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IMPORTANT MAPS INFO - UPDATED 2025-MAY-04-SUN

The POV-Ray Lunar Explorer program script uses lots of RAM and CPU/GPU power
processing overhead.

A fast (preferably multi-core) CPU, lots of RAM and a high-end graphics card
are recommended for optimal results.

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POV-RAY RENDER WARNINGS

Warnings about the possibility of holes in the rendered image due to maximum
gradient value conflicts can generally be ignored as harmless and seems to
cause no rendering problems with any apparent visible holes.

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IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT THE DEM (DIGITAL ELEVATION MODEL)

THE DEM (DIGITAL ELEVATION MODEL) MAPS MUST NOT BE TAMPERED WITH OR ALTERED.
THESE ARE THE ONLY MAPS TO WHICH THIS RESTRICTION APPLIES FOR THE TECHINCAL
REASONS GIVEN BELOW.

The DEM file is called:
lunar-surface-DEM.png

A DEM map is created to exacting specifications and not simply an oversized
grayscale image.  It affects all the rendered scenes and should never be
altered.

It provides a very accurate model of the lunar surface altimetry or the
elevation of all the mapped points on the lunar surface texture maps.

This map should NOT be altered and especially NOT CONVERTED from PNG
(Portable Network Graphic) into any another file format, such as JPEG,
or resized.

Every pixel at every coordinate counts because the gray scale at any point
indicates the elevation of the corresponding texture map point to which it
is applied.  The lighter the shade, the higher the elevation of the corre-
sponding texture map pixel with black being the lowest elevation and white
being the highest elevation.   The shade of gray of each pixel is critical
to computing the elevation of the corresponding surface texture point at
the same coordinates.

Conversion to JPEG would destroy the DEM map by altering the pixel colors,
even if not visibly to the eye, so it should remain as-is, in PNG format,
for the most precise 3D lunar surface form compliance.

The elevated points, integrated over the entire surface, casts the shadows
in the 3D phase-shaded surface relief showing the craters, mountains,
valleys, maria and other features with very realistic shading with
respect to the applied phase angle.

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All of the other texture maps can be in any of several different formats,
as per convenience, namely, the BMP, GIF, JPG, PNG and TGA formats.  For
the best results, only the highest quality texture images should be used.

GIF and JPEG are not the best suited for 3D rendering.  PNG, BMP or TGA are
the recommended texture map image file formats for highest quality results.

For JPEG or GIF formats, it is best to convert the final rendering to those
formats afterward, keeping backups of the originals.

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