Outerra forum
Outerra Engine => Ideas & Suggestions & Questions => Topic started by: PRiME on March 04, 2012, 08:59:57 pm
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Just wondering if there are any plans for adjusting the terrain similar to how you place roads but instead you can select a tile(s) ingame and raise/lower and edit the physical terrain to allow corrections and creation of, steps, raised sections for buildings, crater impacts, tunnels & caves, ballistic impacts (craters)...
It also be nice if there was some sort of in-game script toolset were you could attach script events either at a point or on a players actions e.g. Lets say if the player placed a bomb on the terrain for instance; this would activate a script that deforms the area to make a crater upon explosion, and also create special effects etc...
These are a few suggestions I'll make for now, still very early days but figured some basic terrain edits would be possible.
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Oh one last thing thats related to terrain. Terrain texturing adjustment tools and perhaps also a stratification generator for bedding in the geological rocks.
Example of Real Geology
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/41627694/Outerra/16.4.2007--11.45a%20vertical.jpg (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/41627694/Outerra/16.4.2007--11.45a%20vertical.jpg)
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/41627694/Outerra/NW%20looking%20to%20SE%20Quad.JPG (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/41627694/Outerra/NW%20looking%20to%20SE%20Quad.JPG)
This may seem impossible but lets look at how this terrain is bedded, something similar can be applied to the game-engine for certain designated areas and functions like how fog level is, at certain heights/angles, exposed rock terrain has altered texturing.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/41627694/Outerra/2007-04-10-1420-57%20-%20Copy.jpg (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/41627694/Outerra/2007-04-10-1420-57%20-%20Copy.jpg)
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/41627694/Outerra/2007-04-10-1423-55%20-%20Copy.jpg (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/41627694/Outerra/2007-04-10-1423-55%20-%20Copy.jpg)
Again this is only my ideas, please don't flame me. :) And yes I am a geology graduate student and the images are my own except the last two which is from another student of my class at the time.
Edit: Ground Deformation is coming according to notes in-game. That's good to hear, hope it can be used to make caves and underground sections also :)
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Just wondering if there are any plans for adjusting the terrain similar to how you place roads but instead you can select a tile(s) ingame and raise/lower and edit the physical terrain to allow corrections and creation of, steps, raised sections for buildings, crater impacts, tunnels & caves, ballistic impacts (craters)...
Some of it is planned - craters that appear after explosions, support for creating portals for tunnels and caves. It just needs some basic support in engine for these. Of course, scripting system can have access to it.
Large-scale terrain editing is not supposed to get into this, but my desire is to create a whole planet builder where it would be all about it .. however, that's a longer journey :)
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Large-scale terrain editing is not supposed to get into this, but my desire is to create a whole planet builder where it would be all about it .. however, that's a longer journey :)
I think it would be cool, if there's an option to modify terrain in every aspect as well as to apply a terrain builder locally. For instance, if I wanted to create a post-nuclear disaster spot at some area, or sort of a surreal environment, or something.
Anyway, keep up the amazing work.
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Playing with the roads tool to deform the terrain...
(https://scontent-lax3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xtf1/v/t1.0-9/12027593_1524202897871689_6948672530936822930_n.jpg?oh=8d9911fa7f783cc860b806ab92e50dac&oe=565E12FE)
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Nice work. Almost looks completely natural. Got any comparison shots of a real thing like this?
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Nice work. Almost looks completely natural. Got any comparison shots of a real thing like this?
I had in mind stepped terrain, but this is just acrude attempt, made in matter of minutes. Perhaps with more work is doable.
(http://s3.amazonaws.com/mongabay/jlh/2011/600/arizona_025.jpg)
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Another (less aggressive) example...
(https://scontent-lax3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpl1/v/t1.0-9/12065650_1524336151191697_2338034333964109442_n.jpg?oh=c2b1ba65e97c45b0221da7f05ffa878a&oe=569915E1)
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That's quite an interesting idea to be able to remodel the land with vector path. One tool that can be useful to do that more quickly would be the ability to set an path that would follow the land horizontally like the lines of a topographic map (atm paths follow the land on the vertical axis) . Actually it would also be useful to lay roads along mountains slope.
Now i'm thinking, having the hability to lay path to contour the land horizontally would also make river path much more natural. Lets say you start the first node at a point 50 meters altitude, then you lay your next node 2km further at a point that is 40 meters altitude. Then the nodes in between would then find its way down using the contour of the land and giving it a more natual and realistic look.
(http://i.imgur.com/h40gJqt.jpg)
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Just to continue on the idea to create tools for canyon like vector path. The so called road path when set against a mountain side, could be in essence just like a regular road except that it would be filled with debris at a 30-40 degree angle.
(http://i.imgur.com/Rw70TCo.jpg)
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You can use sloped original material roads to make the debris, but it doesn't look good because the surface looks way too flat:
(http://i.imgur.com/NdkGT5Z.jpg)
I usually avoid to use too much the vectors for environmental modifications (outside for rivers/lake beds), because they are too obvious in the middle of the procedurally generated elements (even if the texture is still using the same fractal effect, which is really nice). But I think you found something interesting here guys :)
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"You can use sloped original material roads to make the debris, but it doesn't look good because the surface looks way too flat:"
For the 2nd example I made, I used a slim road with a wide transition area... The slope was 45° (or -45°, depending the direction), but after I took some nodes and changed them to lower values, trying to avoid the uniformity look...
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I wonder if the higher resolution elevation data will bring out some of these features on its own..........
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I bet it will... Indeed there are many areas that already show this nice shapes, even with the current dataset... It is just good to know you can adjust a bit the terrain in very specific locations, to, for example, make a building fit better.
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You can use sloped original material roads to make the debris, but it doesn't look good because the surface looks way too flat:
I usually avoid to use too much the vectors for environmental modifications (outside for rivers/lake beds), because they are too obvious in the middle of the procedurally generated elements (even if the texture is still using the same fractal effect, which is really nice). But I think you found something interesting here guys :)
I agree, you cant really do canyon like topology with the current road tool. But then, here's more of what i had in mind as a specialised path tool to create canyon like cliff. It's more complex to code than i first thought because the debris would have to be more of a cone shape.
On the other end, from my limited understanding of coding, i would guess that canyon are probably the most simple land geology to recreate with vector.
(http://i.imgur.com/ZY2M1k0.jpg)
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That's a really interesting idea :)
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Maybe we can replace the digital elevation models all together and just create terrain using elevation maps with detailed contours. Then we convert each contour to a vector to path, smooth the area between and there's your terrain.