There was a moment in this entire process, after I'd completed my first whole-UK mesh reduction run and compiled the data files, and loaded my basic viewer, when I realised the beauty of what I'd created. I loaded up all the UK data in a single view, and positioned myself at Ben Nevis and looked South.
The frame rate was 32 FPS and the texture and mesh reduction strategies, as well as a very efficient scavenging algorithm meant that only 70MB of video card memory was being used (although this figure is a bit vague since the video cards don't accurately report their actual memory, but some algorithm based on their compression capabilities).
The following WMV format movies provide a slightly muddy view of what the user experiences.
Ben Nevis Rotation (1mb), Ben Nevis Rotation (4mb)
Then my hard disk drive crashed.
Disaster. I had an IBM Deskstar hard disk drive which started to sound like this - this is the "IBM DeathStar Click Of Death". The drive was permanently destroyed.
One long night restoring backups and I was back three weeks and feeling ever so slightly down in the dumps.
Then I compared my computer generated images with real pictures I'd take on walks
I hit on the idea of buying up some aerial photography and applying the same texture processing as I had for the map rasters, and looked again.
I may not be standing in the same simulated spot, and the haze in the photograph is missing, but he simulation was perfect.
I was now ready to make this landscape simulation useful to backpackers like myself.
The British Landscape Explorer Story
First Steps - The VB6 DirectX COM Wrapper
First Landscapes - VB6
The Managed DirectX 9
Mesh Madness
Towards the Product
Adding Features
The Finished Article