Realtime Walkthrough

Realtime Walkthrough lets you experience your landscape with realistic lighting, shadows, moving water, wildlife, sound, and other effects. Using the mouse and keyboard, you can walk around your landscape as you would in real life.

To start a Realtime Walkthrough:

1.   Click the Realtime Walkthrough tab at the bottom of the view. The following dialog will appear:

Standard

Camera is controlled manually using mouse and keyboard.

Realtime Camera

Camera is controlled automatically using a predefined realtime camera.

Panorama

Camera is controlled manually using the mouse. In this mode, you can look around from a fixed viewpoint, but you cannot move. The viewpoint is defined by the first point in the specified realtime camera.

Invert

When walking around using manual camera control, click this option to look down instead of up when the mouse is moved forward.

Auto level when moving

Enable this option to automatically level the camera when walking around.

Full Screen

Enable this option to use full-screen rendering, or disable to view the walkthrough inside a window.

Screen resolution

Select the desired screen resolution for your realtime walkthrough. Higher resolutions will have better quality but may take longer to render, depending on your video card.

Shadow quality

This controls the quality of shadows.

2. Click OK to accept the above settings. The following dialog will then appear.

Shadows and lighting will then be calculated, and the progress will be displayed in the dialog. Click Cancel to cancel realtime walkthrough. When the calculations are complete, the screen will switch to your walkthrough and you can walk around your landscape design in realtime. When you are finished, press ESC to return to design mode.

Tips:

•      The controls for adjusting your view are different than the ones used for plan and perspective views. You use the keyboard to move your "feet", and the mouse to turn your "head". See Realtime Walkthrough Controls for details.

•      Selecting a higher quality level only affects the time it takes to calculate shadows and lighting, but not the realtime walkthrough frame rate.

•      Gamma correction is on by default. However, if you're using a flat panel monitor, this may cause the scene to appear overly bright and colorful. See Program Settings for instructions for turning off gamma correction.

See also:

Realtime Walkthrough Controls
Taking a Screen Shot