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Work in Progress / BlitzTerrain

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Indicium
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Posted: 15th Aug 2010 01:12 Edited at: 15th Aug 2010 02:05
Ah now i see them lol

BTW kaedroho, when you releasing RTTMS? I've got a nice little editor ready for it.

I'll show you on msn or something x'D

edit - LOD seems to have an issue with deleted terrains, i can show you code if you need it.

Duffer
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Posted: 15th Aug 2010 11:42
@ Kaedroho,

Great news about the RTTMS commands... Are you envisioning with these commants to paint at vertex level? Also, referring back a few pages, some sort of command to allow us to paint at vertex level on the terrain (or adjust height) by reference to camera x,y (2d) position? (or code to do this)?

a long time dabbler with DBC and DBPro with no actual talent but lots of enthusiasm...
kaedroho
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Posted: 15th Aug 2010 16:12
The windows error is an error quite a few people have got. It is caused by a heap error in the BT BuildTerrain command. I have fixed it and it should all work in the next release.

Quote: "BTW kaedroho, when you releasing RTTMS?"


I'll be releasing it later this month along with Quad Reduction as part of the full release.


Quote: "Great news about the RTTMS commands... Are you envisioning with these commants to paint at vertex level? Also, referring back a few pages, some sort of command to allow us to paint at vertex level on the terrain (or adjust height) by reference to camera x,y (2d) position? (or code to do this)?"


The RTTMS doesnt really need to paint the texture as you can use memblock images for that. If you update your texture image it will update on the terrain aswell.

The RTTMS will be used for changing vertex heights. On the most basic level there are commands are for locking, accessing, editing and unlocking terrain vertexdata. Very similar to what DBPro does with DBPro objects. On the middle level there is a command to change a vertex height with one command BT SetPointHeight TerrainID,X,Z,Height. This will change every LOD Level and will edit multiple sectors if used on an edge. And on the high level, there are commands for brushes, etc. Lower, Higher, Flatten, Erode, etc.

Every command above will be open source and released with the full version. I have decided to make it open source so people can see how to access vertexdata in BlitzTerrain from a dll, and so people can make their own brushes without having them slown down by DBPro.

Mugen Wizardry
User Banned
Posted: 15th Aug 2010 16:32
When is the next release?

CHECK OUT SOME MUSIC FROM MY NEW TECHNO CD! TECHNOKINESIS
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ALSO, CHECK OUT MY NEW TECHNO CD! http://www.imageposeidon.com/
Duffer
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Posted: 15th Aug 2010 17:19
@ Kaedroho,

Cant wait (again).

Quote: "Every command above will be open source and released with the full version"


Is the full version the standard version? (ie. is this the pay-for version?) Is this the version released later this month?

Also, will the low, middle and high level brush/rttms commands be in this (above) version?

a long time dabbler with DBC and DBPro with no actual talent but lots of enthusiasm...
kaedroho
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Posted: 15th Aug 2010 18:39 Edited at: 15th Aug 2010 18:42
Duffer, Every question you asked has the same answer, yes!


BlitzTerrain 2.00 R2 will be up tonight. It will solve the windows crash in BT BuildTerrain, along with a load of other changes.


Mugen Wizardry
User Banned
Posted: 15th Aug 2010 18:44
you ROCK, kaedroho!

CHECK OUT SOME MUSIC FROM MY NEW TECHNO CD! TECHNOKINESIS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a8KedfgVv0
ALSO, CHECK OUT MY NEW TECHNO CD! http://www.imageposeidon.com/
kaedroho
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Posted: 15th Aug 2010 18:58
I'm working on Quad Reduction at the moment. Once this is working, BlitzTerrains render speeds will be much much faster. If you have a terrain with loads of Flat parts, Quad Reduction will merge together all the Quads in the areas which are flat. Reducting the poly count by alot.

I have got it reducing the terrain now, just got to add the calculation to find which parts to reduce. Then I got to rewrite my LOD seam fixing system to beable to seamfix sectors with sectors which have been reduced.


Quad Reduction will be enabled with one simple function.

BT SetTerrainQuadReduction TerrainID,1

And BlitzTerrain will do the rest for you!


