Big Atlas2 terrain for test?

#1 I'd be interested aswell.

#2 Dennis, I didnt get anything back, just so you know.

#3 We currently have a 32k x 32k terrain file running in the engine. It was generated from an 8k x 8k heightfield image. Is that big enough for you? Be warned: its 118MB.

(It takes about 20 real minutes to run across the world at default player speed)

#4 Tell you what: I wouldn't be willing to release my terrain, but I'll whip you up a random one in L3DT (check it out!) @ 4096, ported into torque at 8192. That should give you something to play with. Sound good?

#5 I also would be interested in this, Mark..

#6 Alright. It will take a few more hours to get the terrain generated here (big terrains take a long time to create in L3DT). Once its done I'll need someone to volunteer an FTP site to host it. Fire me an email with the address and credentials.

#7 @Mark

I'm interested too on the big terrain, you can consider to post it via mediafire:

http://www.mediafire.com/

it's free and even there is no need to make a registration, just upload and post the link.

#8 Hmm, I haven't played with it in a while but I'm certain there was a very large Atlas terrain available for download from GG. It was mentioned in the R3 docs and I downloaded it and played with it for a while. Perhaps it isn't available any more or isn't compatible with the latest version of Atlas?

Greg

#9 Ok, I think its ready. Here's some screens:
I'm having trouble with MediaFire tonight, unless try to get it working tomorrow. I'm still open if someone is willing to lend an FTP site.

#10 MediaFire finally worked! Here's the download link it gave me:
www.mediafire.com/?9eymmjnnzg2

The file is about 62MB, and its a RAR of the .atlas terrain/texture file, and a MIS file that instances the terrain along with some water in the proper place so you can scoot around and have a look.

If you're not sure, here's how to get it working:
* Put the .atlas file in "terrain_water_demo/data/terrains" folder
* Put the .mis file in "terrain_water_demo/data/missions" folder

Then find this line in "terrain_water_demo/client/init.cs":

createServer( "SinglePlayer", "terrain_water_demo/data/missions/simple.mis" );

and change it to this:

createServer( "SinglePlayer", "terrain_water_demo/data/missions/BiggerExample.mis" );

Launch the game and you should be there! Enjoy!

#11 Thanks, just downloading...

#12 Not sure about anyone else, or maybe i'm missing something, but i let it run on my system for 30 mins, and the "loading mission" never moved, never really consumed any memory, but did consume a full CPU (dual 32bit cpu in this system). Any thoughts, or what i may have done wrong? (very few steps to mess up here)

#13 Check your console for errors. Usually that happens when there's an error in a script somewhere that it can't get past.

#14 So, has anyone got this downloaded and running? Comments and feedback are welcome.

#15 Yes i have finally. I copied the terrain_water_demo directory to terrain_big_demo (because i like to leave original stuff, original), and in the init.cs portion, changed the simple.mis to BiggerExample.mis, but did not change the directory name at the beginning of the string. :)

Works fine now, but since i've found out about the massive limitations relating to Atlas, i don't know if it is the engine for our project. We picked this engine largely because of the promises made regarding the terrain, promises that have been dropped.

But i digress.

The provided example atlas terrain does in fact work as advertised in this thread.

#16 Tried downloading, mediafire link seemed like a dud though...
Kept saying it was finished at soon as the downloaded started (i.e didnt download anything except maybe the header).

I tried multiple times. Even allowed the sites popups incase that was the issue. I think mediafire is the equivalent of geocities.

#17 @Barry: That's weird, I just tried again and the download appeared to start working properly (it was grabbing the correct file size), so I don't know. If you have an FTP site I can send it to, email me and I'll put it up.

@Jeremy: What limitations are you referring to? It's true, there's no in-game editor right now. But (as far as I've heard) it's slated for a later release. Granted, no one is completely sure when that will happen. I guess if you need a terrain system with an editor right now, then TGEA isn't right for you.

#18 I'm using TGEA together with L3DT Pro + L3DT_ATLAS exporter and I can definitely say: If you use atlas2 terrains with unique texturing of 32k x 32k and larger it looks beatifull :-) (Or should I say of a ratio of heightfield : texture of 1 : 16+ )
And the best part is: while the texture itself is 4GB in size (and takes 5 hours to be calculated on a Core Duo T2500), the final atlas file is not even near that with its 130MB and the performance is not really lower the the water and terrain demo although there is far more to seedue to a view range of 10000 and a waterblock which is more or less everywhere (as it is an island mission) with fully enabled features. And I'm on a crappy 7300GT :) (and get around 60-80 FPS at 1680x1050)

=> I need several minutes to fly over the whole terrain even in fastest cam speed and pressed mouse button.
Thats something no other engine so far gave me I've to say.
either I had large terrains with blurry textures + detail texture or I had small terrains and detailed textures through alpha splatting and the like. But never massive terrains with texture quality that just depend on my time to calculate the texture itself.

#19 @Mark: From what i understand by reading the forums, the terrain cannot be part of the normal lighting/shadowing routines, so if the main light source moves, there won't be believable shadows. I am unable to place above/under ground structures, because i cannot punch holes in the current terrain. Finally, if the engine is incapable of modifying the heightfield, then i probably don't have a chance at writing a deformable terrain bit of code to make the giant landscape more believable (plus the fact that when i purchased the EA, i was lead to believe, which i cannot provide the source for at this time, that i wouldn't need a third party app for the terrain).

Shaders are cute, and will help things, but it isn't eye candy that makes a person play a game for years after release, it is the game play, which i was hoping to enable with the vast land scapes. I just think that a new release marked as production should include the features of the previous technology it is trying to replace (or some set of new features, like, you don't need to punch holes anymore, because interiors don't render the landscape, which makes it massively easier for level designers, and the fact you can make more dynamic missions because static shapes can be created/destroyed more readily).

I'm having to re-examine the list of engines out there, because of the unknown release schedule for basic features that the legacy terrain supported (or not knowing what better features will be, like what i suggested in the previous paragraph). Now, i'm obviously far away from a release date, but so far haven't really seen much hard info on what expectations i should have, and their timeframe, relating to the "improved" terrain. Otherwise, TGEA is a very nice engine, comprised of most of the parts we need, but if we are limited to the legacy terrain, it loses much of the sparkle.

(and i'm not being a troll/etc here, if i'm going to base my hopefully successful business on an engine, i need to know it'll be there for me. More than willing to talk, and even learn new things, not closed minded, just don't have a lot to go on)

#20 Stop building like a 20th century contractor, filling in wetlands, stripmining valleys, etc. From what I've seen, most folk are doing something medieval based, so build like they did. Look at your terrain, find a good place to settle down, and start building your villages _around_ whats available. There where no bulldozers in the dark ages :)
You really don't have to have holes in the terrain to access underground levels. Use in-zone style teleporters, much like NWN did for all doors/interiors. Properly set up, no one will ever know they've been transfered somewhere else.