Questions about Terrains

Hello,

So, I'm working on getting myself back into 3DGS (yet again lol), and since my project is going to make a lot of use of terrains, I'm learning to work with them.

I've come about a process that I think is going to work out nicely - so long as it's a feasible approach (seems to be so far), and my understanding of how terrains (derived from HMP) operate, based on what I read in the Wiki, etc.

So, here's a screenshot of what I'm doing, for visual reference.

I noticed the option to convert a model into a terrain in MED, and it lit a light-bulb in my head. I hate working with heightmap editors, as I like to have more direct control over the terrain at a "per vertex" level, for tweaking, etc. The only heightmap terrain editor I've ever worked with that allowed that much control is the Torque Game Engine's terrain editor.

Now, I can simulate that level of control in Blender3D, by simply grabbing vertices (or individual points) and restraining them to the Z axis, so I'm essentially emulating the behavior of a typical heightmap, but with far more control, and more tools at my disposal.

I'd drawn out a map of a small coastal village that my project will begin in and decided to use that as the template to model the terrain from. It's very rough, still, as I haven't gotten very far in, yet, but the screenshot should give a good enough idea of what I'm doing.

When I'm ready to bring it into MED, I just rotate it 90 degrees on the X axis, export as OBJ, and import into MED, where it's properly oriented. I then convert it to a terrain and, voila, the terrain looks exactly as I want it to, and I get the benefits of 3DGS's terrain system. I also tried baking the model to a heightmap in Blender and generating the terrain from that in MED but do not like the results at all. The OBJ approach is the preferred method for me.

For texturing, I intend to use the script setup for texture splatting that's available. Much more preferable than one big image that'll look stretched.

Now... I just want to ensure a couple things...

For one, I read that 3DGS will break the terrain up into chunks to aid in LOD and visibility, etc. I know the settings can be adjusted in code, but does it have to enabled that way as well, or does 3DGS automatically perform the chunking when it's processed as a HMP terrain?

My second question is, are there any limits as to the number of vertices I should work with using this method? Does it have to stick to divisions of 8, or can it be arbitrary?

I ordered the "Getting Started With 3D Game Studio" book (which I should be getting tomorrow), and so maybe that'll cover some ground with terrains as well. It was written around A6, but I'm guessing it'll be applicable to A7 as well...

Thanks!

Terrains are chunked by default. If you use terrain LODs(which requires PRO, i believe) it automatically uses multiples of 8 for chunk sizes.
Multiples of 8 thing applies to chunk size, and terrain size should be multiples of chunksize.

There is 128x128 limit for terrain size, but this only applies to unchunked terrain.

From manual:

Oh, so if I understand that correctly... If I don't have the Pro version, then it doesn't do the chunking, since that's part of the LOD system, correct?

If that's the case, then I'm pretty much SOL, as I have the Commercial version.

Well that's a bummer, if that's the case. Pretty much renders everything I've done moot, heh.

Chunking is always active when your terrain_chunk value is non-zero (prior to level load). Although terrain chunks are required for the LOD system they are not the same thing, i.e. chunking works with the commercial edition, too, and the dynamic and automatic terrain LOD in the pro edition is optional/ a plus.

Ahhh, excllent then. I'm still in business.

Thanks!