Man, it's been a long 4th of July weekend. Too many parties, barbecues, and standing in long crappy lines for kids rides and funnel cakes.
I have gotten a good bit of work done anyway, I just haven't got anything new to show just yet. I've pretty much finished the entire map, minus the orc village. I just haven't modeled their huts yet.
Thanks for all the great comments, guys. I'm sure glad you all like the water. I was sad that I couldn't use shaders (because of speed), that's usually the standard for good looking water. However, I am quite pleased with the results anyway.
@Alquerian -
Yeah, I script them with LUA. What I do basically is define a tileset. I can create as many as I want to in the LUA script without having to recompile, because the engine will read in every set that I define. Here's an example,
{name="ocean",xpos=-7649.5, zpos=-7649.5, terrainYPos=100, terrainSizeX=15299.0, terrainSizeZ=15299.0, terrainSplitX=10, terrainSplitZ=10, oscillate=10, oscillateSpeed=10, transparency=1, delay=60,
xRot=0, yRot=0, zRot=0,
imageFile="Particle Media/ocean16.png",
tiles={
1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,
1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,
1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,
1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,
1,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,
1,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,
1,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,
1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0,0,
1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,
1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1
}},
I define the area of the entire plain, and the horizontal and vertical splits. The engine creates H*V instanced tiles of the correct size, but only the tiles that have a 1. Then it orbits them around each plain if there's rotation. That's how my river is curved down into the ocean, and the waterfall flows smoothly down the rock face. The only annoying thing currently is that rotated plains can't oscillate, but I think it's an acceptable speed compromise.
It's a bit complicated how I read in the tiles, because that is a direct overhead representation of the tiles. However, it starts at element 1,1, which is actually tile 1,10 in 3D space. It just took a bit to understand the whole conversion process.
Well, I have to do some non computer work right now. I'll return later!!!
Come see the WIP!