Need recommendations and advice on making terrain

(Ifurita) #1

I made a simple bitmap, imported it into easygen, made terrain, painted on my textures … blah blah blah. However, the terrain looks like a patchwork of square textures. So, this leads me to several questions:

  1. I have been told to make 33, 64, and 128 pixel bitmaps. I assume bigger is ‘better’ (e.g., smoother detail) but is that necessarily true
  2. Is it better to have more of less divisions? More divisions give you finer control of where textures are applied and blended I think
  3. Div width. This ties into the size of the bitmap as I understand pixels x div width = x and y of your map. However, I’ve been told that I should try to make my div width = 256

What are the best trade offs? If I wanted to make a small map, say 4000 x 4000, am I better off with a higher pixel density but smaller width or lesser pixels but bigger textures?

  1. I am also having problems with sky textures tiling. How do I get them to appear as a single large sky?

Thanks

([rD]MrPink) #2

When making BMPs I have always found that in fact bigger was not better, just more tedius (unless I wanted VERY detailed terrain. What I actually found to be better was having more and more shades of grey, as it gives you more deversity in height levels.
Divisions do give you more control over texture, as well as more detailed terrain, but keep in mind if you have 30x30 divisions making it 30x31 makes 60 more triangles, and if you have small terrain with large numbers it can really slow down a comp (lots of triangles).

(SiX) #3

I can’t really help with easy gen. I always used gtkgensurf and a heightmap for terrain.

For the issue with sky textures:
The sky texture is suppose to look tiled in radiant, its normal. However if your sky is still a tiled texture in game, you need to adjust your shader. The actual sky isn’t just a texture, it’s a shader. That could be the prob you are having, you might be using just a conventional texture for your sky.

(creampuff) #4

I’ve been playing around with easygen hoping eventualy to make a map. Don’t worry about the bitmap to much because your going to adjust it in modifier. Make one 33x33 bitmap that lays out your elevations with black 2 greys and white. This will import as divisions 128 wide. This comes out looking rough so i’ve after i bringing it into gtkradiant I imported several mini-terains that are 8x8 by 16 wide.[/list]

(Grimmy_EFG) #5

The sky “shaders” that you need to use have a white box round them in the texture viewer. They appear tiled in radiant but look normal in game.

(redfella) #6
  • This is a common misconception on these forums and I which it would just “go away”… Your bitmap can be any size you want it to be or any size you need it to be. The pixels in your bitmap represent 2 triangles (or 1 square or division) in radiant.
  • The actual amount of divisions will depend on the size of your bitmap. 1 pixel = 1 division. What I really think youre asking here is, is it better to have smaller or larger divisions… Well, larger divisions = choppier, square-like terrian, and smaller divisions = smoother, realisitic terrian.
  • You have been told to make your division width 256 because it will be alot easier on your r-speeds when you compile the map. The larger the division width the smoother your game will play (but on the other had, larger tris wont look as pretty)

Personally, I think that using 256 divisions is a good size to go with for large terrain areas… This will look fine over large distances and will also be easy on your r-speeds. If you were doing a lil terrian area (say like 1000x1000) I would suggest going with 128 or so.

As previously mentioned, it will look tiled in radiant… in-game it should be fine w/ correct shader.

(Stektr33) #7

You don’t really need a height map in EasyGen.
I maybe missing a concept here, but I prefer not to use it. It may be a tad bit more work, but to me it’s just the same, if I’m gonna end up modifying it anyways. I’ll set my terrain size and then modify it. I use the the hill, and cone modifiers a lot, and then use the smooth modifier…well…to smooth it out.

(Ifurita) #8

My problem with the modifiers is simple. I can make one hill and modify it, but what is the command for saying “ok, I like that hill, now I want to make another bit”. You’d think they would have that is a summary of commands somewhere, but I have not been able to find it.

Return doesn’t work
Spacebar doesn’t work

I can’t find any key that consistantly lets me move to another part of the map and make a new hill.

Any help for the clueless?

(lennyballa) #9

well, use ctrl to move the red thing around, and then press space or apply. If you want a big mountain at once, hold right mouse button and drag you’re mountain up and down :wink: .

(redfella) #10

/me points to Ifurita’s sig.

Should ya change the “4 dummies” part?

Oh, and btw… Ive never used the cone modifer thingy… I just make my bitmap in Photoshop. But either way should be fine.

(Stektr33) #11

Ifurita, you may doing something wrong when you hit the space bar, perhaps, the angle at which your depressing it, or the force exerted…err…seriously…thats exactly how you make it “take” your new hill…via spacebar.

Here’s what I found to be common keyboard/mouse shortcuts when using easygen:

  1. Right click moves your pov around laterally
  2. Left click moves your pov angle
  3. Keys D and C moves the pov vertically (D=up,C=down)

When modifying:
4. Ctrl+Right Click+Drag up/down changes the height of the modifier
5. Shift+Right Click+Drag up/down changes the base of the modifier
6. Ctrl+Left Click+Drag arbitrary changes the location of the modifier
7. Space bar, Apply’s the current modifier to yer map

So by combining steps 4, 5, 6 and 7, you can quickly, and really easily (once you’re accustomed to it) change the make-up of your map. Try it again, and if Space Bar isn’t working, see if clicking the Apply button works. If it doesn’t something is wrong.

I was able to churn out, imho, a quality terrain on a huge mountain map that I’m making (11000+ units).

(Stektr33) #12

Oh another thing, (sowwy for the double post), after you’ve hit spacebar,you can continute on hitting it, and the modifier will accumulate on that same spot, (unless you move it). So what I usually do, if I need to gain ground on a certain spot, is just make small base hill, and give it a tiny height, and just hit space bar, relocate, hit space bar, relocate, etc… you get the idea. By doing that, you can elevate certain areas, in a hilly kind of way, without adding those nasty edges. If you do encounter some hard edges, do the smooth modifiere, which I believe takes the average heights within the base of that modifier and add/substract the height accordingly. There were times when smoothing just wouldn’t clean up certain areas in my terrain, so that’s where I found cone to be extremely useful.

(Ifurita) #13

Thanks, think I got it figured out now. I made a heightmap that was basically flat except for the low areas, then used modifiers to add hills. Seemed to work out OK

(Frankesk) #14

Ifurita if sometime spacebar didnt’ work it’s because the 3D view doesnt have the input focus, because you have clicked on the TAB or texture viewports. To give the focus to the 3D view just click on it somewhere.