Terrain in Blender 2.5 + T3d?
by Peder Husom · in Artist Corner · 05/16/2011 (6:20 pm) · 7 replies
Hi
I recently found a pretty good tutorial on how to create a mountain side with Blender 2.5 and its sculpting feature. And atm. I'm not that happy with how my mountain made in the Torque 3D terrain edtior looks. So I was thinking of creating my mountain side in blender then using that in T3d.
Problem number one..
My current version of the mountain got about 20-30mill polys(or verts, tris, I alway mix'em up) but its going to surround the whole map. Will T3d handle this? I'm currently at a GeForce 8600.
I recently found a pretty good tutorial on how to create a mountain side with Blender 2.5 and its sculpting feature. And atm. I'm not that happy with how my mountain made in the Torque 3D terrain edtior looks. So I was thinking of creating my mountain side in blender then using that in T3d.
Problem number one..
My current version of the mountain got about 20-30mill polys(or verts, tris, I alway mix'em up) but its going to surround the whole map. Will T3d handle this? I'm currently at a GeForce 8600.
About the author
#2
Ive implemented huge models into t3d and it will handle a lot. You have to thing of your target audience though, if your minimum requirements are too much then that will stop a lot of people from buying your game.
[edit] but either way you should try making a new terrain with less subdivisions. it will still look great. Its very hard to notice a difference in a hill that has 30mil polys vs a terrain with 1 mil polys. its not worth the lag it causes on the system.
[double edit hah] and think about how you are going to blend your mountains into the torque terrain, use foliage or ground cover, etc... It gets pretty hard to blend modeled mountains into your torque terrain. Unless you are importing a whole terrain and not using torque terrain at all. Then you will have to worry about your collision box, if you dont have a collision set up and you set it to visible it will cause horrible lag.
05/16/2011 (7:06 pm)
It should work with your card depending on how many other objects are in the game. Break it up into about 10 different sections and place them seperatly, then add a fog into your level and change your draw distance on when you will see the model. That way it's not trying to render the whole mountain at all times, only the pieces closest to you are rendering. Ive implemented huge models into t3d and it will handle a lot. You have to thing of your target audience though, if your minimum requirements are too much then that will stop a lot of people from buying your game.
[edit] but either way you should try making a new terrain with less subdivisions. it will still look great. Its very hard to notice a difference in a hill that has 30mil polys vs a terrain with 1 mil polys. its not worth the lag it causes on the system.
[double edit hah] and think about how you are going to blend your mountains into the torque terrain, use foliage or ground cover, etc... It gets pretty hard to blend modeled mountains into your torque terrain. Unless you are importing a whole terrain and not using torque terrain at all. Then you will have to worry about your collision box, if you dont have a collision set up and you set it to visible it will cause horrible lag.
#3
05/17/2011 (5:09 am)
You can retopo the terrain and then use one of the Environment Packs. Then it's like Jordan said, except that you don't have to do a new terrain from the scratch. 
#4
05/17/2011 (5:14 am)
With the retopo lost the dettail. THe best way is export the heightmap and use this with the T3D terrain system. HERE AN TUTORIAL for export an mesh as heigmap.
#5
How is the culling in T3d? If my weapon is blocking like 1/4 of the screen - then that 1/4 behind the weapon shouldn't draw, or?
05/17/2011 (9:29 am)
Hm-m, was working on this today. My current problem is now; caves and stuff like that?..How is the culling in T3d? If my weapon is blocking like 1/4 of the screen - then that 1/4 behind the weapon shouldn't draw, or?
#6
Caves theoretically work, but there is now easy-to-use prebuilt for that. It has to be coded yourself, but the terrain is capable of doing it.
For the culling, as far as I know it only works with volumes. So it doesn't work by blocking the screen with the weapon, unless a whole object is covered by it.
05/17/2011 (12:40 pm)
Alfio's way is even better.Caves theoretically work, but there is now easy-to-use prebuilt for that. It has to be coded yourself, but the terrain is capable of doing it.
For the culling, as far as I know it only works with volumes. So it doesn't work by blocking the screen with the weapon, unless a whole object is covered by it.
#7
05/17/2011 (6:23 pm)
You can delete a hole in the terrain, create rocks to put around it (as in the entrance to a cave). Then design a cave in a modeling program or pay for arteria3d's cave pack and just plant it under the terrain. Ive messed around with deleting holes in the terrain a little bit, but never tried really testing it so im not sure how stable it is. 
Torque Owner Alfio Saitta
Collateral Studios