer draws 3D scenes described by a wide range of data, including multiple rasters, vectors, sites, etc.

Using the Renderer to view some raster data and nothing else

1. Open Tarsier
2. Open a new Renderer
   1. Select File --> New --> Data Views --> Render View (if its not on the list, you need to load a DLL)
3. Load some RasterData into the Renderer. The raster would normally represent elevations, as in topography or bathymetry.
   1. Select the 'Raster' tab
   2. If your RasterData is not yet open within Tarsier:
      1. Select 'Open' on the UseeControl named 'Relief'
      2. Navigate to the RasterData TRA file that you want to open
   3. If your RasterData is already open within Tarsier:
      1. Select the drop-down arrow on the UseeControl named 'Relief'
      2. Select your raster from the list of currently open rasters
   4. Make some Terrain corresponding to the Raster (Unless this RasterData has been rendered before it probably doesn't already have Terrain associated with it).
      1. Click the 'Make' button
      2. Select your RasterData object again, and click OK
      3. When asked 'Please confirm the terrain name and location (or change it)', create a new folder called 'terrain' inside the folder where the raster is, and then save the terrain (TRNTI) with the default name inside that folder.
   5. Point the camera at the terrain
      1. Select the 'Cam1' tab