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64 lines
3.1 KiB
HTML
64 lines
3.1 KiB
HTML
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<html>
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<head>
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<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=windows-1252">
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<meta name="GENERATOR" content="Microsoft FrontPage 4.0">
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<meta name="ProgId" content="FrontPage.Editor.Document">
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<title>Creating the Terrain</title>
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</head>
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<body background="../pics/background.jpg" text="#FFFFFF" link="#FFFFFF" vlink="#FFFFFF" alink="#FFFFFF">
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<p align="center"><b><font size="5">Creating the Terrain <20>Mesh<73></font></b></p>
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<font SIZE="4">
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<div align="right">
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<table border="1" cellspacing="1" width="100%" bordercolor="#808080" bgcolor="#000000" cellpadding="10">
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<tr>
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<td width="100%"><font FACE="Times New Roman">
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<p> Although it<69>s not necessarily the only way to develop a piece of terrain,
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thinking of it and creating it as <20>mesh<73> of triangular brushes may be the
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easiest way to work initially. The terrain sections for Quake III: Team Arena
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were built in this manner, though each designer went about it in slightly
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different ways.</p>
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<p> Our primary tool was a plugin for <a href="http://www.qeradiant.com/" target="_blank"> Q3Radiant</a> , created by David Hyde, called
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<a href="http://tarot.telefragged.com/gensurf/" target="_blank">GenSurf</a>. The tool was originally created for Quake 2 (and may have been around
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longer) and has been adapted for use with many of the game engines using Quake,
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Quake2 and Quake3 technology. The basic concept behind GenSurf is that it can
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create and export a group of brushes (or curve patches) to Q3Radiant that have
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the look of <20>natural<61> terrain about them. Within the plug-in, the mapmaker
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has control over the horizontal dimensions of the terrain entity, the steepness
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of the slopes it creates, and the number of columns and rows of triangles that
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it subdivides into.</p>
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<p> The terrain can be generated from within the tool by using simple waveforms,
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more complex mathematical expressions, fractal calculations, or height maps. The
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last item, height maps, is in our opinion, the route to take for creating
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complex, visually interesting terrain layouts. A height map is a piece of art
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(we rendered them in grayscale) that GenSurf uses as a template for establishing
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the height of vertexes (the points where the corners of the terrain triangles
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meet). GenSurf interprets the color of the pixel (or more correctly the
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numerical color value of the pixel) that corresponds to the location of the
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vertex. Generally, the darker the gray value, the lower in height the vertex
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(256 unique height values corresponding to 256 pixel colors). GenSurf then uses
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the vertexes to define the extents of triangles and suddenly, one has a terrain
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surface. Of course, there are a few details of construction between start and
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finish <20></p>
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</font>
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<p align="center"><a href="terrain_entity.html">Back</a> - <a href="table_of_contents.html">Table
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of Contents</a> - <a href="height_maps.html">Height Maps</a></p>
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<p> </td>
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</tr>
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</table>
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</div>
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</font>
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<p align="center"> </p>
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<p align="center"> </p>
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<p align="center">-7-</p>
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</body>
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</html>
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