Realtime Walkthrough Controls
The following controls are available during a Realtime
Walkthrough.
The Realtime Walkthrough controls are different than the
ones used when creating and editing your landscape design. The walkthrough
controls are much simpler because the walkthrough is only for viewing your
design, not editing it.
Important: Many of the Realtime Walkthrough features
require a modern 3D video card. Features which are not supported by your video
card will not be available.
Control |
Description |
F1 |
Toggles the help menu on and off. |
F3 |
Adjust the time of day and compass north direction.
These adjust the global lighting and shadows. |
F4 |
Edit the color and brightness. (See below for
details.) |
F5 |
Save a screen shot of your current view as an image
that can be e-mailed or printed. |
F6 |
Save or load a viewpoint. |
F7 |
Adjust graphics settings. (See below for
details.) |
Esc |
Exit Realtime Walkthrough and return to design
mode. |
Left arrow |
Turn left. |
Right arrow |
Turn right. |
Up arrow or W |
Move forward. You can also move forward by pressing and
holding the right mouse button. |
Down arrow or S |
Move backward. |
A |
Move left. |
D |
Move right. |
Shift |
Press and hold to move faster. Used in conjunction with
the other movement keys. |
+ (plus) |
Increase view elevation. Hold down to
accelerate. |
- (minus) |
Decrease view elevation. Hold down to
accelerate. |
Move mouse |
Simply move your mouse to direct your
view. |
Color and Brightness Settings
Press F4 to open the Color and Brightness
dialog.

Brightness Adjusts the
brightness of surfaces illuminated by the global light.
Ambient Adjusts the
brightness of surfaces which are not directly illuminated by the global light,
either because they are facing away or because they are in shadow.
Exposure Adjusts the
overall brightness of the scene.
Contrast Adjusts the
sharpness of colors in the scene. When increasing the contrast, it is often
helpful to decrease the saturation by a similar amount to prevent the colors
from becoming oversaturated.
Saturation Adjusts how
vivid the colors appear in the scene.
Bloom Adjusts the size
of the glow that appears around brightly lit objects. During the daytime, this
affects highly reflective objects such as water and glossy paint. At night, this
adjusts the size of the glow around light fixtures. To disable bloom, set this
value to -100.
Red/Green/Blue
balance Adjusts the red, green, and blue lighting of the entire
scene.
Reset Reset all
settings to their default (0).
Save/Load Save orĀ
load the settings to or from disk. This is useful when you want to use these
settings in another design.
Graphics Settings
Press F7 to open the Graphics Settings dialog.
These settings are very performance intensive and require a
modern video card for best results. If you experience slow performance, try
disabling one or more of the following settings.

3D grass Enables or
disables 3D grass. 3D grass will only appear if supported by your video card,
and you have Regions in your design with the 3D grass option enabled.
Sunlight lens
flare Enables or disables the lens flare that appears when looking
directly at the sun.
Water caustics Enables
or disables underwater light effects caused by light refracting through the
surface of rippling water.
Water
reflections Enables or disables reflections of the surrounding
environment on water surfaces. When disabled, reflections are still present but
are less accurate.
Ambient
occlusion Enables or disables detailed shadows that appear where surfaces
are partially shadowed by nearby surfaces. For example, this provides subtle
shadows on individual blades of grass.
Character
shadows Enables or disables dynamic shadows cast by 3D people.
Enable all settings during a
movie or screen shot When this option is enabled, all of the above
settings are automatically enabled for movies and screen shots. This allows you
to disable certain settings for improved walkthrough performance, while
maintaining maximum quality for movies and screen shots.
See also:
Realtime
Walkthrough Realtime
Walkthrough Settings Saving
and Restoring Viewpoints Taking a Screen
Shot
|