This feature will be available in the full version.

kaedroho
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Posted: 15th Aug 2010 19:26 Edited at: 15th Aug 2010 19:54
I just added a couple more things to the changlog.



I removed Delete because it only Deletes the terrain and not the C++ Object. The C++ delete command deletes both.


EDIT: I will have a release out at midnight tonight! (BST)

kaedroho
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Posted: 16th Aug 2010 19:02
I'm going to remove exclusion from the free version. Its not very widely used, and I think its a feature that only a few people acctually need. It will be in the full version though.

Indicium
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Posted: 16th Aug 2010 20:23
Is it possible to exclude in realtime?

kaedroho
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Posted: 16th Aug 2010 21:36
Quote: "Is it possible to exclude in realtime?"


Not yet, I'll add that feature in soon though.

kaedroho
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Posted: 16th Aug 2010 21:38
Attached is the first image of the Quad Reduction system working. I havent added in the calculation to calculate which details for which area, so I left it random.

As you can see, some Quads are merged together. They can be merged right until the whole sector is one massive quad. This will be used to merge quads where detail is not needed like in flat areas.

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Mugen Wizardry
User Banned
Posted: 16th Aug 2010 21:48
holy crap thats awesome! Also, when r u releasing this? I thought u said it would be released 12 AM BST?

CHECK OUT SOME MUSIC FROM MY NEW TECHNO CD! TECHNOKINESIS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a8KedfgVv0
ALSO, CHECK OUT MY NEW TECHNO CD! http://www.imageposeidon.com/
kaedroho
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Posted: 17th Aug 2010 16:53
Yeah, I keep forgetting... :S It will be up tonight!

kaedroho
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Posted: 18th Aug 2010 02:06
BlitzTerrain 2.00 R2 Release!

Sorry that its 2 days late.


This release fixes many bugs including the Windows crash bug and the seams on sectors bug. It includes support for the new RTTMS too.


Changelog:



Download:

DBPro:
ZIP
RAR


Dark GDK:
ZIP
RAR


R3 will be released on the 15th of September

Balid
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Posted: 18th Aug 2010 02:41 Edited at: 18th Aug 2010 02:42
kaedroho,
Quote: "Firefox can't find the server at download.blitzwerks.co.uk."


I've been getting this ever since your cable was stolen.

Is there any other way to get the new release?

I replaced my simple terrain with blitzTerrain and got a 40-50 fps increase. I wish I would have started my project with this rather than spending 3 months on developing my own (very cumbersome) system.

Great product.

Regards,



Indigo - A DBPro IDE Alternative
Mugen Wizardry
User Banned
Posted: 18th Aug 2010 02:57
i keep getting a windows crash.

at these lines:



CHECK OUT SOME MUSIC FROM MY NEW TECHNO CD! TECHNOKINESIS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a8KedfgVv0
ALSO, CHECK OUT MY NEW TECHNO CD! http://www.imageposeidon.com/
kaedroho
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Posted: 18th Aug 2010 04:10
Quote: "I've been getting this ever since your cable was stolen."


The downloads are hosted in the US. There must be a problem with your DNS. Most likely your ISP is the problem. I've emailed you the latest version.



Mugen Wizardry,

Could you make some code which crashes on those lines and post it? Then I could use that code to debug BlitzTerrain and find the problem.

Balid
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Posted: 18th Aug 2010 04:49 Edited at: 18th Aug 2010 04:49
Quote: "There must be a problem with your DNS. Most likely your ISP is the problem."


Actually it's probably my computer. I just tried from a new computer and it downloaded just fine.

Thanks again for the download direct to my mailbox.

{because I'm too lazy to read through all of the posts again} Do you have an idea of how much the full version will cost? So I can start putting away now.

Regards,



Indigo - A DBPro IDE Alternative
Virtual Nomad
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Posted: 18th Aug 2010 09:57 Edited at: 18th Aug 2010 10:05
haven't visited this in awhile so dl'd the dbp rar.

after fixing a couple typos in the code:

if leftkey() then turn camera left 1000.0*Elapsedtime#
if rightkey() then turn camera left -1000.0*Elapsedtime#

compiled examples 3 & 6 = crash on launch:


specs in sig. saw word of compatability mode required for some so tried xp and same results

added: dbpro version to sig

Virtual Nomad @ California, USA . DBPro V7.5
AMD Phenomâ„¢ X4 9750 Quad-Core @ 2.4 GHz . 8 GB PC2-6400 RAM
ATI Radeon HD 3650 @ 512 MB . Vista Home Premium 64 Bit
Mugen Wizardry
User Banned
Posted: 18th Aug 2010 13:42
the code crashes with any of the codes i try to compile. the only similarity is that it always crashes on those lines.

