Fractalization
GenesisII generates photorealistic and schematic images of landscapes from geographic data. It also supports a wide range of auxiliary functions to support this and related tasks, for example VRML Modelling and Terrain Editing.

Fractal Editor

Fractalization
This set of parameters control the basic fractalization of the landscape.

• Depth: Fractalization level applied. When set to zero no fractalization is applied. Increasing this parameter increases the surface detail but also increases rendering times. A fractal depth of 1 or 2 is usually sufficient to explore a landscape, with a setting of 3 or greater being used for final images. Some features may not be available at level 0, but as drawing times are only a few seconds it is usually used for initial exploration. The Fractal Depth and Enhance parameters may also be set directly from the Fractal renderer window's toolbar.
• Edge fuzzyness: Controls the fuzzyness of the tree line and snow line boundaries, plus graduation within these.
• Seed values: Set of four seed values controlling fractalization. Each set of four values gives a unique, reproducable, surface.
• Snow Line: Position of snow line as a percentage of minimum to maximum height value.
• Tree Line: Position of tree line as a percentage of minimum to maximum height value.

Standard Colors
The default or standard colors displayed on the landscape surface. GenesisII two broadly colors a landscape using two alltitude related color gradients, but considerable fractalization may be introduced into this. The shape of the gradients are determined by the tree and snow line parameters. Gradients are also created for surface parameters such as roughness, specularity etc.

• Copy: Copies the primary gradient to the secondary.
• Generate: Generates suggested rock, shoreline and sky colors for this project.
• Colors: Set gradient colors.
• Roughness: Surface roughness.
• Shininess: Shininess of the surface.
• Specularity: Highlight reflections.
• Emission: Emission characteristics.
• Spread Colors: When checked colors are evenly spread between the first and second color button clicked on.
• Bias: Controls the bias of mixing between the primry and secondary color gradients.

Special Colors
Similar to the standard colors, but used for special surface types - rock, shoreline and snow (water is set elsewhere). Parameters are as standard colors.

Valley Effect
Ecological conditions in a valley are often different to those found elsewhere, and this set of parameters controls how GenesisII will handle this.

• Enabled: Switches valley effect processing on/off
• Override Terrains: When checked overrides specific Terrain color processing.
• Valley Criticality: Controls how significant the valley effect will be. A high value produces lush, greener valleys.

Cliff Effect
Steep landscapes will often have surface rocks and cliffs. GenesisII automatically add these based on the surface characteristics.

• Enabled: Switches valley effect processing on/off
• Override Terrains: When checked overrides specific Terrain color processing.
• Cliff Criticality: Controls how easily rocks break through the surface. Higher values increase the occurrence of rocky ground.