Hi to all!

What thinks you of it, I am trying to create an adventure game, I now don't know decide if use terrain or block entity for creating the terrain. I know that block entity reduce the framerate,
but you could create other effects that could not become with the terrain(hmp),
especially for the texture, collision, shadow, and many other. what you think also Terrain or Block?


greetings

salva

I would prefer blocks for you. Someone wrote a tut about that, but i didn't found it. Terrains(hmp) are faster, but have less scripting options.

Regards,
beegee

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GenuineMotors.de

I'd use an MDL terrain instead. MDL terrains allow for much more flexibility in shape and in some cases (depending on the design you use), renders faster than HMP does. These are the advantages of MDL terrains:

1. No shape restrictions. The vertices don't have to be with the constant grid pattern and the triangles don't have to be all connected the same way. Also, the whole terrain doesn't have to be an entire square or rectangle. You can have cut-outs (for where buildings would go or areas not accessible or visible to the player), overhanging cliffs, tunnels, or caves. This is the biggest advantage.
2. Textures can be tiled. You can't change or modify the skin vertices in a terrain, but you can with MDLs which allows for tiling textures.
3. Multiple textures can be used for one terrain. Adding icecapped mountains, grass, dirt, and beach sand are possible. It's tricky to do with regular HMPs. Detail maps are still supported (as for using a noisemap).
4. Just as fast as, sometimes even faster than, HMP terrains. This mainly depends on the shape you use. You only need to take out 25% of the vertices and triangles to equal the speed of HMP terrains and this isn't as much as you might think. The lack of shape restrictions helps with this a lot.

There are a few disadvantages though:
1. (the big one) It can take twice as long to make.
2. It takes more effort to get collision working right.
3. (don't know for sure) Shadows cannot be cast on MDL terrains.
4. Using a BMP file (and the related) to get the shape isn't possible. If you don't use such things, this isn't a disadvantage to you.

I've agree with Uli, mdl terrains are better than block
and HMP. I've use it my game, it runs smooth.

But sorry Uli, I've disagree with some of your points :
2) It's great to get collision detection if you set its polygon = on.

3) It can cast shadow on mdl terrain, just set stencil_shadow = on.

4) It depends on your Modelling software, I use 3DSMAX, I can create a
model terrain using any bmp, tga.... plus max->plane + Displace.

Hi uli!

Yes I have read from in the forum that MDL terrain is good, but like do you tell need much time for work and put together, and then with which program should do this terrain with MED? ha! ha! ha! I need all my life! however seems me that Hostradamus and Daemonica use MDL terrain. I personly like I have already told I before have not ever worked with terrain, if I must do the terrain with MDL, I don't know not even from where to start, I believe that the conitec should take theTerrain case very serious, because really for how it work now, it is very elementary, there are not shadows, the texture if you don't use any shader, they are not known more, they are seen only of colored stains, but the details lose themselves, I have done a terrain with freeworld3d, it was very beautiful. as soon as I have imported it in MED, and then in WED, I have seen only green, and brown stain, like if the texture had been created only with two colors green and brown, note if you don't use the shader mtlterrainmultitexture, you don't obtain nothing, that then this shader allows the use of only three texture, i need 6 texture, 1 for the streets, 1 for l grass, 1 for the mountains, 1 for the lakes, 1 for the areas without grass, and 1 for the zones with many trees, for the shadows. Then you don't can not even add diverse sounds, for example if the player walks in the wood where there are dries leaves, hear the noise of the dries leaves, if it goes in the water, the sound from the water, and as by, there are many things to do. I would have an idea, of like you could be assign an action or a sound at some areas of the terrain, it works a bit like the RGB map, from Lolek,that I greeting here, only that here are used more colors.In MED opens the terrain that wants to be worked, then opens a window where is possible choose some colors and with these colors paint the areas of interest at the terrain for example the street, colored in red, then to this color an action could be assigned, or a sound, in a zone where there are trees a wood for example, use the green color, an action type: Player_enter_area= R, G, B; 80,220,80 Action! the color map will be saved as "action map" that contains the information for the engine, for each color, his action or sound.


Greet.

Salva

Hmmmm....maybe MDL Terrains are better. But they have one bad thing: If you want to check on what ground do you walk at the moment. Because on every different ground, you hear a different sound or sth. else. And if you want to make unique houses, you have problems to positionate them and so there are unadapted to the landscape. So sometimes are Blocks better. But you must decide what is more adapted to your game.

Regards,
beegee

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GenuineMotors.de

has anyone made some tests models vs hmp as ground? with models beeing like 50 different tiles minimum with a different texture on each?

i think this is the major drawback, you have much more possibility in terms of desiging the ground but this consumes much more texture memory...