Program Settings

Program settings let you determine the unit of measurement, 3D graphics options, and auto file saving. These options are global to the program, not to a specific landscape design.

Unit of measurement

Select the units you want to use for distance measurements. You can change this option at any time. See Entering Distances, below, for more information.

3D Graphics

If your video card supports Realtime Landscaping Photo's minimum requirements for 3D hardware acceleration, then the Hardware acceleration option will be available. If things aren't rendering properly or the program is crashing, try turning off hardware acceleration.

Important: If you change the Hardware acceleration setting, then you need to stop and restart Realtime Landscaping Photo before you change will take affect.

If hardware acceleration is available, then you can click Hardware settings for some 3D hardware-specific rendering options:

Light coronas
(Not currently used.)

Gamma correction
Enables gamma correction when printing. This helps the graphics appear more crisp and vivid. However, on some printers this may cause the scene to appear overly bright and colorful, so you may need to turn off this option.

Anti-aliasing
Enables anti-aliasing, if supported by your video card. Anti-aliasing helps smooth jagged edges that can occur during rendering. However, this can decrease the rendering performance, so try turning this option off if the program is running slowly.

Improved texture filtering
Enables anisotropic texture filtering, if supported by your video card. This helps large flat surfaces to appear less blurry when viewed at an angle.

Advanced lighting effects
Enables specular highlights and other advanced lighting effects if supported by your video card.

Auto file save

Select this option to automatically save your landscape design at predefined intervals. You can enter the desired number of minutes between saves. This option is turned off by default.

Highlight object under cursor

When this option is enabled, the object under the cursor will display a highlighted outline to show you what will be selected if you click. This option is on by default.

Color scheme

Use this option to change the landscaping software's user interface scheme. Several schemes are included, such as brushed metal (the default), teak, and several solid-color schemes.