How to create rocks/cliffs ?

Slappy

22-01-2008 21:01:56

Hi
I would like to create some similiar map to this:
http://st.fri.uniza.sk/~slapka/zpw/mapa1.jpg

(It is from Commandos 1 datadisc)

I read the old ETM topic (but still 10 pages remain) but I could not find it there.

So:: is it possible to make rocks/cliffs? and what textures should I use and so on...
If anybody made something similiar pls post some picture

CABAListic

22-01-2008 22:40:23

Well, ETM is based on heightmaps, and heightmaps definitely can't create such structure. You can make "cliffs" in so far that you can make a very strong height difference. But it would be more like a wall without a rock structure.
The graphics of Commandos 1 is 2D based, so their rocks are really just nice a 2D texture. If you plan for a *fixed* camera view, then you might be able to do a similar trick with good textures. Otherwise you'll have to model your terrain and not use heightmaps.

SongOfTheWeave

24-01-2008 00:42:07

Hi
I would like to create some similiar map to this:
http://st.fri.uniza.sk/~slapka/zpw/mapa1.jpg

(It is from Commandos 1 datadisc)

I read the old ETM topic (but still 10 pages remain) but I could not find it there.

So:: is it possible to make rocks/cliffs? and what textures should I use and so on...
If anybody made something similiar pls post some picture


The way to create a true 3d environment with the desired features (boulders, rocks, buildings) is to place Entity or StaticGeometry instances around your ETM terrain.

You'll have to model the Boulders/rocks/buildings with a 3d modeling program (like blender or 3dsMax) and export them to .mesh and .material files, then place them artistically around your terrain to create the effect you want.

Edit: What I am saying, is basically what CABAListic said, in different words. ETM doesn't do this. ETM just does terrain. Editable terrain. Hence the name. To get the sort of thing you want you need to build other aspects of your application in addition to the ETM.

Slappy

25-01-2008 17:40:21

Thanks to all...
I think the best way is to use static geometry
My idea is that I will save all terrain elements (like rocks) in .scene format with other static geometry (like houses and trees etc)
For smaller elements I will create a texture

And at the end I decided to make an easier map:
http://st.fri.uniza.sk/~slapka/zpw/mapa2.jpg :)

Nauk

26-01-2008 08:01:46

Hi, I have noticed you can compensate the stretching effect a little with taking a contrasty texture and stretching out the cliff not too steep and not too long in one go, rather shape them in smaller terrasses / stairs:





Here is the rock-texture, feel free to use it:


I am using ETM 2.2 with a tilesize of 513 and my terrain is 15000x15000.

Hope that helps a bit. :)

Nauk

SongOfTheWeave

26-01-2008 08:38:17

I am using ETM 2.2 with a tilesize of 513 and my terrain is 15000x15000.

15000x15000 verticies?! O.O

Or is that Ogre units?

*immediately goes to create an area that big to see how it runs.*

Nauk

26-01-2008 09:01:25

good question, i dont think it is vertices or is it? :)

ET::TerrainInfo terrainInfo (513, 513, vector<float>(513*513, 0.5f));

terrainInfo.setExtents(AxisAlignedBox(0, 0, 0, 15000, 5000, 15000));

After toying around for quite a while between hughe enough terrain and still acceptable framerate I came to this. Goal was to create a terrain that roughly takes around 5 minutes to cross at normal character walk speed in each direction.

CABAListic

26-01-2008 09:07:47

It's 513^2 vertices, the 15000 are Ogre units. That should be no problem at all for performance :)

Nauk

26-01-2008 09:11:14

Getting 200+ FPS on modern Systems, around 50 to 100 on mine which is Geforce 6800/512, 3.6 ghz athlon singlecore and 2 gig ram. Although i had to up the max pixel error a bit to 10. What seems to draw more performance tho is the height of 5000 units.

CABAListic

26-01-2008 09:14:33

As already mentioned, with ETM v3 I'm planning to do custom culling of unused terrain tiles. In your screenshots, there are probably quite a few rendered behind the cliff even though they are not visible. Octree culling can't really know that, though. With a specialised culling strategy for terrain, you might therefore get even more performance.

Nauk

26-01-2008 09:46:28

Aye lots of it, I am really looking forward to that one :), since with all the things we still have to implement we are going to need every single FPS at the end.

SongOfTheWeave

26-01-2008 10:09:15

For anyone interested, I just created a terrain sized at 3200^2 with 32^2 tiles (Yes, that's a bad choice at this size but I don't have the tile size easily exposed in my editor.)

performance went straight to sucksville. That's pretty much what I expected though.

Luckilly I just applied the tile delete mTerrain fix or I'd be rebooting right about now.

---

Oh for the love of lightmap generation!

Nauk

29-01-2008 21:56:47

who can make the biggest terrain and still can post the results on the boards while the app is running tests? :) hehe