VistaPro
Ian,
Vistapro can render at resolutions up to 4096×4096 in full 24bit color. At that
resolution it wants at least 48MB of RAM or disk space. At 2000×3000 it would
only need 24MB. If you have enough memory to render entirely in RAM it will
run faster. The more it has to swap to disk the slower it gets. You actually
CAN render at the highest resolutions on a 2MB 386SX16 as long as you have
enough free disk space — I wouldn't recommend it though. If you're happy with
8 bit output it runs in 1/4 those amount of memory.
Vistapro uses lots of fractal algorithms to generate 2D and 3D textures, and
L-Systems to generate 2D and 3D trees. It automatically (with manual control
too) synthesizes more detail as the image size gets larger.
The current version of Vistapro has no antialiasing. What I recommend to
people is to render an image twice as large as they want and shrink it down
with an image processing program that will antialias — most do. I uploaded a
program called HALFTGA.EXE, which does that for Targa-24 files, to VRLI's BBS
for Vistapro users.
You can import images and convert them into landscapes as if they were
topographic maps. Similar to what lots of people do with FRACTINT and POV —
what they call height fields.
I like to think of Vistapro as "Computer Aided Art". It lets anyone create
nice pictures of landscapes without any artistic talent. And it's lots of fun
just going exploring…
I guess that was more than you asked for, but I thought of a few things that I
forgot to mention earlier…
John.