Highly detailed terrains?
by Stabbing Pixies · in Torque Game Engine · 02/04/2007 (7:56 am) · 3 replies
Hiya!
Simple question from a new recruit:
I am playing around with the terrain generator, and although Im finding it a lot of fun to push and squish, I just don't get the results I want: it remains blocky, there are limits to using the textures I want and generally the process seems rather limited, compared to third party tools (I'm demoing Geosync, L3DT and terragen).
I wish to import highly detailed massive pre-textured terrains into TGE - and I guess I'm not the first person to want to do this (I see lots of related stuff on the forum).
I was looking at freeworld 3d with the idea of terrain painting: It has a lot of functionality that seems easier to use than the TGE terrain gen.
Has somebody got a work pipeline for this kind of thing that they would care to share? Am I missing something with the TGE terrain engine?
My slightly technical questions are:
Does importing a terrain mean bypassing the terrain editor altogether? How does this work with LOD issues? Can an imported object be used to replace the terrain altogether?
Must an entire terrain (+bitmap texture files) load into memory with the object, or can it load in segments on a need-to-know basis?
Is there a way to use the terrain generator more effectivley (bigger, more detailed textures) that would make this importing work redundant?
What are you guys doing to get realistic and massive terrains?
Lastly:
I am not an artist by any means, and just want a level: a volcanic island, generated with a combination of Geosync and terragen, to use as a starter level for the alpha project.
Can someone give me a helpful shove in the right direction?
Cheers,
mike.
Simple question from a new recruit:
I am playing around with the terrain generator, and although Im finding it a lot of fun to push and squish, I just don't get the results I want: it remains blocky, there are limits to using the textures I want and generally the process seems rather limited, compared to third party tools (I'm demoing Geosync, L3DT and terragen).
I wish to import highly detailed massive pre-textured terrains into TGE - and I guess I'm not the first person to want to do this (I see lots of related stuff on the forum).
I was looking at freeworld 3d with the idea of terrain painting: It has a lot of functionality that seems easier to use than the TGE terrain gen.
Has somebody got a work pipeline for this kind of thing that they would care to share? Am I missing something with the TGE terrain engine?
My slightly technical questions are:
Does importing a terrain mean bypassing the terrain editor altogether? How does this work with LOD issues? Can an imported object be used to replace the terrain altogether?
Must an entire terrain (+bitmap texture files) load into memory with the object, or can it load in segments on a need-to-know basis?
Is there a way to use the terrain generator more effectivley (bigger, more detailed textures) that would make this importing work redundant?
What are you guys doing to get realistic and massive terrains?
Lastly:
I am not an artist by any means, and just want a level: a volcanic island, generated with a combination of Geosync and terragen, to use as a starter level for the alpha project.
Can someone give me a helpful shove in the right direction?
Cheers,
mike.
About the author
#2
I guess for me the amount of detail would be a priority over "vastness" of a terrain: basically I want to be able to create lifelike landscape vistas, with multiple detailed textures, and quite complex polygon modelling.
TBH I am no programmer and with the message on the forums seeming to be "TGEA is not for Noobs!" I am kinda scared of it :-)
Does TGEA offer anything to a novice game designer?
OTOH: I see people referring to its art pipeline as actually being easier to work with than TGE. Can you confirm this?
Money isn't an issue, but time is and I would like to get a simple, but good looking alpha off the ground. Is TGEA the way to go?
Can anyone make a recommendation? Or detail the differences between TGE and TGEA a little more?
What does the TGEA terrain generation pipeline look like? Anyone importing detailed terrains /large textures INTO the engine?
Inquisitively yours :-)
Mike in Norway.
02/04/2007 (3:25 pm)
Thanks for the response Stephan,I guess for me the amount of detail would be a priority over "vastness" of a terrain: basically I want to be able to create lifelike landscape vistas, with multiple detailed textures, and quite complex polygon modelling.
TBH I am no programmer and with the message on the forums seeming to be "TGEA is not for Noobs!" I am kinda scared of it :-)
Does TGEA offer anything to a novice game designer?
OTOH: I see people referring to its art pipeline as actually being easier to work with than TGE. Can you confirm this?
Money isn't an issue, but time is and I would like to get a simple, but good looking alpha off the ground. Is TGEA the way to go?
Can anyone make a recommendation? Or detail the differences between TGE and TGEA a little more?
What does the TGEA terrain generation pipeline look like? Anyone importing detailed terrains /large textures INTO the engine?
Inquisitively yours :-)
Mike in Norway.
#3
I just checked over the TDN.
You can export heighfields and texture from Terragen.
There is also mention of Freeworld and L3DT (but check for the shop, there is something coming along for this one).
For some things you will have to master code integration over existing code.
From the TDN:
On a side note: take a look at some of T-Squared post about the terrain, he made some tests with a smaller SquareSize to gain detail.
The lowest the number the higher the detail, but the smaller the terrain.
Beware of water artifacts.
02/05/2007 (6:34 am)
Mike, I just checked over the TDN.
You can export heighfields and texture from Terragen.
There is also mention of Freeworld and L3DT (but check for the shop, there is something coming along for this one).
For some things you will have to master code integration over existing code.
From the TDN:
Quote:Torque has always been known as an engine with superior support for outdoor scenes. The cornerstone of this support has always been robust terrain engines - from Starsiege to Tribes 2, terrain has been a major component of Torque games.
With this in mind, TSE as of Milestone 2 has two distinct terrain engines. The first, the legacy terrain engine, is simply a port of the TGE fixed function terrain engine, with some optimizations for shader-enabled cards. The second, the Atlas terrain engine is a rewrite from the ground up, designed to support very large visible distances, expansive terrain datasets, and large, unique textures.
On a side note: take a look at some of T-Squared post about the terrain, he made some tests with a smaller SquareSize to gain detail.
The lowest the number the higher the detail, but the smaller the terrain.
Beware of water artifacts.
Torque Owner Stephan - viKKing - Bondier
TGEA allow extremely large terrains, I also suppose it has a better level of detail, though I never digged into it as it is not supporting Open GL yet.