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Tutorial: Advanced Terrain Detail Editing

 

Creating Detailed Terrain in Visual3D.NET

Advanced Tutorial

 
     In this tutorial, we'll proceed to other more advanced features than just importing the terrain as in the first tutorial:    http://game-engine.visual3d.net/wiki/tutorial-importing-terrain-architect-toolset
This tutorial will cover adjusting the Environment settings and display settings. As we proceed you will see how each affects the final result.
     To create a really detailed terrain, you need to have 2 (two) important parts:
            a) In this example you will need a Height Map that is a 16bit .TIF image.
            b) You will also need a BEV (Birds Eye View) colored image of your terrain in high detail.
In this tutorial we are going to use a 4096x4096 Height Map and BEV Image.
After starting up Visual3D.Net you will be presenting with the following screen. (See Fig. 1)


Fig. 1

From here you can do 1 of 2 things;
            a) You can press the Terrain tab at the top center of the viewing area.
            b) You can right click on your World Name to the right under World Explorer and defining a new
            name for your new scene.

 
 After which you will be presented with the following choice under the Terrain Tab; (See Fig. 2)

Fig. 2

When you {Click} the [Create New] you will then be given the following window panel as seen in Fig. 3.


Fig. 3

This is where you will select [From Textures], which should be in the following directory.

(_realmware\Visual3D_Project\My Assets\MyGameName)

You will then be presented with the following window panel, see Fig. 4.

Fig. 4

In this panel is where you will browse to the BEV Texture Image file and your Height Map file.
As seen in Fig. 5.

Fig. 5
 
From this point you will need to set your flat map terrain size, in this case we are going to use a size of 4096 

for both Width and Height, then set the Max Altitude to 500 as seen in Fig. 6.

Fig. 6

After pressing [OK] you will see Visual3D.NET build the terrain then prompt you with the following message

(see Fig. 7).

Fig. 7

At this point you are at Stage 1 of 2 on creating and running your terrain. Now, we will show you how to add some

tweaks to make your terrain have a really nice look and detail.  After you have {Clicked} on [OK] in Fig. 7, you will

then see your terrain that was created with your Height Map and BEV Texture Map.  See Fig. 8. 


Fig. 8

To the right you will see the [Object Editor] panel as seen in Fig. 9.

Fig 9.
 
You will need to {Click} the (+) plus sign to expand the [Environment] panel.  This will expand out and display the

information you will find in Fig. 10.

Fig. 10

At this point you will need to {Click} the (+) plus sign to expand the [Terrain Build Options] panel which will reveal

several terrain fine tuning options for you to tinker with.  See Fig. 11.  The Heightmap Min Step setting allows you

to define how your Heightmap resolution is setup.  The Texture Min Step allows you to define the resolution of your

texture map on your terrain.  You will also need to {Click} the (+) plus sign by [Texture Sharpening] to expand out

the properties for it.   Now the High Resolution and Low Resolution Factors affect the resolution of the Terrain

Build.

 

Fig. 11

You can use the sample numbers we entered and see your outcome. They are the ones that we found to work best
 
after several builds. After you have entered your settings you need to {Click} [Build/Apply] as seen in Fig. 12.


Fig. 12
 
Then you will see Fig. 13 after the build is complete. It gives you the status of your build and how long it took to

build it.

 

Fig. 13

After you {Click} [OK] you will see the built terrain in the viewing area. It is STRONGLY advised to do a [Save

World] now and exit Visual3D.NET to free up some memory resources.  See Fig. 14

 
Fig. 14.
 
 
Now, return to your World you just created.   It will come up displaying the terrain in [Run] mode.  Refer to Fig. 15.


Fig. 15

The following picture, Fig. 16,  is also after the build but in [Terrain] mode.  Notice how close the two are in

detail.


Fig. 16

Now what we want to do next, is to try to clear up some of the "Oreo" effect we have in the snow area.
This will also help make the ridges more pronounced and bring out the mountain look as seen in Fig. 16.
So what you want to do first is {Press} [F6] in the [RUN] mode. This will give you the [Graphics Settings]

screen (Fig. 17).


Fig. 17

The items here to really look at changing is [Overall Rating] and [Terrains]. Changing these values as seen in

Fig. 18 will help a great deal and effect the overall look of your terrain.


Fig. 18

Now, {Click} [Apply] to save your changes.  Fig. 19 shows how they affected the look of the terrain.


Fig. 19

You will want to [Save] then exit and come back in as you have made changes to the video settings and some of

them are not completely active until after you restart Visual3D.NET and come back into your World.  We hope this

"How To" tutorial has helped shed some light and helped you create the Worlds you want with better detail. Please

feel free to play with the settings to get the effect you like best.

 
Submitted by KorbinD on Tue, 02/24/2009 - 01:47.

love