[leveller] Re: Digital Surf
- From: "Carl Lingard" <lingardc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <leveller@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 29 Sep 2007 13:23:02 +0100
Long term, I'm planning on adding Terrain Viewer as a scene export option
for Leveller. But the system needs to figure out by itself where the
shoreline is -- currently it's hard coded. Plus some material map system
needs to exist; not every shore is a beach.
Great news! Leveller has often been my preferred way to visualise terrain
models or
wips. It seems to be the way other terrain modellers are going too.
Relatedly , what would be super useful is a way of moving between terrain
models and the final
renderer in a much more managed way. We've talked about this on ME-DEM.
we need more streamlined ways to produce textures more directly from the
terrain-
obviously flow maps are the basis of this at present. A heightmap is only
the terrain
half-finished- and if it's a very large heightmap of varying geographies
(and even
latitudes), that's going to be one large texture requiring a lot of work
and/ or
thought.
The renderers are going to have procedurals, but, unless you can find a way
to drive
those procedurals, across renderers, then our best met is to stick with maps
right?
The usefulness of the app is dubious... a game studio, e.g., will already
have their own render engine. Personally I like having a nicely rendered
island just "to get away" when taking a break. But I don't know if lots of
people go for that sort of thing.
Well it's the second life thing isn't it? :) I do go for this and I know
others who do
too. The main reason I buy computer games is to immerse myself in the
enviroment (and
to see the state of play of technology)- I often don't complete the games
these days.
Looking at the Typhoon engine for eg, that really is very cool and extremely
pleasant
to amble about in because it favours simulation rather than gameplay. Having
looked
into a few mmorpgs, I know that a lot of people talk about building houses
in the
back of beyond. But then we're back to your stated reservation.
I'm also looking at Second Life scripting, to help spruce up SL sims.
What kind of scripts would you write?
But Terrain Viewer is faster to launch than SL and I can code in C++ which
I'm more familiar with, so it's easier to prototype effects for now this
way. Machinima is a more useful application, but that needs scripting,
which SL has. Or maybe one of the open source game engines can be used.
Have you been following the recent convos on ME-DEM Ray ?
http://www.me-dem.org/component/option,com_fireboard/Itemid,43/func,view/id,2490/catid,4/
We're looking into a real time viewer. Why not get involved more directly
with what
we're planing to do? I know that RedRobes is keen to develop on an open
source
terrain viewer and in fact integrate his geomorpher with texture output.
Carl
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