Spring RTS Engine

Good point, however bumpmaps can be tiled.
Also, higher detail heightmaps needs more geometry to be rendered, while a bumpmap is simply a texture.

My plan is to have:
-on distant parts of terrain, heightmap will be replaced by a lower detail heightmap + bumpmap, so it looks the same even though it's rendering less triangles.

-have tiled bumpmaps that are specific to each terrain texture type. Like a bumpmap for grass, a bumpmap for rock...

If only diffuse lighting is used, these tiled bumpmaps are not very well visible with a static light (sun) like in spring, however I also want to use specular lighting on it, and in that case the player will see the effect of the bumpmaps very well when moving the camera.

Wow, sounds awsome. Shame I have to wait six months for a new graphics card.

caydr, a bumpmap is more a lighting trick then actuall ground. It is not redundant.

It is as redundant as having a detail texture.

More detailed textures on a map would be NOTHING compaired to bumpmapping.

Before:


After:

Wow. I would really like to see how that turns out in maps!

Isn't normal mapping supposed to replace bump mapping?

Das Bruce wrote:Isn't normal mapping supposed to replace bump mapping?

It's basicly the same thing.

[edit] at least that is to say it won't make a difference in spring maps. Normal mapping is only really useful on things like player models.

Das Bruce wrote:Isn't normal mapping supposed to replace bump mapping?

you are thinking of paralx mapping and no they are the same.


Although, To be honest, I would like something like this:

http://www.ogre3d.org/wiki/index.php/Ma ... _Splatting

I am not sure what the proper term is but these guys call it "alpa splatting."

Although, To be honest, I would like something like this:

http://www.ogre3d.org/wiki/index.php/Ma ... _Splatting

It's actually called "texture splatting", and it's the core idea behind this new renderer.

HOLY SMOKES, you guys are going to implement this!, wow, I am going to map like hell when this gets implemented!

Will this be able to simulate negative height, so it can be used for the craters and such?

normal mapping is NOT true 3d, it is illusory.

You can use it to create stones, panellines, texturing on areas, relief on many other areas but KNOW that it is ILLUSORY there is no mesh involved.

For example you can make a crater with the heightmap and a texture, then use normal mapping to give it details that would otherwise require a more detailed height map.

Smoth, I know it's illusionary. What I want to know is if it could be used to give explosion craters some more detail in addition to the low-resolution ground deformation.

Ofcourse it would be possible, but I'd say the heightmap damage detail of explosions is already high enough right now.

To make map heightmap damage better in a way, I think "explosion height-change maps" (or whatever they should be called) should be used, so the change in heightmap is determined from a custom grayscale image.
Not that I'm going to add that though, it's just an idea.

Well, in that case it could be used for footprints.

Well, in that case it could be used for footprints.

From a performance perspective, it's much better to render footprints/tracks on top of the map as a decal, then to integrate them into the actual terrain rendering. I agree that it would still be nice to use it for footprints, but I'm saying it falls outside ideas for the terrain renderer.

So is there any chance of higher res heightmaps at all? Like maybe 1/4 size at least, instead of 1/8? Would really help imo.

I think currently the even the smallest units overlap a few heightmap pixels, I really think that should be accurate enough.

I can eventually support higher detail heightmaps in this new renderer if you want, however it will just be a graphical effect because the whole spring mapdamage/pathfinding system still has to use the same resolution heightmap.

I think 1/8 is ok, remember the map height resolution is 16bit. We are all pretty much stuck with creating them in 8 bit and using the lowpass filter at compile time get rid of ugly steps. My point is the extra level of accuracy is already there.

Texture spatting more like this?
http://www.futurenation.net/glbase/sshots.htm

We could get some stunning maps with this plus bumps and specular lighting. I am hoping the components for a map will get much smaller, no more giant BMPs. It will be a good thing considering the increased complexity, it will allow us to work on maps jointly.

so this can or will remove the stretched texture effect ? seems like it will...

OMG THINK OF THE METALMAPS AS BUMPMAPPED !!!... jeez RUNESCAPES UPCOMING MAP !... *faints*

OMG... i said RUNESCAPE ! i was so dizzled and sizzled...
runecrafter i meant i shoulda never waisted my life on RUNESCAPE !

Wow, that's embarassing. I've been using 8 bit heightmaps. I guess I'll try 16 bit with my next map. Even so, I'd really like heightmaps to be higher res. I know it's a purely visual thing, but that's actually the very reason I'd like it.