Robert Bernal's Terrain Viewer
Robert Bernal
CSC 471
Professor Zoe Wood

Description:

                My Project is a terrain Viewer. The program enables you to 
         loadin bmp files and create any kind of terrain.  The program uses the bmp 
         files as a height map, and texture coordinates.  You can use the camera to 
         move around in your world and view your creation.  Create a bmp file in 
         your favorite editor, load it into the program, and watch what happens.
                In the next few months I plan on creating a full fledged level editor
         because of my interest in gaming. I will take some of the lessons 
         learned during this project and apply them to my new creation.

Future Features:
      
         Terrain editing inside the program 
         Improved lighting
         Default texture and common terrain shapes
         Improved User Interface
         Improve Performance

Screenshots: Island themed

Under the hood:
         
               The program uses a bmp loader to retrieve data from bmp files.  The loader supports
        different sizes of the bmp files.  The loader does not yet support transparency, and
        performance may suffer if the files are too large.  After loading bmp files, the program
        uses height mapping to build and texture the terrain. As pixel color gets closer to white
        The corresponding vertex is heightened.  As vertex height is increased the texture coordinates
        change.
 
References: 
             Professor Wood's Texture Mapping Lab – Texture Mapping
             http://www.lighthouse3d.com/opengl/terrain/index.php3?heightmap – HeightMapping