Terragen converter?

Elspin · Post by **Elspin** » Thu Oct 25, 2007 3:34 am

Apparently, a very expensive game engine can use terrain made in terragen, which is used to make absolutely stunning photorealistic terrain. I myself am absolutely terrible at it, but I'd like to see it get put in ogre! Here's some examples of terragen work (it's full 3d, just 2d renders)

(this one does not want me to link it)
http://www.planetside.co.uk/gallery/v/t ... nder_1.jpg

Post by **xavier** » Thu Oct 25, 2007 3:49 am

Yes, it is commonly used to create terrains. The Ogre TerrainSceneManager has no problem using the .raw data put out by Terragen.

Elspin · Post by **Elspin** » Thu Oct 25, 2007 4:30 am

Really!?

. Does it apply all aspects of what it would look like in a render?

Post by **xavier** » Thu Oct 25, 2007 5:43 am

You have to export the texture maps from Terragen but yes, you can apply them in Ogre and it will work.

Bear in mind that those stunning rendered vistas you see in Terragen are exactly that -- rendered. Don't expect it to look like that in-game, especially up close (as in, you are moving about on the terrain as a player). I'm not sure even Terragen could export that level of detail up close -- even if it could, the texture sizes would be prohibitively large (without some serious offline post-processing of the Terragen export).

In other words, Terragen produces some incredible terrain -- when viewed from a distance. It provides a good starting point for sculpting the terrain more closely, but don't expect to be able to continue that perceived level of detail as you get closer to the terrain without some serious additional work after the export (and most likely a geomipmapped solution for your terrain engine -- TSM isn't going to do that for you).

Elspin · Post by **Elspin** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 2:52 am

Ah yes, I'm aware that with anything that seems that good there are flaws. Specifically the performance, I'm very aware of that. Some guy said one of his pictures took 6 days to render (one similar to the second pic displayed here)

But what I'm more interested in is the level of control and skill people can put into it, rather than the pretty renders people have made. I'm sure with some lower quality textures and performance-oriented placing you could make some good terrain for games with it

Post by **xavier** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 3:39 am

Certainly it's a fine starting point for terrain heightmaps. It's also sometimes a good ending point too, depending on your needs. The Ogre terrain demo, unless I am mistaken, was a random heightmap generation taken directly from Terragen (textures and all), with no additional processing.