Megaterrains default scale?
by Ryan Jaeger · in Torque Game Engine · 04/23/2008 (2:18 pm) · 8 replies
Does anyone know the default scale in kilometers of the megaterrain tiles?
#2
If you decide on 1m=1unit, then that's ~2km per block.
04/23/2008 (3:42 pm)
Legacy terrains are 256x256 at squareSize units per vertex. squareSize defaults to 8, so that's 8 units per vertex or 2048 units per terrain block.If you decide on 1m=1unit, then that's ~2km per block.
#3
04/23/2008 (5:41 pm)
The mega terrains default stretch is 64, so I assume that is 16km? Unless 64 = 8 for mega terrains.
#4
MegaTerrains just use legacy terrain blocks stitched together and these blocks employ the metrics above. MegaTerrains themselves don't have special settings on their own--they are just a generic SimGroup of terrain blocks for which the engine has some special processing logic.
So with a 2x2 MegaTerrain at the default settings, you get ~4km^2 of terrain (well, the meter=unit thing is completely arbitrary, so "meters" in fact has no real meaning per se here).
04/23/2008 (6:50 pm)
Stretch? Not sure I understand what you mean here.MegaTerrains just use legacy terrain blocks stitched together and these blocks employ the metrics above. MegaTerrains themselves don't have special settings on their own--they are just a generic SimGroup of terrain blocks for which the engine has some special processing logic.
So with a 2x2 MegaTerrain at the default settings, you get ~4km^2 of terrain (well, the meter=unit thing is completely arbitrary, so "meters" in fact has no real meaning per se here).
#5
Of course, there's always the possibility that I'm mistaken here and overlooking something.
04/23/2008 (7:01 pm)
Doing a quick search revealed that GG states the dimensions for the T3D demo (which uses the above settings) to be 8km^2. Don't know how they get to this number, though.Of course, there's always the possibility that I'm mistaken here and overlooking something.
#6
I think they have 8km^2 because they tiled 4 blocks together for that demo (shown here: http://www.vimeo.com/858429), and that your answer of 2km^2 per block is correct. :)
04/23/2008 (7:33 pm)
I haven't got a chance to play around with the Megaterrains yet, I've awaiting my coder to get a compile up on our SVN so I can start mapping... He said when made the terrain block its block size was 64, but he may have been reading something else.I think they have 8km^2 because they tiled 4 blocks together for that demo (shown here: http://www.vimeo.com/858429), and that your answer of 2km^2 per block is correct. :)
#7
Your programmer may have modified the block size to be 64, but that would be a very odd move (would also break a few things, I suppose). Torque ships with a value of 256.
Was indeed referring to that video. However, looks like stock 1.7 T3D to me and that demo uses a 4 blocks (2x2) MegaTerrain. Doing the math on it, that's 4km^2 of terrain and not 8km^2.
Anyways, that whole square kilometers thing isn't that important. Just play with the values and see what gives you the results you desire.
Be aware, though, that MegaTerrains may not be a good fit to do large terrains (despite its name). If you find yourself stitching lots of terrain blocks together, you are probably better off with Atlas.
MegaTerrains incur a hefty cost in terms of resource utilization. Clip maps really are not supposed to be used the way they are in the case of MT.
Atlas *will* expose you to its own set of problems, but in the end things will pay off by having much better looks and performance.
Also, I think in-engine editing of terrain is much overrated. It's a nice feature to have but Torque's terrain editor really can't compare to a real terrain editor meaning that by using a full-blown external solution you further increase the quality of your terrain. Just think of erosion.
04/23/2008 (8:19 pm)
(Shitfox would be the worst crap browser, if it wasn't for IE... just ate my post)Your programmer may have modified the block size to be 64, but that would be a very odd move (would also break a few things, I suppose). Torque ships with a value of 256.
Was indeed referring to that video. However, looks like stock 1.7 T3D to me and that demo uses a 4 blocks (2x2) MegaTerrain. Doing the math on it, that's 4km^2 of terrain and not 8km^2.
Anyways, that whole square kilometers thing isn't that important. Just play with the values and see what gives you the results you desire.
Be aware, though, that MegaTerrains may not be a good fit to do large terrains (despite its name). If you find yourself stitching lots of terrain blocks together, you are probably better off with Atlas.
MegaTerrains incur a hefty cost in terms of resource utilization. Clip maps really are not supposed to be used the way they are in the case of MT.
Atlas *will* expose you to its own set of problems, but in the end things will pay off by having much better looks and performance.
Also, I think in-engine editing of terrain is much overrated. It's a nice feature to have but Torque's terrain editor really can't compare to a real terrain editor meaning that by using a full-blown external solution you further increase the quality of your terrain. Just think of erosion.
#8
The block size is a value that you change in the inspector view... In TGE the default (BlockSize) was 8, he told me when he spawned the terrain he said it was 64, or 64 units per vertex.
Thanks for the replies!
04/24/2008 (12:18 am)
Quote:Your programmer may have modified the block size to be 64, but that would be a very odd move (would also break a few things, I suppose). Torque ships with a value of 256.
The block size is a value that you change in the inspector view... In TGE the default (BlockSize) was 8, he told me when he spawned the terrain he said it was 64, or 64 units per vertex.
Quote:Was indeed referring to that video. However, looks like stock 1.7 T3D to me and that demo uses a 4 blocks (2x2) MegaTerrain. Doing the math on it, that's 4km^2 of terrain and not 8km^2.Yeah that's correct, oops... Not thinking right.
Quote:Anyways, that whole square kilometers thing isn't that important. Just play with the values and see what gives you the results you desire.Yeah I guess It's all relative to what you want to do...
Quote:Be aware, though, that MegaTerrains may not be a good fit to do large terrains (despite its name). If you find yourself stitching lots of terrain blocks together, you are probably better off with Atlas.Atlas isn't an option for us because you can't sculpt it after it is imported, and you can't make holes with stock TGEA.
Thanks for the replies!
Ryan Jaeger