possibilities related to dynamical bumpmapping that are already now
"hidden" in the new 1.2.5preX version of Celestia. Experimenting with
dyn. bumpmapping with /haze/ activated is particularly rewarding.
Welcome to our little virtual (bumpmap & specmap) trip in the Peruvian
Andes;-). We start around sun rise and zoom into South America with
fairly nice weather, apart from a few pitoresque clouds (my clouds;-),
of course). We want to "travel" to the famous Peruvian lakes that are
still not yet illuminated at this early hour near the top leftish part
of the image, and partly hidden by clouds:
Here is an "early morning zoom-in" on where we want to go;-)
After a spectacular trip with the Peruvian railway from Lima through
this "moon-like" landscape and climbing above 5500 m altitude (!) we
arrive during the /afternoon/ quite close to lake Titicaca, the "big
blue" one that you see with nice specular sun reflections in the left
portion of the following image:
Since years ago, I travelled extensively in this area, I still remember
well, how all this looks in reality...
Let us now focus on the three famous lakes that are visible on the image,
lake Titicaca (blue, left),the "small" lake Poopo (geen, middle) and
the fairly large salt desert "lake" (brown, bordered with a salt crust, right),
Salar de Uyuni. I have used Buzz' spec map (for a change) to illustrate
on the one hand how nice the two lakes (Titicaca and the green Poopo)
show the specular sun reflections. On the other hand, you also see,
that he forgot to select /brown/ waters (Salar de Uyuni)...;-)
Another reason for showing these nice views is to illustrate the
dramatically different illumination of the Andes (or other mountain
ranges) that dynamical bumpmapping produces at different times of the
day! Note also, that I have put great care in producing high quality
4k/8k bumpmap files that will soon be available at my Texture Foundry site.
Enjoy,
Bye Fridger
