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[cameni]

A blog about playing with bump effect on grass has been posted, together with video:

[C. Shawn Smith]

Just ... wow!  Love it!

All these little nuances are really driving Outerra into a class of its own (not that it already wasn't

[|ZUTI|]

Speechless. Really nice effect!

[yhwhluver]

That is really awesome.  Interestingly, model railroaders use a similar effect with different clumps of material to resemble grass and leaves.  Only difference is real life vs. a virtual world.

[Abc94]

Wow!  Looks really good!  Looks even more natural now.

When do you think you'll add in blades of grass?

Also, what happened with the tree generator that angrypig was working on?

[Jagerbomber]

Youtube really doesn't like small details.  :/

Anyways, this is awesome.  Would this effect vehicle suspension or is it only visual?  I certainly wouldn't expect every little bump to effect suspension (if it does, that's insane!), but what would be needed with this probably, if it doesn't effect it, is a "fake" suspension bumping effect when on grass like I believe has already been used in games if you get what I'm saying.

[cameni]

When do you think you'll add in blades of grass?

Also, what happened with the tree generator that angrypig was working on?

We need to solve some integration problems with the generated trees and their LOD management. A method for the grass blades will also come out of the tests for it, I think.

[cameni]

Would this effect vehicle suspension or is it only visual?  I certainly wouldn't expect every little bump to effect suspension (if it does, that's insane!), but what would be needed with this probably, if it doesn't effect it, is a "fake" suspension bumping effect when on grass like I believe has already been used in games if you get what I'm saying.

It can be both physical and visual, or each a part. I guess it is right so; the wheels sinking into grass but somewhere taking a bump. I've tested the case when it was all physical, it was a really rough drive

I'd actually like to try to make tracks on grass by pushing the bumps down there, just the visual part, might be cool.

[ZeosPantera]

The before and after shots are incredible. Why did I even like this engine before the advent of bumpy grass?

QUESTION: Can you integrate the tire tracks into the bumpy grass? It will be much more natural looking now that there is some height to be lost when I truck drives over it.

[cameni]

The before and after shots are incredible. Why did I even like this engine before the advent of bumpy grass?

Yea, we often say, when looking at older screens or videos - what made us to go forward, when it looked so plain and ugly?

QUESTION: Can you integrate the tire tracks into the bumpy grass? It will be much more natural looking now that there is some height to be lost when I truck drives over it.

Yes, I was pondering about it a post above. In fact the road system allows us to go a bit further, I think it could leave imprints in the dirt as well. But I need to change a few things there, and also to extend generator functionality a bit before that.

[AKNightHawk]

That looks really nice. It looks much much more natural too. As for blades of grass a friend of mine found a actual HLSL post effect for grass. It doesn't use 3D geometry at all. Or polygons. But it looks and feels like real grass. Here is a link to it with a paper on it.

http://www.cg.tuwien.ac.at/research/publications/2007/Habel_2007_IAG/

You might want to look into it cause with this you wont need 3D geometry for the grass at all..

Edit: I was wrong about it not using geometry for the grass. But it uses flat billboards for it. Which would be extremely fast

[PeterBitt]

one thing that i want to know as an arma player:
how will you handle the grass blades on distance?

i remember delta force 1 - 2 wich had the voxel engine with one mayor advantage over polygon games: the grass was visible on any distance, allowing players to hide properly.

i have no clue about the technical details but maybe its possible to add voxel grass?
or when you use the usual grass shader around the player, will there be a feature to hide distant players in the grass?

[cameni]

how will you handle the grass blades on distance?

There will be a level of detail that draws an "envelope" of vegetation, and upon coming up close it should be seamlessly replaced with a 3D representation. This here is an example of such system - the bumps basically envelop the low grass, and for closer views it will be replaced seamlessly by grass blades.

So if someone's hiding in a high grass, at a distance he will be under the envelope and thus invisible. We'll see how it turns out.

[halobungie]

Hello Cameni,
i can only say "Incredible" - this looks like a real world!!!!
Congratulations and Greetings,
halobungie

[PeterBitt]

wow, looks like this engine will be an all-rounder!

The before and after shots are incredible. ...

where can i find these screenshots? not much details visible in the video for me.