Is there any easy, visual way to build terrain? MW3D doesn't work for me, and I would really love a tool that would aid in making a terrain.
You can use blender to make your terrain and then export it to jme via ogrexml or maybe this is more what you want: http://www.jmonkeyengine.com/forum/index.php?topic=12357.0.
Hi,
I have been researching terrain models etc recently. This is what I have discovered so far.
You could use a heightmap to make terrain you don’t have to load models (as far as I can tell heightmaps are the primary way for uncomplicated maps). Basically a heightmap is a grid or a matrix that holds height information for each entry. The easiest way to make a map is to open MSPaint and make a 129 by 129 image and use various levels of gray to map a terrain. The levels of the grayscale in the image will translate to height data in jME.
What I have been doing to test various types of terrain is to use photoshop to make an image and then use blender to quickly see what the effect looks like.
If you have a grayscale image, then in blender make a grid of 128 by 128 press TAB(edit mode), F6, change ‘texture type’ to ‘Image’, click ‘Load’ and browse to the image. Then press F9 and press ‘Noise’ on the mesh tools.
If there is not a texture loaded when you press F6, press F5 and find ‘Add new’. Then press F6 and ‘Add New’. You should now be able to proceed in the manner described above.
I have looked at different types of terrain builder, but to be honest I think that it will be easier to use photoshop.
Here is a list of Terrain builders if you wanna check them out. I’d appreciate feedback if you look at them cos I’m in the same position as you at the moment so I’d like to hear.
Terragen - Not free but I think there is a free trial or something
http://www.planetside.co.uk/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/
Heightmap Editor - Free
http://hme.sourceforge.net/
Earth sculptor - Free for non comercial
http://www.earthsculptor.com/index.htm
Hope this helps
Neilos
ps. I didn’t get on with MW3D either. What’s with that? It just seems to run like a snail.
there are a few different projects, but nothing is finished so far i think.
mapspinner
ncsofts worldbuilder (its closed source tho something like that would be nice to be included with jme)
Sandbox
not sure what name but looks promising
Momoko_fans’s WorldTool - couldn’t find any news on it
normen said:
You can use blender to make your terrain and then export it to jme via ogrexml or maybe this is more what you want: http://www.jmonkeyengine.com/forum/index.php?topic=12357.0.
I am very interested in this as I am taking a animation/modeling class this year that uses blender for its modeling.
Core-Dump said:
there are a few different projects, but nothing is finished so far i think.
mapspinner
ncsofts worldbuilder (its closed source tho something like that would be nice to be included with jme)
Sandbox
not sure what name but looks promising
Momoko_fans's WorldTool - couldn't find any news on it
I am almost finished downloading the unnamed one, hope it works well :)
Neilos said:
Hi,
I have been researching terrain models etc recently. This is what I have discovered so far.
You could use a heightmap to make terrain you don't have to load models (as far as I can tell heightmaps are the primary way for uncomplicated maps). Basically a heightmap is a grid or a matrix that holds height information for each entry. The easiest way to make a map is to open MSPaint and make a 129 by 129 image and use various levels of gray to map a terrain. The levels of the grayscale in the image will translate to height data in jME.
What I have been doing to test various types of terrain is to use photoshop to make an image and then use blender to quickly see what the effect looks like.
If you have a grayscale image, then in blender make a grid of 128 by 128 press TAB(edit mode), F6, change 'texture type' to 'Image', click 'Load' and browse to the image. Then press F9 and press 'Noise' on the mesh tools.
If there is not a texture loaded when you press F6, press F5 and find 'Add new'. Then press F6 and 'Add New'. You should now be able to proceed in the manner described above.
I have looked at different types of terrain builder, but to be honest I think that it will be easier to use photoshop.
Here is a list of Terrain builders if you wanna check them out. I'd appreciate feedback if you look at them cos I'm in the same position as you at the moment so I'd like to hear.
Terragen - Not free but I think there is a free trial or something
http://www.planetside.co.uk/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/
Heightmap Editor - Free
http://hme.sourceforge.net/
Earth sculptor - Free for non comercial
http://www.earthsculptor.com/index.htm
Hope this helps
Neilos
ps. I didn't get on with MW3D either. What's with that? It just seems to run like a snail.
