| Mount Rainier is a huge dormant volcano, towering in isolation above the surrounding forested highlands. It is the largest mountain of the Cascade range, and it is more glaciated than any other peak in the contiguous United States. Five glaciers originate on the summit, and there are many others that have developed in cirques on the mountain's slopes. The Emmons Glacier is the largest glacier in the contiguous United States, flowing six miles from the summit down the northeast slopes. Rainier's giant ice-cap often seems to float above the horizon when seen from Puget Sound, sixty miles away. Rainier's two ice-filled summit craters each support a network of ice caverns, carved by heat and volcanic emissions from inside the mountain. Mount Baker and Mount Wrangell are the only other peaks in North America who are known to support such phenomena. Despite the enormous amount of ice on Rainier, however, this is only part of the beauty. The slopes hold lush conifer forests, and above treeline, the glaciers are surrounded by alpine meadows that are decorated with vast stretches of wild flowers. A fifty-mile wildflower belt encircles the mountain at around 5,400 feet. README.TXT:
Thank you for purchasing a Maness-Allen Terrain Model. Be sure to read the important notes at the end of this ReadMe. This highly flexible terrain model includes a variable resolution elevation object, based on 10 Meter Digital Elevation Model data and three very detailed textures. You can adjust the grid density of the elevation object in 3DS Max to suit your needs. We recommend no denser a grid than 10 meter, as further subdivision won't yield better topographical fidelity. When you load the file initially, the grid is set to 50 meters, to speed loading on slower machines. Select the TerrainModel Object, then the Elevation in the modifier stack and adjust the grid density to suit your needs. The .3DS and .DXF formats do not support the elevation object, and so are saved with a fixed 10 meter grid. The textures are USGS Topographical, USGS 1 Meter Greyscale and NASA Landsat 7 Visible. The Landsat images are of somewhat lower resolution than the USGS, but are sufficiently sharp for most purposes and have been color corrected to true color. Be sure to download the textures you need in the attached file section. They are packaged separately to keep the download sizes reasonable. The complete package includes: In RELEASE.ZIP:
Rainier_R5.max (or .3ds)
SunsetSky.jpg
BlueSky.jpg
GreySky.jpg
Rainier1MeterGrey_LowRes.jpg
RainierLandSat7Visible_LowRes.jpg
RainierUSGSTopo_LowRes.jpg High Resolution Texture Files:
Rainier1MeterGrey.jpg (Rainier1MeterGrey.zip)
RainierLandSat7Visible.jpg (RainierLandsat7Visible.zip)
RainierUSGSTopo.tga (RainierUSGSTopo.zip) IMPORTANT NOTE:
To use the larger bitmap textures, you MUST activate bitmap paging in MAX. Go to the Customize->Preferences menu, then select the bitmap tab. Check the 'Bitmap Pager' option then close and restart MAX. The larger bitmaps will now load. UVW Mapping Note:
The textures are orthorectified and adjusted to exactly match the elevation object. If you are translating or importing this file, you should apply a planar UVW mapping to your object with no scaling or other adjustments. The image textures should map correctly, regardless of the rendering application. | 
)
)
)
)
)
)
