Animated Terrain Textures?

#1 i think you'll have to wait for shaders ... i think... or you can use a dml as its done for water
not sure

#2 what program do I use to generate dml's?
I am not familiar with dml's :P

#3 dmls are text files... but i dont think you'll be able to use a set of textures with a dml as terrain unless you modify engine code...
anyone else can say something? im not pretty sure about this

#4 I dont know a heck of alot about programming, but Im learning, as Im sure we all are, to some degree or another (thats what life is all about, isn't it? learning). ANYWAYS, from what I've read/seen/heard, animated terrain textures wouldn't be possible due to the blender code. As far as I know, the blender code kinda blends the textures (duh), and applies said texture to the ground quad. What I mean is, if it was animated, the blender would be trying to RE-blend each tick.

I too wanted to have animated ground textures, to simulate swaying grass, but...

Env-mapped ground textures would be nice too, because you could simulate water puddles, or glossy ice patches. That too, would possibly cause blender problems.

Mark F, would probably have the best insight there.



deRost

#5 Calling Mark F...
could you please pick up this thread

#6 Animating the terrain textures isn't really possible given the current blending system... basically terrain textures are blended together and cached for use over multiple frames - so an animated texture would force a recache on every frame.

#7 Hrmm...well thats no good :(
Do you have any suggestions on how to get around this problem?

Would it kill the engine if I were to use a static object instead of the terrain? (I am too lazy to actually test it :P)

#8 If you aren't trying to animate the whole countryside you could try laying down a large "sheet" on the ground and animating that. Ot you could create a very thin layer of "water" and change the water animation texture to be what you want.

I believe someone came up with the idea of using a low level of "water" texture, eliminated the splash and used a grass texture to try and create a moving field of grass.

Just some ideas to get you thinking of other ways to accomplish your goal.

#9 thx for the tip

#10 There are animated textures in Ogre which is a free source engine SDK, Ive been looking at that a bit and seeing if there is a way to mod the torque engine a bit and integrate a similar method. Though havent really gotten around to it much yet.. Ill post something in here if I come up with a solid hack

#11 You may create a flat DTS with an animated texture and lay it on the ground.

#12 Just remember, you will need to use a DIF format if you want to have concave areas of terrain, and that may be difficult giving that you need to use brushes rather then editing. Or just use polysoup.