To import a colormap you simple are coloring the terrain with the generated texture from L3DT.

Import the heightfield

Import the color map or texture map

Finished product

I see the same lines though very faint, in your finished product also. I wonder what is doing that though. For me, because a few of the areas are suppose to be dark, they show up really bad as you can see from my images.

I have not tried any from l3dt yet. The terrain I created right in the world editor, so importing heightfield map was not an option.

However, this is the same procedure I used to import my custom colourmap. So that respect, I did everything correctly.

If I were to import heightfield, i can also import the colourmap image that is generated as well?

What about pixelation? I did not see any in your image, though it was a bit small.

This gives me something to think about and try out. I wonder how it will work out?

As far as the lines though, I am still a bit .. not sure what the word is that I am looking for. However, it is a wee bit annoying.

Do you know of any way to remove those lines?

Peace,
Sarrene'

The lines are from the grid and do not show in the game world. Toggle wire frame and you can see what I mean. example here

As for high detail:

A low detail map

a high detail map

As you can see there is not much difference. In order to get super detail one needs to use a splattling shader.

Aah hah! I see now. That makes sence to me now about the lines. Thank you.

Now, I am curious on how you got the high detail? I have tried a few different resolutions and sizes and all come out the same for me. What did you do, or how did you get the high resolution? I do see quite a bit of difference actualy. Not as detailed as we can get in other engines (aaa+, not indie: this is still the best so far I think) or even in l3dt, but still a lot nicer then what I have so far. Splatter shader eh? Is this something I will need to talk to my coder about, or am I missing it someplace in the WE?

You have been a great help so far. Currently im working on some alpha for some of my textures to help them blend in better. Though I will go back to the colourmaps once im done here.

I thank you for the support and help already given, as well as any in the future. It has been most invaluable.

Peace,
Sarrene'

Color maps are applied only per vertex, so quality depends only on mesh resolution (vertex/face density in your heightmaps)

The most recommended method for achieving most detail is to use Materials (not color maps) and paint them on the terrain.

Color maps are suggested to be applied with small intensity/contrast/saturation, so they will only slightly adjust the final heightmap terrain.

I did notice that the color map was per vertex. I used more pixels per meter and a slightly higher detail map (X4). I haven't looked at this yet but a per vertex splat shader may be programable in the pro version. Don't think the indie version allows it though. Kind of a feature that really needs to be in this engine IMO.

(05-04-2010 10:08 PM)Esenthel Wrote:  Color maps are applied only per vertex, so quality depends only on mesh resolution (vertex/face density in your heightmaps)

Aah, okay, now I fully understand what you mean and why they were not working out quite as well as I had hoped.

I was creating slightly more detailed colourmaps for lod views... I was not creating them to have close up detail.

For close up detail, I am relying on my terrain textures and with several, alpha layer as well to help them blend into other textures a bit more naturally. I hope this works out.

I have not imported any of the terrain textures with the alpha channels yet, im currently working on the gdd again, however I do plan on going back to that either tonight or tomorrow.

When I do import them into the engine's WE, is there anything special I need to do?

here is an example of what I have... For some of the more used textures I have created the base and then two different alpha channel maps to help give a bit more variance and help the textures blend in better. Here is an example of one of them: (I have not included my normal map in this image)

   

Please let me know if there is anything special or different I need to do to get these to work. I did see a few posts about alpha layers/maps, though none I had seen really apply to the terrain.

Thank you both of you for helping me out here. I have really gotten spoiled for sure. But it is nice to get back to more then just the easy cell/graphic design.

Peace,
Sarrene'

Here are a few images I had done in l3dt a while ago using this technique. These are from different angles and perspectives. In the last one you can see the difference between the grass where I used the alpha mapped textures and then the rocks where I had not yet. I also have the colourmaps applied to the second and third images so you see some nice detail from a distance and it does not just look like one texture or colour.

   
   
   
   

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(05-04-2010 11:02 PM)Demi Wrote:  I did notice that the color map was per vertex. I used more pixels per meter and a slightly higher detail map (X4). I haven't looked at this yet but a per vertex splat shader may be programable in the pro version. Don't think the indie version allows it though. Kind of a feature that really needs to be in this engine IMO.

Now that sounds like something I need to talk to my coder about.. Oh Rofar... Ugh! he is going to strangle me for sure

There is a way to get really high detail without coding anything.

suppose I should tell ya?

1. - In L3DT make a texture as high detail as possible without exceeding 4096x4096 in size. You need a bumpmap, landtypes and texture to be all the same size to get the full effect. I chose X4. after making all these exit L3DT.

2. - Open Esenthel mesh editor and select materials-->edit material. In diffuse plug in the texture you made in L3DT. In Detail put the normals map you made in L3DT. Now save this material so you can find it. You may have to copy the gfx files to your working directory.

3. - Make a white material with no bumpmap and save this as a base for your terrain. I just used snow.gfx and modified it.

3. - Open world editor and put this white material in the first slot in material editor. Clear all other slots just in case.

3. - Import the heightfield as small as possible with a height/width reasonable. I chose a 1K heightfield but only used 9 sections total.

3. -Now select Object -->decal.obj as a base. Make sure to force OBJ_DECAL. In the material use your texture you made in L3DT. Set the scale somewhere within reason of your map. I had to set scale to 200. You need to align this colormap (DECAL) with the terrain so it is a bit tricky. Just keep scaling and moving it until it aligns on all sides.

results

Nice, I will give that a try. How does this technique perform? Your image movie is nice. I likes.

Peace,
Sarrene'

I ran into a couple small issues and working on them. One is that at certain angles the texture vanishes. It only happens in a very small area of the map.

Not sure but it appears the player slows down in areas.

The frame rate seems to be unaffected so far but I haven't really stressed this by testing multiple images on a very large terrain.

Conclusion:

Needs more testing as to if is a valid way to get higher detail color maps into the engine. Video does not do it justice so attached is a screen.

Sexy cow

Decal can disappear if it is too big (and its center is not near view frustum), for that you can switch Decal to MeshOverlay.

OK I worked through this and got a really nice working model. I resized the heightfield (my original is 32768x32768) and made a high resolution detail map. The thing is HUGE but it is what I was after. Decal'ing the terrain is a valid way to detail terrain and is better than painting if you are not an artist. You don't have to go to this extream however.

The detail map is split into 16,384 files of 512x512 each. Each detail map is for one block of terrain and is scaled to 64.1 since I want to have overlap of a couple pixels.

This is all I have done right now as had to work through the routine and figure out scale and the cutoff point of visablity in game mode. BTW- Overlays do not work well as they tend to not conform to the terrain. I have 31 detail maps placed and it take about 3 minutes each to line them. There are a few seams but I don't think they will really affect the game play as I will have lots of other stuff placed. and trails are going to be handpainted.