Originally Posted By: DJBMASTER
Have you checked on the Gamestudio wiki? If you look at the 'Content Creation' section there are 2 different terrain tutorials...

http://www.opserver.de/wiki/index.php/Content_Creation_Tutorials


Hey there...

I have actually. Thing is, they're app specific; how to create a terrain with "x" software. While I love goofing around in L3DT, I just don't like it overall for terrain creation... there's a list of reasons why, but here isn't the place to list them. I've never liked Terragen. Not that they're bad apps.. I'm just not really a fan of them.

Some tutorials require you to use a shader, some don't... Some seem to use the different tools in 3DGS in different ways... those seem very "personal preference" sort of tutorials.

Here's the thing... When Conitec started working on the terrain system or, at least, in its current iteration, they must have implemented it with some specific work flow in mind that it would all boil down to regardless of what applications were used. That's what I'm looking for; a very basic "If you want to get a working, navigable terrain into 3DGS, here's the steps you must follow". Then, from there, perhaps provide more advanced tutorials that build off that, such as "If you want to implement a tutorial with shader-driven texture splatting, you must take these additional steps..." and so forth.

It should be as generic and non-software specific as possible. The user should be left to apply the workflow to the graphics apps they prefer.

That's what I'm looking for and can't seem to find, because every one I've seen has called for specific graphics applications. I'm interested in learning the workflow of 3DGS itself; not the workflow of 3DGS when used in conjunction with "x, y and z", because in those tutorials the line between what's 3DGS specific and what's app-specific becomes very blurred.

What's also good about that is, learing how 3DGS itself handles such a task, it provides a foundation, or context, from which you can add on. For example.. once I understand how terrains are handled "in 3DGS language" - absent of any external applications - it would then make applying that knowledge to other apps easier because I understand the context I'm doing everything in. I realize I'm creating this specific bitmap, in this specific way, with these specific settings and putting it in this specific location because of how 3DGS handles such assets.

Simply saying "do this, now do this, now save it here and open it here and do this, now open this script, change these lines and save, now do this..." isn't really helpful to understanding what I'm doing; I'm merely following steps. Sadly, most of the tutorials I've looked at are delivered in just such a dry way.

This is especially so for something like applying shaders to the terrain for texture-splatting... understanding how 3DGS handles terrains by itself would provide a better context for understanding what the scripts are doing and why.

And, really, that same approach could be applied to other key areas of the system. If there's one major complaint I have with 3DGS it's how you have to scour and rummage through the internet, and wikis and Google and YouTube, etc.. to find basic tutorials that, really, should be provided by Conitec on their own site. It especially doesn't help that many of the tutorials you'll find refer to a much older version of the engine and don't necessarily apply anymore.

Hopefully that makes sense.



Last edited by Preypacer; 01/23/10 16:45.