Terrain vs. sMesh Terrain...

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JonAzz

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Aug 1, 2003
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I was pondering this the other night, would it be better to create a map useing a terrain info, or say make the terrain in a moodeling program and split it up into many Static Meshes.

I'm wondering this becuase I'm going to make a map where most of it is flat, but in areas there will be jagged mountains and valleys.


any feedback will be appreciated :)
 

Hourences

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Aug 29, 2000
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i always use half half for various reasons and its a pretty perfect combination
the flat parts terrain, the more vertical and special parts 1 giant mesh or if its really high poly several parts
tonne and i, tho mainly tonnberry, wrote a tutorial about this but unfortunaly we cant show it right now due to nda's and sh1t but the idea is just like in ONS dinora
 

JonAzz

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you mean this tut: http://www.planetunreal.com/phalanx/tut's/tutorial_ter.htm I have it bookmarked :)

yeah that is what I normaly do, half and half or depending on what is needed, but for this I'm making a very large map with alot of vertical cliffs and platues. Terrain would seem useless because it doesn't do vertical cliffs and large plains would be a waste of quads. also I fogort to mention in the first post, I would like to render a lightmap onto the terrain to give it the extra feel.

and Its a map for the MOD: Unreal Annihilation
the maps for this tend to be very large and require vast areas of flat land, but since these maps are so big I need to use 256x256 heightmaps (or higher in some cases)


so in this case would it make sense to make the terrain out of a static mesh then split it up into peices (like 32 or so)
 

Hourences

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no not that tutorial, another one not out yet, was meant for ECE maps but not all maps were released so tut cant be released yet
i would really do it like dinora, you use meshes for the vertical things and terrain in between, cause starting to model the horziontale floors with meshes too is kinda not fun

it depends on polycount, i have an upcomming map where the entire rock terrain of the entire map is only 4500 poly, in cases like that you dont need to split it
if its like 40 000 poly for all the terrain mesh stuff then yes split it in like 8 parts or so
but really, with 4500 poly you can do a lot already, if your terrain mesh is several tenthousand poly you or have a very specific terrain (ons adara like) or you are wasting poly :)

lightmaps are possible, it is afaik possible to render a lightmap for an UED created terrain, pariah game does this, tho dont ask me how exactly
 

Dandeloreon1984

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Jan 31, 2004
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I can't wait for that tutorial, since it'll give me a start on how to create terrains from blender ( since it has a plugin for ase files)
 

JonAzz

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Aug 1, 2003
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Hourences said:
lightmaps are possible, it is afaik possible to render a lightmap for an UED created terrain, pariah game does this, tho dont ask me how exactly
yeah I know there is a way to do it, but to have the lightmaps on both the terrain and static meshes wouldn't be to fun to get aligned and looking right :eek:

I figure I'm just going to make it out of statics, maybe make it sort of like a puzzle so when I divide it up, pieces of the 'puzzle' can go in other places. doing this might even work a little better than useing a terrain.

I'll let even know when I finish, maybe right something up about it ;)


Hourences, when will that tut be out? I'm looking forward to reading it :)
 

Hourences

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in months from now on likely
we dont have enough examples, its like talking about a technique barely used like this
tonnberry mainly wrote it, i only got to add few things and more examples and well be done
but again, thats far from now :)
the technique anyway is similar to the sae2 tutorial, you only dont make the ground but leave it open for the terrain to fill in
just basic box modelling you know, not too fancy
soft selection is also great fun for it

its possible to export the in game terrain to max, then render lightmap with all rocks on right spot or something and then assign render
something like that, never done so dont ask how or who what where :)
 

Dandeloreon1984

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Jan 31, 2004
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Yet again, blender can do the same :D after i get skilled enough i will create terrains with that myself ;).
 

JonAzz

UA Mapper
Aug 1, 2003
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Hourences said:
in months from now on likely
we dont have enough examples, its like talking about a technique barely used like this
tonnberry mainly wrote it, i only got to add few things and more examples and well be done
but again, thats far from now :)
the technique anyway is similar to the sae2 tutorial, you only dont make the ground but leave it open for the terrain to fill in
just basic box modelling you know, not too fancy
soft selection is also great fun for it
sweet, the only thing I don't like about mixing terrain and sMeshes is that you can see the seem.
any chance I can get a sneak peek at the tut? I'm always open to learning new techniques :)


its possible to export the in game terrain to max, then render lightmap with all rocks on right spot or something and then assign render
something like that, never done so dont ask how or who what where :)
I've exported my terrain to max before to know the exact place of features and stuff. It can get laggy (on my comp at least) displaying over 130,000 polys at once. I'll have to look into that :)



Dandeloreon1984, its better to use the UED terrain thing for makign terrains, the only case not to would be for vertical cliffs. check out Hourences terrain tut, it makes a lot of good points :)
 

Dandeloreon1984

CXP Director
Jan 31, 2004
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JonAzz said:
Dandeloreon1984, its better to use the UED terrain thing for makign terrains, the only case not to would be for vertical cliffs. check out Hourences terrain tut, it makes a lot of good points :)

That is the only reason i would do static mesh terrain, and anyways, it is more like i would do various segments of terrain for a custom fitting doors and stuff like that ;).