CHECK OUT SOME MUSIC FROM MY NEW TECHNO CD! TECHNOKINESIS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a8KedfgVv0
ALSO, CHECK OUT MY NEW TECHNO CD! http://www.imageposeidon.com/
Mugen Wizardry
User Banned
Posted: 18th Aug 2010 15:15
the only 1 that works is example 01

CHECK OUT SOME MUSIC FROM MY NEW TECHNO CD! TECHNOKINESIS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a8KedfgVv0
ALSO, CHECK OUT MY NEW TECHNO CD! http://www.imageposeidon.com/
kaedroho
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Posted: 18th Aug 2010 15:45 Edited at: 18th Aug 2010 15:47
Virtual Nomad, can you give me a problem signature from this version of the plugin?

A minidump will be extremly helpful too.

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Mugen Wizardry
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Posted: 18th Aug 2010 15:49
kaedroho, why is it crashing?

CHECK OUT SOME MUSIC FROM MY NEW TECHNO CD! TECHNOKINESIS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a8KedfgVv0
ALSO, CHECK OUT MY NEW TECHNO CD! http://www.imageposeidon.com/
kaedroho
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Posted: 18th Aug 2010 16:12 Edited at: 18th Aug 2010 16:18
Thats what i'm trying to find out. It doesnt crash for me. If you could install the above plugin and make a minidump when it crashes, I'll be able to track down the problem.

It has failed with exception code c0000005 which means its reading/writing to memory it shouldnt be. Thats all I know though.

Mugen Wizardry
User Banned
Posted: 18th Aug 2010 18:16
now its giving me a dll error. it says: Failed to load DLL(5: BlitzTerrain.dll) yes i put it in plugins-user. yes i installed the ini

CHECK OUT SOME MUSIC FROM MY NEW TECHNO CD! TECHNOKINESIS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a8KedfgVv0
ALSO, CHECK OUT MY NEW TECHNO CD! http://www.imageposeidon.com/
BMacZero
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Posted: 18th Aug 2010 18:26
All the examples work properly for me as well. Windows 7 64 bit, DBP 7.5.

Virtual Nomad
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Posted: 18th Aug 2010 20:23 Edited at: 18th Aug 2010 20:24
Quote: " Failed to load DLL(5: BlitzTerrain.dll)"

same here. using de-bug mode i get this:



i can debug with any other project. running as admin, etc, to no avail.

what's a "mini-dump'? should i be looking for something else?

hope this helps.

Virtual Nomad @ California, USA . DBPro V7.5
AMD Phenomâ„¢ X4 9750 Quad-Core @ 2.4 GHz . 8 GB PC2-6400 RAM
ATI Radeon HD 3650 @ 512 MB . Vista Home Premium 64 Bit

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Weave
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Posted: 18th Aug 2010 20:35
Kaedroho, just to say all good here! Blitz compiles again, brilliant!!Thanks

Just had to add the following to demo 6 prior to sync, as it had no render sequence in it:-

BT SetCurrentCamera 0 //Set current camera to 0 (if the camera has moved/rotated since this command was last called, you must call it again!)
BT UpdateTerrainCull g_TerrainID //Update frustum culling
BT RenderTerrain g_TerrainID //Render the terrain
smaas
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Posted: 18th Aug 2010 21:38
Great work I downloaded R2 and the "crashes at the command "g_TerrainID=BT MakeTerrain()" is solved everything runs fine
The Wilderbeast
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Posted: 19th Aug 2010 09:46
HAPPY BIRTHDAY KARL! Take it from me, being 17 sucks But don't let that get you down aha, have a good one xD

kaedroho
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Posted: 19th Aug 2010 15:02 Edited at: 19th Aug 2010 15:05
Quote: "Just had to add the following to demo 6 prior to sync, as it had no render sequence in it:-

BT SetCurrentCamera 0 //Set current camera to 0 (if the camera has moved/rotated since this command was last called, you must call it again!)
BT UpdateTerrainCull g_TerrainID //Update frustum culling
BT RenderTerrain g_TerrainID //Render the terrain "


It isnt supposed to have a render sequence. Its meant to display the DBPro objects used for collision.


