Terrain Data Format

#1 If you design your fractal generator to export files as greyscale bitmaps then those bitmaps can be easily imported into the V12 terraformer.

#2 Hmmm. Right now I'm generating an offset type triangle mesh. Don't suppose it'll import one of them?

#3 Not as far as I know, and I've been dinking around with the terraformer quite a bit these past few weeks. One of the V12 beta testers might know something about how the engine handles it's fractal landscapes.

I still think it would be a good idea to add something to your app to create a greyscale of the 3D topography. Image format wouldn't matter since you could always convert it to BMP later.

Got a question though. Why are you wanting to make your landscape generator create Tribes2\V12 compatable landscapes when the terraformer built into the engine already has a fractal landscape generator? It's a pretty good one too, reminds me allot of working in the Bryce series of 3D design programs.

#4 I'm doing it this way because I want to create an essentially limitless terrain that is generated procedurally at runtime. There is no need for terrain editors in my applicaton as there will be no buildings or trees or anything like that.

Jake

PS - I've got Tribes 2, but I can't seem to find the terrain editor or the mission editor or any of that stuff in there. Where do I get those?

#5 Open up the console hit "~" and type editor.open();/n
This should open up the mission/terrain editor, although it's quite cryptic to use at the moment.

#6 Im not a programmer but I have played with the Tribes2 landscape editor.
It draws the hieght from a 256x256 greyscale image.
I would say it would be quite some work to change how it draws the triangles.
We are doing a large world rpg and would love to use some sort of continuous terrain.
We wont be looking at this yet but if you get something going We'de love to help out.

Caliban

#7 Jake Hill:

Quote:
I'm doing it this way because I want to create an essentially limitless terrain that is generated procedurally at runtime. There is no need for terrain editors in my applicaton as there will be no buildings or trees or anything like that.

I would think it a lot easier to come up with na algorithm that would generate a nice grayscale bitmap than a triangle terrain layout :) It might even be easier to customise too, Don't want spiky terrain? limit the color change to a small range, want canyons? let it go nuts. Neat stuff :) I wanted to do something similar to this a long time ago, but never got around to it. (That was still in my QBasic days, so it has been quite a while :D )

Shawn:

Quote:
Open up the console hit "~" and type editor.open();/n
This should open up the mission/terrain editor, although it's quite cryptic to use at the moment.

And, it never works for me :( It always complains about something along the lines of a bad command or something. What version do you have that it works in? (and, where do you have to be to start it, in game, at the main menu, ?? )

Jason

#8 http://tribes2maps.com has some GREAT tutorial of which "Zear's Tut." has a link to where he graciously supplies a "BlankMission" mission file that is just the basics. I'd recommend making a copy and naming it whatever your game is.

Open up the LAN part of single/LAN.
Go into settings and under time limit put 999 (this can also be done while in-game via the escape menu. Select "Unlimited time" here.)
Pick which scenerio (ie:BlankMission) you'd like to use, but make sure there are no bots.
Once inside the game, hit the tilde (~) key. Type 'editor.open();' (no quotes, and I don't know about the /n afterwords). Hit the tilde key again to remove the command line... and now go at it!

Terrain files are .png and must be stored in the ...\base\terrains\heightfield\ directory. They should be 256x256x256-greyscale. Most of the maps in tribes2 are .ter files, so I would suppose they would work as well.

~~Good luck!

#9 The terrains in Tribes 2 and the v12 are limitless and procedurally generated.