EASY GEN question

[lauser]

I think I have a fairly good grasp on texturing and mapping concepts. What I want to know is when you guys make your heightmap texture how do you know what to make? Like do you make a bunch of textures and just make different terrains? Or can you manually adjust the terrain map even though you have already made the texture? Obviously I'm NEW to terrain mapping and EasyGen. I haven't found a feature that does that. Is there one? rgoer?

[lauser]

Nevermind I found the feature. I played around with the modifier feature. This seems to do the trick. You see I already have a map with terrain but I wanted to match the terrain with what I had. I made the bitmap texture as best I could but it wasn't exactly where I wanted it all. So this feature allows you to adjust the terrain.

[lauser]

Might as well post in here I guess. I have another question. Pahricida suggested we try this shader code for a MULTI-MODEL phonged terrain shader. Here is the code---->

 

q3map_surfaceModel [modelpath] [density] [odds] [minscale] [maxscale] [minangle] [maxangle] [oriented]

A surface with q3map_surfaceModel in its shader will randomly place a specified model across it's face.

This is designed to place grass or tree models over terrain. [modelpath] The path to the model file (any supported format).

[density] The density of the models, in game units.

[odds] The odds of the model appearing (normalized?).[minscale] The minimum scale of the model from its original size of 1.0.

[maxscale] The maximum scale of the model from its original size of 1.0.

[minangle] The model's minimum angle of rotation.[maxangle] The model's maximum angle of rotation.

[oriented] This is a flag, either 0 or 1, and sets whether the model gets fitted to the orientation of the surface.

 

 

 

According to this I should be able to make a shader that will put all the models I need in a map in tyhe same area with ONE shader. So in effect you would have small trees grass bushes and some nice ground cover all in the same shader. Is this feasable or what? If it is this would make it so you can add multi dimensional terrain with lots of detail and NO plant models!! The idea is simple. It's just like the grass phong only with more randomly placed plants instead of just grass. I think this is a really cool idea.

[wedge2211]

Sounds very cool...but does that incorporate the models into the shader/texture (like the Yavin grass sprite shaders) or will the game have to generate a whole bunch of md3 models?

[lauser]

This texture would be generated just like a grass sprite. Only instead of just grass....or whatever you want to put in your shader file.....there are bushes and moss etc. etc. I'm in the process of making one now. If it works I will post screenshots.

[WadeV1589]

q3map_surfaceModel is a god-send, I cried when YDNAR removed it from Q3Map2 for several revisions as I was using it at that time!

 

It has so many uses, trees, shrubs, random rocks in a desert, grass. Anything you can think of that would involve a lot of copying and pasting over a surface, this saves you!

[Emon]

Bug him enough and he'll put it back in.

[wedge2211]

Wait a minute, I'm confused...your syntax posting keeps referencing models...does a shader with this code generate md3 models across its area, or do you feed it textures rather than actual model files?

[SeriousMite]

If I want to make a bigger terrain do I have to make seperate terrains and then fit them all together? As I understand it, when you make a heightmap it has to be 33 by 33 pixels. Is it possible to make a heightmap of say 66 by 66? And if it is possible what's the largest terrain that the game can reasonably handle?