Terrains and their limitations...

There are a few limitations of terrains that have for years, aggrivated me to no end, such as:

1.) Terrain/heightmap files have to be square or rectangular.... Grrrrrrr
2.) Terrain/heightmap files can not be rotated... Grrrrrrr
3.) Terrain/heightmap skin detail texture tiling value can not be individually set for seperate skins... Grrrrrr
4.) Terrain/heightmap files can not have holes in them so you can not put basements where they belong... Double Grrrrrr

Of course there are some awesome features that the terrain engine does offer such as the lighting and the use of shaders but those listed above that are limitations have caused me a lot of grief over the years.

I have spoken with JCL in the past about a few of these and he suggested he would consider changing point 3 above.

Not being able to put basments where they belong has been a bummer... The only work around for that one seems to be launching a basement level.

The only work around for the other three is to use terrains converted to models and as pointed out, even though models are more complicated than terrains, models can not can not use the advantages of the terrain engine.