Help resources
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This chapter is the help resource of the BSmooth documentation. You normally get to this page via a link in one of the previous chapters and go back where you came from with any of the backlinks at the end of each help topics.


Help! The icons don't show up correctly in the Finder!

If the icons of the example files – or the key file, if you have one – don't appear in the Finder, BSmooth is not yet listed in the Finder's desktop database.

If you try to start an example, the Finder may bring up an error message that says it doesn't find the application that has created this document.

Sometimes it helps to start the BSmooth application once, to ask the Finder for the info about the application file (select it and choose ⌘-I) or to make a simple restart.

If this doesn't help you should rebuild your desktop (which I would recommended to do from time to time anyway).

To do so, you need to restart your Macintosh while holding down the keys ⌘ and . Hold these keys down until you get the rebuild desktop dialog! The dialog does not appear before all your extensions are loaded.

You are asked if the desktop for the volume should be rebuilt. Of course you say "Yes" here, that's why you pressed the keys...

Rebuilding the desktop may need a minute or two on a big hard disk.

 


























How are 16-bit Targa files handled?
As a comfortable way to import detailed data!

16 bit TGAs are interpreted as 16 bit Data and can be used to import your 16 bit data into BSmooth. Writing TGA files is an easy task which can be done in every programming language. One of the next version of this manual will include a C-code snippet that writes out an array in the appropriate format.

If you already need detailed information, please
  


 




























































Calculating RAM requirements
The standard RAM allocation for Bsmooth is 24 MB (real RAM). You don't actually need so much RAM most times, but especially Pixellayer Operations can need a lot of RAM during import. If a Pixellayer doesn't import correctly, increase the RAM amount allocated to BSmooth.
You can calculate the RAM needs by the following formulas:

• for Targa (TGA) files:
      filesize of the biggest imported Targa file + 
      terrainsize * terrainsize *18 + 2 MB

• for PICT Files:
      PictLength * PictWidth * 4 +
      terrainsize * terrainsize *18 + 2 MB

• for Bryce Terrains:
      TerrainLenght * TerrainWidth * 2 +
      terrainsize * terrainsize *18 + 2 MB


Example 1:
The biggest file used is a 3-color + alpha Targa file of 1024 x 1024 pixels (which is about 4MB) and a terrain of 1024 x 1024 should be created....

~ 4 MB + 1024 * 1024 * 18 + 2 MB = 24 MB … right at the max....!


Example 2:
The biggest file used is a Pict file of 4096*4096 pixels (it does not matter if monochrome or color!)

4096*4096 * 4 + terrainsize * terrainsize *18 + 2 MB = 84 MB

Note that a monochrome Targa file of this size imports with "only" 36 MB!