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Newcomers DBPro Corner / How do I create a wrap around 3d terrain?

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Bursar
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Posted: 3rd Aug 2010 19:33
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Just curious how I would go about making a wrap around terrain. The landscape will be hand crafted, so I don't need to worry about random generation and a non-tiling terrain.

I'm planning on creating the terrain from a matrix (with various other 3D models dropped on it as buildings/trees/etc). If the player warps from one side to another, there will be a point where he sees that the landscape ends. An artificial barrier to stop the player at the end of the terrain isn't really in my game design.

The obvious option is create a duplicate of the map as the player approaches the edge, but that will also mean duplicating all of the other map objects - and I can't see that that's a good idea.

I've tried searching, but haven't come up with much - I think it's one of those odd topics that could be described serveral ways.

Any hints/code would be greatly appreciated.
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Bursar
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Posted: 13th Aug 2010 19:58
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No takers on creating a wrap around 3D landscape?
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LBFN
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Posted: 13th Aug 2010 20:25
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Myself, I wouldn't use a matrix to do what you are planning to do. I would build/use an actual terrain instead. They can be huge in size and yet don't kill your framerate, so there would be no need to duplicate it. I believe ADVANCED TERRAIN comes with DBP now, so you should be able to access the commands directly. If you search for ADVANCED TERRAIN you should be able to find out more info on how to use them. Basically, it uses a detail map, a color map and a heightmap to create the terrain. A link to the original thread is here:

http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=38692&b=18

You can plop objects onto a terrain easily and could build a cool looking world with it.

Hope this helps,

LB

So many games to code.......so little time.
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DVader
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Posted: 13th Aug 2010 22:43
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Best way I can think of is to make a map out of a few terrains tiled together. Then copy the relevant terrain to the new position where you want the wraparound effect, when you move on to the terrain connected to it.So for instance start on terrain A move onto terrain B, then C when you hit terrain C it moves terrain A to the edge of terrain D etc.

http://s6.bitefight.org/c.php?uid=103081
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Indicium
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Posted: 14th Aug 2010 03:13 Edited at: 14th Aug 2010 03:14
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My Suggestion... http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=145404&b=8

BlitzTerrain!

I've been promoting it alot actually, I've been using it in my game and it's great. It'd be perfect for what you want to do because it's faster than both standard dbpro Terrain, and advanced terrain. You could use the tiling method like Dvader said. The advantage is these terrains have LOD so they would be less demanding for the wraparound.

Hope that helps a little.

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Bursar
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Posted: 14th Aug 2010 11:23
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I did have a bit of a play with creating a terrain from a heightmap, but it didn't give me what I wanted. I'm after a map that looks a little like the one shown here: http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=141689&b=8

Terrains always seemed to be smooth and curvy, and that's not what I want. Matrix based levels do more or less give me that look. Ofcourse I might just need to play around with them some more.
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LBFN
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Posted: 14th Aug 2010 16:14
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From the thread that you gave the link to, the author stated that most of the levels were created in Amin8or or Milkshape. You should be able to create something like that using either of them. You could then rotate and place the object relatively easily if you wanted to duplicate it.

So many games to code.......so little time.
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DVader
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Posted: 19th Aug 2010 20:57
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I have used blitz terrain and it is very fast. I don't think I sussed how to make more than one terrain with it though so ended up going back to normal DB ones. Perhaps it has been updated?
Regarding terrains in general, they can look good, but are limited. Nice caves or overhangs are pretty impossible with terrains so you would end up using a combination of a terrain and objects to get a varied environment up say for a rpg. It would be nice to see some way to get something similar to John Carmack's mega texturing system on DB ;p

http://s6.bitefight.org/c.php?uid=103081
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