Quote: "what's a "mini-dump'? should i be looking for something else?"


You need Visual Studio to do it. When programs crash with a windows error, you just click "debug" then "new instance of visual studio" then click Debug -> Save dump file. That saves all the variables and registers into a little file which I load into Visual Studio and tells me what part crashed and why it crashed.


Quote: "Failed to load DLL(5: BlitzTerrain.dll)"


This is a DBPro problem, it means it hasn't included the DLL. You can make it include it by putting the dll in the same folder as the executable.



@The Wilderbeast, Thanks

The Wilderbeast
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Posted: 19th Aug 2010 18:01
Call me Mike, please. It's ok, you don't have to hide your feelings for me here

Mugen Wizardry
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Posted: 19th Aug 2010 18:10
kaedroho, this dll made it worse.

it now crashes in 1step mode.

CHECK OUT SOME MUSIC FROM MY NEW TECHNO CD! TECHNOKINESIS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a8KedfgVv0
ALSO, CHECK OUT MY NEW TECHNO CD! http://www.imageposeidon.com/
kaedroho
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Posted: 19th Aug 2010 18:19
Quote: "Call me Mike, please. It's ok, you don't have to hide your feelings for me here"


What if there is someone else here called Mike?

kaedroho
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Posted: 20th Aug 2010 20:35 Edited at: 21st Aug 2010 00:19
A patch for Windows Vista users has been released. If you have Windows Vista then please redownload the latest version of BlitzTerrain. This solves crashes reported by Mugen Wizardry and Virtual Nomad.

Special thanks to Mugen Wizardry for beta testing this patch.


Here are the links again:

DBPro:
ZIP
RAR


Dark GDK:
ZIP
RAR

Mugen Wizardry
User Banned
Posted: 21st Aug 2010 00:51
As a special fix for all of you low-end graphics card users who were having problems like me with using SMAAS' plugin, please go to his forum a special thread I have created!

CHECK OUT SOME MUSIC FROM MY NEW TECHNO CD! TECHNOKINESIS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a8KedfgVv0
ALSO, CHECK OUT MY NEW TECHNO CD! http://www.imageposeidon.com/
Mugen Wizardry
User Banned
Posted: 21st Aug 2010 02:41
Sorry about that guys. I zoned out cuz it's been a long day and I totally forgot to give you the DLL and INI files you need to make this work.

Credit for creation of the AWESOME timer plugin, goes to ShawnRWS!

Files are attached!

More to come!

CHECK OUT SOME MUSIC FROM MY NEW TECHNO CD! TECHNOKINESIS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a8KedfgVv0
ALSO, CHECK OUT MY NEW TECHNO CD! http://www.imageposeidon.com/

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Virtual Nomad
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Posted: 23rd Aug 2010 10:49 Edited at: 23rd Aug 2010 11:04
for some reason, running the (vista) LOD example w/ step-through mode, line 54 crashes:

BT BuildTerrain g_TerrainID,g_TerrainObjectID


i tried replacing the variables with 1's, ie:

BT BuildTerrain 1,1

and got bt error "heightmap size invalid"

i dunno what my problem is here. if it weren't for bad luck, i'd have no luck at all, it seems :/

add the crash info:


Virtual Nomad @ California, USA . DBPro V7.5
AMD Phenomâ„¢ X4 9750 Quad-Core @ 2.4 GHz . 8 GB PC2-6400 RAM
ATI Radeon HD 3650 @ 512 MB . Vista Home Premium 64 Bit
kaedroho
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Posted: 23rd Aug 2010 14:40
The crash info says that its an error reading/writing to a piece of memory. What happens alot with vista is memory doesnt allocate properly and causes errors when trying to read/write to it.

I'll have a look at whats at that offset.