Monkey World 3D, it sounds good, but I could never get it to work. I am not really interested in building random height maps, I really wanted to design the world myself. For example, if I want to make a mountain with ridges, I would prefer to do it myself.
Thanks for the extensive explanation of height maps, I will look into it, as it does look interesting. :P
normen said:
You can use blender to make your terrain and then export it to jme via ogrexml or maybe this is more what you want: http://www.jmonkeyengine.com/forum/index.php?topic=12357.0.
That looks very nice, is it open source? If so, can you pass me a link to it?
That RFC thing, it loads the terrain from an XML file?
If you know anything else, please inform me. :D
If you draw the map with photoshop I think that you will be surprised how much control you get over it. And how good it actually looks coming out the other side.
If you use blender to design a map then you can export it as a heightmap check these two links, I haven’t tried them but one of them must work lol.
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:Tutorials/Textures/Maps/Creating_a_Heightmap_from_a_Plane
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Noob_to_Pro/Landscape_Modeling_III:_Exporting_as_a_Heightmap
This page describes how to make a simple map in blender.
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Noob_to_Pro/Landscape_Modeling_I:_Basic_Terrain
To be honest I have tried all sorts of terrain editors and the control you get in photoshop (if it is control you want) is unparalleled. The trouble with the terrain editors is that they use tools that act on the mesh over a desired tool radius, having complete control would either be impossible or tedious. I want enough control to be able to raise each vertex on the map individually and know that they are the same height (for instance if they are a road or a building foundation). I haven’t found this control in an editor that I am happy with, don’t get me wrong I would love to find it but so far I haven’t.
Also another problem, if you are exporting things as heightmaps, is that a grayscale heightmap is an 8-bit image. if you make the terrain in blender or in a similar program then you can get weird translations that can make the map look funny (cos they are 16-bit), these can either apply to all of the map, meaning a total rework, or part of the map, and be hard to spot. However you could always leave it as a mesh.
In photoshop I have found it best to create parts of the terrain seperately, basically you can make a general contoured plane then add hills to it on a different layer. You can use a multiply or something to merge the levels so that they stack nicely (basically make hills where the lowest point is black getting lighter as you go up, then when you stack it on a terrain it will add the grayscale values to the corresponding pixels below). This makes for nice recycleable files, such that you can build a library of hills and then use photoshop to align them on top of a base terrain (making pathways and such forth is easy then).
Neilos
You seem to know a lot more than me about this, I guess I will talk to you on MSN when you get on.
Right now I am thinking of having (for my online world, sounds cheesy but okay) water at 1 height in the game, and then have terrain slightly above, and when the terrain goes lower then the water level, water will be there 
Well that is in theory…Lets see what will happen today!
I am still very much a beginner, but persistence will get us all there in the end!
But how do you identify that the object is on top of the street or grass?
You’d want to something like a lightmap, but an environment map where a white pixel means there’s road and black mean there isn’t. A red pixel could mean there’s a tree, a blue could be a bush, and green could be a spawn point. Get it? For help look at something like this: http://blogs.msdn.com/shawnhar/archive/2009/06/15/appweek-level-editing.aspx It’s xna, but it similar in how a level could be constructed.
But what if we want a modern looking road complete with centerline and all? And what is the best way/software to make the road/terrain fit eachother?
Presumably there is specialized software for this. I gather both cryengine and torque has a road editor. What are our free/cheap options? Is Freeworld3d our best option?
You'll probably want a model of sorts for the road and add it in with some world editor. I haven't played around with Freeworld3D yet, but that should probably work.
Do you have any program to do that?
This is how it's done in Freeworld3d
http://www.freeworld3d.org/tutorials/roadsystem.html
It's fairly easy and straight forward - at least with only one heightmap.
how add tree and roads in terrain heigthmap??
They are not added in the heightmap. Roads can be added as a texture, trees can be added as objects to the terrain after it has been created from the heightmap.