I'm glad I've had a little learning curve time to get out ahead of understanding
FlowScape, or I wouldn't have been able to provide much help...it would have been more like the blind leading the blind, and we'd both end up falling in the book trench....haha. I may release this as a PDF tutorial on ShareCG, since new users all ask the same questions. The creator of the game may very well have intended for the discovery of its features to be part of the program's "mystery". I have not yet explored the texture and terrain options, like raising and lowering the water and terrain levels, and the various sky and water options. It can remain territory for you to conquer on your own. Also, I failed to mention, the icon above the camera, the headphones, second from the bottom, opens up options for music while working.
If you do decide to purchase the program, a few tips:
1. Make sure you hang on to your confirmation email that provides you with links back to your download page, because the program goes through fairly frequent updates, and you'll need to access your download links in order to get the updates.
2, And, it's wise to create a
FlowScape account when given the option, since it links your purchase to your user name on the site, so there's record of your purchase for future updates. My prediction is this program is going to grow, and getting in on it while it's $10 is a good idea. It's already $14.99 on Steam.
3. You have to allow for download time....the last update to version 1.5 was a walloping 3.9 gig. Also, there are no notices when updates are released, so the best way to watch for them is on the
FlowScape home page....scroll down to the bottom of the page in order to see the current version. If you see that it has been updated, then use the link in your confirmation email to navigate to your download page and log in. I've not yet used the download manager...this may be a better option for some. So far I've just downloaded the zip and manually copied the contents into a new FlowScape 64 bit folder.
4. Remember to right click on the program file, and the program icon, in order to give administrator permission each time, or your screen captures will fail to land in your FlowScape directory. If you choose high resolution, and your monitor resolution is high, be aware that screen captures can be over 40 megs each, and mine have been 7104x4000! So when I post a "large" capture, I've already reduced it down quite a bit. There are also panorama capture options as well, that might be great for doing sky dome images. And, one last tip about screen captures....because the program and images take up a lot of space on my drive, I opted to remove version 1.4 when upgrading to 1.5....not thinking how it would impact the scenes I previously saved from 1.4. Fortunately I saved the 1.4 files on a backup drive so if I ever need to access the old files again, I have that option. But just be aware that old saved projects need to be kept safe when upgrading.
Here's a link to the
FlowScape forum in case there are further questions, or curiosity about future development. Have fun!