Read this: Tis Concerning Terrain

[Acolmiztli]

i wanna let you know, dont be afraid to use terrian maps with more than 16 slices. I did a terrain 256x256 with 64 and 64 for the slice values. The polys were over 8000. i went around joining polies till it was down to around 3000, then i selected all the terrain and joined possible polygons (i couldnt do this when it was over 8000 coz it kept freezing) guess wot? Now my level with the terrain is only about 500 polys. And its very good terrain too!! So dont be afraid, use highly detailed polies if you think some of it is flat enough to join together. I have added lights and i get around 60FPS on a p3 450 with an ATI Rage Pro. So you peeps with higher specs wont have problems wiv my level.

i will post a screen later on.

[Jedi Outcast]

let me see a screenshot of the polys not the rendered terrain please.

[Acolmiztli]

here are some screens. Just to let you know, the whole of the top of the cave was split into the 64x64 slices. This was wot i originally went around and joined. I then did the floor and walls in the "join all polygons" method i told you about. Neway, here are the pics:

http://www.angelfire.com/apes/penilefluid/image001.jpg
http://www.angelfire.com/apes/penilefluid/image002.jpg
http://www.angelfire.com/apes/penilefluid/image003.jpg
http://www.angelfire.com/apes/penilefluid/image004.jpg
http://www.angelfire.com/apes/penilefluid/image005.jpg
http://www.angelfire.com/apes/penilefluid/image006.jpg

(Edited by MatrixMillion at 5:10 pm on Sep. 12, 2001)


u have to download them 4 some reason. Faee it, angelfire sucks

(Edited by MatrixMillion at 5:22 pm on Sep. 12, 2001)

[Acolmiztli]

also any fallout players, yes it is the cave just outside of vault 13. Looks very similar, no?

[mr luc]

Ok, that will ONLY work if you've got a tunnel, or if you've got large areas that are completely and totally flat. Otherwise, it's almost useless.

I agree that it's a good idea to join as many possible polys as possible. :P But unless you've got huge totally flat areas, that approach is really useless.

[Acolmiztli]

yeah, sorry if i missled any1 with this - i should of mentioned that. See the majority of my cave floor and all of the upper level at the top was flat. it was only the walls joining the uper and lower surfaces that werent. But making the slices high gave them lots more detail once joining all flat surfaces, you only have the walls that are detailed.

[mr luc]

However, I would like to point out to everyone that if you use Bryce to make your terrain, this method can still be 100% useful. See, if you have a huge terrain made in bryce, that has, say, rolling hills or isolated mountains on a perfectly flat plain, you can end up wasting most of your polys on the flat areas between 'features', which can all be simplified.

I didin't mean to be overly negative. It really is a 100% legitimate way to reduce polys; it's just that if you have a straight Terragen heightfield, or even a very 'smoothed' heightfield, that has few totally flat areas, the benefits you will get are drastically reduced.

[LSD]

That's why you can merge vertices! Don't be shy of hand-optimization.