Mugen Wizardry
User Banned
Posted: 23rd Aug 2010 15:48
r u running vista 64 or vista 32? it works fine for me because i have vista 32

CHECK OUT SOME MUSIC FROM MY NEW TECHNO CD! TECHNOKINESIS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a8KedfgVv0
ALSO, CHECK OUT MY NEW TECHNO CD! http://www.imageposeidon.com/
mikewhl
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Posted: 23rd Aug 2010 19:24 Edited at: 24th Aug 2010 16:18
I cannot get anything with Blitz Terrain in it to run.
It will compile, but the EXE will not run (windows shuts it down).
No error message from DBPro.

I am on Windows xp sp3.

Any ideals?

Mike

Edit: Got them to run. Seems I needed to update to DBPro 7.5

some cool stuff someone else said here
Virtual Nomad
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Posted: 23rd Aug 2010 20:28 Edited at: 23rd Aug 2010 20:31
Quote: "r u running vista 64 or vista 32?"

vista 64, as mentioned in my sig.

@kaedroho,
i don't have time to try this today but do you think re-writing an example utilizing load dll and calling its functions directly within the program might help in this case? will it use different logic regarding memory usage/allocation if it's manually called into play? just a thought... not too familiar with DLLs since most others i've used work without a hitch.

Virtual Nomad @ California, USA . DBPro V7.5
AMD Phenomâ„¢ X4 9750 Quad-Core @ 2.4 GHz . 8 GB PC2-6400 RAM
ATI Radeon HD 3650 @ 512 MB . Vista Home Premium 64 Bit
Duffer
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Posted: 24th Aug 2010 01:22
@ Kaedroho,

All the demos under BlitzTerrain 2.0 rc2 are topping 3000fps!

Would it be possible for you to attach a fresh link to an AdvancedTerrain vs BlitzTerrain download for v2 rc2 with that water shader lake on board as well? - the original link on the first page of the thread dosnt seem to work... love to see how much speed gain there is now...

a long time dabbler with DBC and DBPro with no actual talent but lots of enthusiasm...
kaedroho
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Posted: 24th Aug 2010 17:43 Edited at: 24th Aug 2010 17:47
Quote: "Would it be possible for you to attach a fresh link to an AdvancedTerrain vs BlitzTerrain download for v2 rc2 with that water shader lake on board as well? - the original link on the first page of the thread dosnt seem to work... love to see how much speed gain there is now..."


Just made it, I'm going to make a GDK port today and release them both later on.


mikewhl,

It should work with 7.4 too. I'll look into that one a bit later. Glad to know that you fixed it though.


Virtual Nomad,

I think the problem is a heap error. There was one in R1 and it affected all people who use 64 bit. It crashed at the same line in the same way so I think that is it. Its really difficult to debug it without a crash dump. Do you have Visual Studio installed?

I can probably get my laptop repaired and install Vista x64 onto it if we cant get a crash dump.




Everyone,

I am starting work on a new feature for the pro version. Multidetailmapping. In other terrain engines you can have a maximum of 7 detailmaps per terrain. BlitzTerrain will allow you to have 7 detailmaps per sector so you can have as many detailmaps as you like, as long as you dont use more than 7 of them on the same sector. This will be controlled by the environment mapping system. You load your detailmaps and an environment map and then you set which detailmap each environment will use and BlitzTerrain will handle the rest.

KISTech
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Posted: 24th Aug 2010 18:56
Good stuff. I'm very excited to see this getting closer to a commercial release.

How are the plans for Terrain Streaming coming?

kaedroho
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Posted: 24th Aug 2010 19:03
Quote: "How are the plans for Terrain Streaming coming?"


I'm adding a new LOD seam fixing system to enable LOD seams to be fixed accross terrains which will allow me to put terrains side by side for things like Streaming and Spherical Terrains. I might not put any of these super features in the version which is going to be released next month, I might put them in a super pro version instead. I'll have to email lee about that.

KISTech
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Posted: 24th Aug 2010 19:05
Whatever you decide to call it, put me down for a copy.

BMacZero
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Posted: 24th Aug 2010 19:40 Edited at: 24th Aug 2010 19:42
Just dropping in to say again that BT is great . I just started working on the Fog of War system for Fields, by just modifying the terrain texture I got great results:



It's slower than all get-out because of all the distance checks, but that's my problem

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