L3DT is a Windows application for generating large, high quality 3D worlds for MMORPGs or other games. The professional version includes a plug-in for direct export from L3DT to Torque 3D.
L3DT is a Windows application for generating artificial terrain maps and textures. It is primarily intended for game developers seeking to make large high-quality 3D worlds (eg. for MMORPGs), as well as for digital artists who would like to have full control over their creations. This version of L3DT Professional comes with a plug-in that allows end-users to directly export their creations from L3DT to Torque 3D and Torque Game Engine Advanced with no hassle.
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As a sweeping and perhaps wildly over-simplistic generalization, programs that generate 3D terrain fall into two classes:
L3DT mixes some features of both approaches. You can, if you want, make a whole map by setting a few parameters and hitting the 'next' button (a la the 1st class). You can also manually 'design' the height map in L3DT a la the 2nd class. However, you don't have to do all the finely detailed manual labor yourself. Instead, you can edit a high-level 'design map' that sets out the general shape of the terrain and specifies the locations of various overlays like mountains, plateaus, volcanoes, cliffs and erosion. When L3DT generates the terrain, based on your design map, you get the features you want without having to do everything yourself.
Another significant feature of L3DT is that it can handle really big maps. Importantly, you don't need gigs of RAM for these maps - L3DT includes an automatic paging system that swaps map 'tiles' from RAM to the hard disk drive as required. It's called a mosaic map, and it usually caps the RAM usage to the 100-200Mb range (even for gigabyte- or terabyte-sized maps).
Pretty terrain isn't much good without a pretty texture image to match. L3DT includes texture generation and light mapping algorithms that provide realistic ground textures. If you want to do your own texture mapping, then L3DT can also help by generating the alpha maps.
L3DT is a pretty big and complex program, so to alleviate some of the learning-curve difficulties that might be experienced by new users, a substantial and regularly updated on-line user guide is provided. Also, there is significant community support, including a forum, users' wiki and mailing-list.
So what is included in L3DT Professional?
L3DT does quite a lot. A brief list of features would include:
