TGEA 1.7 Terrain / megaterrain
by Jon Paynter · in Torque Game Engine Advanced · 04/12/2008 (3:13 pm) · 8 replies
Where would I find a getting started guide specificly to terrains?
It seems every time I start working with the terrain texture painter it crashes. Is this thing still supported? (I hope so)
I managed to discover that you MUST specify all your textures when you first create a megaterrain object, otherwise everything is black when the first texture is applied.
Also... what are the rules to get the texture painter to apply the settings to ALL the terrain bocks? If i create a new megaterrain, and setup the texture painter to work on one block.. only that block gets painted when I hit apply. But if i select a different terrain block and hit apply from the texture painter, it crashes 100% of the time.
Can somebody point me in the right direction here?
It seems every time I start working with the terrain texture painter it crashes. Is this thing still supported? (I hope so)
I managed to discover that you MUST specify all your textures when you first create a megaterrain object, otherwise everything is black when the first texture is applied.
Also... what are the rules to get the texture painter to apply the settings to ALL the terrain bocks? If i create a new megaterrain, and setup the texture painter to work on one block.. only that block gets painted when I hit apply. But if i select a different terrain block and hit apply from the texture painter, it crashes 100% of the time.
Can somebody point me in the right direction here?
#2
04/15/2008 (9:50 pm)
If you go through the 'Blogs' read Matt Fairfax's Blog about TGEA 1.7 and in the latest one you find links that give you a walk-through about the Mega terrains and how to set them up...if you can't find it Ill check back in and post the link itself, but you should be able to find it the blog want written that long ago....once you go over that if you still have questions I will be happy to answer them for you;) 
#3
04/16/2008 (5:08 am)
You can find a short set of steps on how to set up a Mega Terrain in the documentation that shipped with the engine. Check the last page of the Mission Editor portion of the documentation.
#4
It doesnt say you have to put all your textures in the initial texture list.
The texture painting on megaterrains does work as advertised, so no complaints there.
any tips on how to get the Terrain texture editor to work on all 4 blocks of a megaterrain at the same time?
Right now i have to comment out each individual terrain block and texture it individually. Otherwise, it changes this:
Into this:
But even after I get each individual block textured with the Terrain Texture editor and re-assembled into my mission .. I have some nasty looking seams:
Is this a known issue? or new bug? or did I do something wrong?
04/17/2008 (10:56 pm)
I read the documentation that shipped with tgea.It doesnt say you have to put all your textures in the initial texture list.
The texture painting on megaterrains does work as advertised, so no complaints there.
any tips on how to get the Terrain texture editor to work on all 4 blocks of a megaterrain at the same time?
Right now i have to comment out each individual terrain block and texture it individually. Otherwise, it changes this:
Into this:
But even after I get each individual block textured with the Terrain Texture editor and re-assembled into my mission .. I have some nasty looking seams:
Is this a known issue? or new bug? or did I do something wrong?
#5
The seams are a known issue. The Terrain Texture Editor is also a known issue. Between Beta 1 and Beta 2 (I think) I created a quick solution to getting the Texture Editor to work on all Terrain Blocks. I wasn't sure if it was optimized, debugged, and submitted to the final release because I was neck deep in documentation work (still am).
You can check the thread I posted (Texture Editor Bug) and see if it made it into the engine or not.
04/18/2008 (5:36 am)
At the time of writing, you didn't have to do it. I usually did it anyway though =)The seams are a known issue. The Terrain Texture Editor is also a known issue. Between Beta 1 and Beta 2 (I think) I created a quick solution to getting the Texture Editor to work on all Terrain Blocks. I wasn't sure if it was optimized, debugged, and submitted to the final release because I was neck deep in documentation work (still am).
You can check the thread I posted (Texture Editor Bug) and see if it made it into the engine or not.
#6
Hand editing the mission file in a text editor to comment out terrain blocks will very likely break their links... which would introduce seams and other issues.
04/18/2008 (6:41 am)
Are you using 1.7 release or a beta? If a beta, there are a number of known issues that were fixed for release. If the release, do you have a callstack for the crash you encountered?Quote:Right now i have to comment out each individual terrain block and texture it individually.
Hand editing the mission file in a text editor to comment out terrain blocks will very likely break their links... which would introduce seams and other issues.
#7
Thanks for the texture editor thread -- i'll read it over & see what i can use.
By "commenting out terrain blcoks" I mean changing this:
To this:
such that only 1 TerrainBlock instance is present in the mission file. Then I texture and paint as needed.
What issues could that cuase? Im curious.
04/18/2008 (6:13 pm)
Im using the release version. no betas.Thanks for the texture editor thread -- i'll read it over & see what i can use.
By "commenting out terrain blcoks" I mean changing this:
new SimGroup(MegaTerrain) {
canSaveDynamicFields = "1";
Enabled = "1";
new TerrainBlock() {
canSaveDynamicFields = "1";
Enabled = "1";
position = "-1024 -1024 0";
rotation = "1 0 0 0";
scale = "1 1 1";
terrainFile = "scriptsAndAssets/data/missions/simple_megaterrain_0_01.ter";
squareSize = "4";
tile = "0";
detailDistance = "25";
detailScale = "256";
detailBrightness = "1";
texelsPerMeter = "8";
clipMapSizeLog2 = "10";
};
new TerrainBlock() {
canSaveDynamicFields = "1";
Enabled = "1";
position = "0 -1024 0";
rotation = "1 0 0 0";
scale = "1 1 1";
terrainFile = "scriptsAndAssets/data/missions/simple_megaterrain_1_01.ter";
squareSize = "4";
tile = "0";
detailDistance = "25";
detailScale = "256";
detailBrightness = "1";
texelsPerMeter = "8";
clipMapSizeLog2 = "10";
};To this:
new SimGroup(MegaTerrain) {
canSaveDynamicFields = "1";
Enabled = "1";
//new TerrainBlock() {
// canSaveDynamicFields = "1";
// Enabled = "1";
// position = "-1024 -1024 0";
// rotation = "1 0 0 0";
// scale = "1 1 1";
// terrainFile = "scriptsAndAssets/data/missions/simple_megaterrain_0_01.ter";
// squareSize = "4";
// tile = "0";
// detailDistance = "25";
// detailScale = "256";
// detailBrightness = "1";
// texelsPerMeter = "8";
// clipMapSizeLog2 = "10";
//};
new TerrainBlock() {
canSaveDynamicFields = "1";
Enabled = "1";
position = "0 -1024 0";
rotation = "1 0 0 0";
scale = "1 1 1";
terrainFile = "scriptsAndAssets/data/missions/simple_megaterrain_1_01.ter";
squareSize = "4";
tile = "0";
detailDistance = "25";
detailScale = "256";
detailBrightness = "1";
texelsPerMeter = "8";
clipMapSizeLog2 = "10";
};such that only 1 TerrainBlock instance is present in the mission file. Then I texture and paint as needed.
What issues could that cuase? Im curious.
#8
All the code is already in my copy of TGEA 1.7 retail.
so it looks like a few more things need to be tweaked.
04/18/2008 (11:37 pm)
Ok i checked over the bug fixes in that terrain thread.All the code is already in my copy of TGEA 1.7 retail.
so it looks like a few more things need to be tweaked.
Torque 3D Owner Jon Paynter