I think I need to throw in my 6 pennorth here.
My own requirements were a huge terrain with hills, but visible well into the distance.
I ended up using a 1024x1024 heightmap, with a 1024x1024 colormap above it, then scaled x20.
This effectively gave me a 4 sq kilometre terrain, with a view of a least 1 kilometre.
FPS was very good, and only began to drop when I added lots of trees or grass.
I _did_ ask the old hands at the time, and they said that Blitz terrains are amazing efficient if you want real size, and Mark S had already coded in intelligent LOD into the system.
I certainly can't complain, my terrain has exceded the dreams that I first had.
The only thing that remains outstanding is that I can see that I will need 'proper tiling' in forthcoming projects, and obviously I'm hoping that BlitzMax will include this in its terrain system. If not I'll be looking at sswift's system for this functionality. :)
(I wish we could start a separate Blitz Web Site section just about terrains. I think the subject justifies it.)
My own requirements were a huge terrain with hills, but visible well into the distance.
I ended up using a 1024x1024 heightmap, with a 1024x1024 colormap above it, then scaled x20.
This effectively gave me a 4 sq kilometre terrain, with a view of a least 1 kilometre.
FPS was very good, and only began to drop when I added lots of trees or grass.
I _did_ ask the old hands at the time, and they said that Blitz terrains are amazing efficient if you want real size, and Mark S had already coded in intelligent LOD into the system.
I certainly can't complain, my terrain has exceded the dreams that I first had.
The only thing that remains outstanding is that I can see that I will need 'proper tiling' in forthcoming projects, and obviously I'm hoping that BlitzMax will include this in its terrain system. If not I'll be looking at sswift's system for this functionality. :)
(I wish we could start a separate Blitz Web Site section just about terrains. I think the subject justifies it.)