Free Terrain Height Map

#21 "I just tell you that his way is not very practical, it depends if you like to export, import, export, import from different tools, I prefer working inside the Torque editor and not switching"

Not very practical ? also way to go on the exaggeration there to try and defend a null point...

probably 9 out of 10 maps i make for myself require no major after editing on the texturing, i do all the work in the first place in two tools, gc2 and photoshop. Once inside torque i only really deal with the height/width scaling of the map to get a natural look. I will only go to photoshop to generally flip it or resave the targa's to dds's. Sometimes i may change small areas on a map, by generating 2 or 3 different textures for the heightmap and then using say a desert one to localize a small area on a larger map into a dryer area... that way it matches up with your heightmap, it blends in perfectly because it is still made to the contours of your terrain and takes literally minutes to do, none of this random fingerpainting for the manual edits you had to do to your heightmap within torque... whats impractical about that ? jesus...

Whats more efficient and practical ? Sitting within torque painting your basetex manually by hand with a repetetive tiled diffuse, or generating a unique one of that terrain.

Yeah L3DT had a smooth transition from editor into torque and used opacity maps to generate the texture layers automatically, I did like L3DT for the terrain generation but the tiled diffuse to basetex way of texturing a terrain just doesent cut it compared to gc2/wm/vue/bryce for terrain textures.

"Maybe not as good as world machine or something like that, but comes pretty close."
No, in my opinion it doesent. Sorry. Also if were talking about practicality and efficiency how much time did it take you sitting there to make those 8 screenshots for something that doesent get to the same level as what you could have made in worldmachine a lot quicker.

"Also I think the fact that a missing texture will wipe the data from the main dds texture is a bug that I will try to fix in a later date. I think the flow should see the missing texture and ask if this is a finalized terrain mAp and lock those levels in place with out clearing the data already backed into the final."
It's not so much a bug, its the fact that youre still using the tools within torque so it is going to treat it like you are still editing it. If you remove the source art used to create the diffuse texture before finalizing a build then it will not know where to look and you get a black texture on the terrain.
When finalizing a level you need to have the basetex.dds in the /levels directory, and any detail/macro maps used to detail the terrain still in the /art directory. you can remove the textures used to do any painting on the basetex but only at the point you will never be going into the painter editor for that map again, ie at release.

#22 @Andy
Chk your email or ping me
pyoskowitz@winterleafentertainment.com

#23 The new rule based terrain automatic terrain painting is a real gift there, this way you can texture your whole map in a few clicks.
But to be honest, I have not checked other terrain generators if they put out layer masks, I just assumed it is some kind of standart, after reading the tutorial for L3DT.

#24 I have read everything here and in the forums I understand more now going to try this out.

#25 Guy's im not sure if you are all still following this but here is what I've gotten from everything you all have said. T3D's support for RGBA-splat maps are awesome!

#26 You see, already looks much better. Do you have the base texture for the whole map in it or is it just texture layers? Does not look so, now you could try modifying the basetex.dds, to see what the difference would be or add it in the materials function.
What you could do now is work on your presentation videos and make them more smooth, since a hectic presentation is not so nice to watch, also you can try the newton/smooth camera (click on the camera symbol).

#27 Kevin if you use Skype add me at fenyx83.

#28 My videos are like that because i keep using different free ones and my system keeps recording so choppy :/ so i toss it in after effects and x2 the video speed.

Also yes im using a 2048 texture but something is wonkey when i enter the texture size i have to enter the number as times 2 the normal size.

Above I have one 2048 texture the same on all 3 layers. and a different detail on the other layers.

No normals as the normals produced from crazy bump got me odd results.

and using a macro texture seems to be over kill for the color layering so i'm working only with details for right now
i have more to play around with this was a hasted toss up. I'm going to carefully select textures that blend together visual wise.

Also I just recently tried the smooth camera and drooled with the added effect it gave me on my hover board. I'm going to have to look into how the settings work for it.


@Andy i usually use email or facebook :/ can never get into messengers anymore.

#29 Macro and detail textures are supposed to be neutral and with no or not much color.

#30 Crazybump can sometimes give some odd results, i now veer more towards using nDo/photoshop for making normals via the diffuse.

Try inverting the axis on thecrazybump generations, also using the default settings rarely gives me the desired results

When layering your detail and macro textures, always bear in mind the multiplication of colours, especially if they are similar textures overlaying each other. Try halving the strength of the layers.

I only mentioned Skype as its a lot easier showing a workflow through screen share than it is describing it

"Macro and detail textures are supposed to be neutral and with no or not much color."
yes, but when you have the diffuse colour, a detail layer and macro layer all overlapping eachother, with the way that the colours from the detail and macro multiply with eachother it can make their contrast strength way too high (light areas overlapping become lighter/brighter, and dark colours overlapping become blacker, but like an over exposed image