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Custom terrains made by dem's
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 Re: Custom terrains made by dem's
Posted by spka on Mon Mar 20th at 6:33pm 2006

Hi everyone, I was wondering, i made a terrain by using the dem's thing as the source sdk said. I dunno what it is but it makes my map real slow (only terrain yet) and its just 1024 * 1024. Is their a way to reduce it?

And bout the repeating textures on the terrain, any option to fix this. Tried the alpha thing but are their any other ways to do this?

Greetz spka






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 Re: Custom terrains made by dem's
Posted by warlord on Mon Mar 20th at 9:19pm 2006

ok i can only assume since you are in the hl2 forum that you are mapping for a source based game like hl2 or counter strike source.

i can also assume that the finnished product looks like a bunch of triangles.

since source was made they made an inbed way to make uneven ground and walls.

what you do is make your 1024X1024 block,

click on the "texture application tool" (the blue yellow and green one)

then click on the face that you want to make uneven

then click the displacement tab

then click create ( 3 should be a good number)

then click on paint geometry,

and in the 3d view click on the points you want to rais and lower

left click raises and right loweres

you should start to understand it from there




the only problem with steam updating things every week is it doesent give the developers an incentive to playtest thier work, so we do it for them



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 Re: Custom terrains made by dem's
Posted by Crono on Mon Mar 20th at 9:44pm 2006

They are already displacements.

You can pain the geometry using the displacement tools.
The reason why it's laggy is because it's probably a huge open area of displacements!!

Check out this tutorial on DEM files, it's pretty descriptive and will tell you pretty much anything you'd like to know. (I'm sure you already have, however, it goes into a good amount of detail. if you need to know anything further google the programs used.)

If you have problems outside that, then there's a warning you didn't heed.


Blame it on Microsoft, God does.



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 Re: Custom terrains made by dem's
Posted by fishy on Mon Mar 20th at 9:49pm 2006

is this 'dems' that you speak of not actually nem's terrain generator? if so, you should be able to find out all you need to know about it here. (<--clickeh)

[edit] i'd never heard of dems, and if crono hadn't been so slow, i'd never have said a word. shame on your tardiness, crono.




i eat paint



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 Re: Custom terrains made by dem's
Posted by spka on Mon Mar 20th at 10:27pm 2006

K not quite helpfull here. No probs i'll find out like the rest thnx anyways.




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 Re: Custom terrains made by dem's
Posted by Crono on Mon Mar 20th at 11:05pm 2006

The tutorial I linked tells you exactly how to use Digital Elevation Maps and putting them into source.

You can use a terrain generator to create the DEM maps and use CannonFodder's DispGen

HERE:
http://www.chaosincarnate.net/cannonfodder/dispgen.php

Perhaps you didn't follow the links.

THIS TUTORIAL:
http://forum.interlopers.net/viewtopic.php?t=4597

Explains everything throughly. I've done it many times.

As for your direct questions ... again ...



? quote:
I dunno what it is but it makes my map real slow (only terrain yet) and its just 1024 * 1024.


Disp Gen allows you to change both map size and displacement count (2, 3, etc) Also, if you have lag problems because of visibility, you can lower the vis distance (and fade distance when considering models)


? quote:
And bout the repeating textures on the terrain, any option to fix this. Tried the alpha thing but are their any other ways to do this?

There's not much else to it. I gave a link for Alpha Coloring, Painting Geometry was also covered in this thread.

Also, just to note, you don't need a DEM file to make the terrain for source, you can just make a grayscale image in Photoshop, Gimp, PainShopPro, whatever, and it will work. You're basically making a height map.

All of your questions have been answered ... if you have some trouble with the meaning, then say so. What else needs to be explained, exactly? Maybe you're asking the wrong questions?


Blame it on Microsoft, God does.



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 Re: Custom terrains made by dem's
Posted by spka on Tue Mar 21st at 8:40am 2006

Crono thnx a lot dude. I know that i don't need the dem's to make a map becus im makin a grayscale image in dispgen. My map is already running normal right know.
Sux that you can't paint the terrain directly with the displacement tool. I mean with other textures. Or it is me doing it wrong :P

Anyways thnx duders




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 Re: Custom terrains made by dem's
Posted by fishy on Tue Mar 21st at 11:22am 2006

? quoting spka

Sux that you can't paint the terrain directly with the displacement tool. I mean with other textures. Or it is me doing it wrong

you can use info_overlays (which can be almost any other texture) on displacement surfaces. roads/paths would probably be the most obvious, but there's stuff like tree roots, rubbish, rubble etc. all good for making large open spaces a little more interesting.




i eat paint



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 Re: Custom terrains made by dem's
Posted by spka on Tue Mar 21st at 11:36am 2006

awesomeness, i'll give it a try thnx man




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 Re: Custom terrains made by dem's
Posted by spka on Tue Mar 21st at 1:19pm 2006

one more question about the terrain and 3dskybox. I made this 3d skybox and it got terrain. i scaled it down to 0.625 but now is my problem the texture looks weird if scaled down, the brush changed. when im removing the sky_camera again and creating a new one my 3dskybox appears much lower then the original map but the texture looks good again wtf....
sorry bout all those question btw hope ya don't mind.
the tutorial wasn't quite clear about the displacement thing




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 Re: Custom terrains made by dem's
Posted by Dr Brasso on Tue Mar 21st at 1:46pm 2006

dude, not to be rude....but one question per thread please.....it helps the search engine out....i know you know this, ive asked you before.....please. and i know this question has been asked and answered before, recently....

Doc B...





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 Re: Custom terrains made by dem's
Posted by Crono on Tue Mar 21st at 6:57pm 2006

? quote:
Crono thnx a lot dude. I know that i don't need the dem's to make a map becus im makin a grayscale image in dispgen. My map is already running normal right know.
Sux that you can't paint the terrain directly with the displacement tool. I mean with other textures. Or it is me doing it wrong image
Anyways thnx duders


Well, you have to use a "two tone" texture when painting geometry. (So to speak) They're not actually called two tone, I don't remember the name, but they're textures which have a "highlight" and "shadow", if you want to think of it that way, and you brush one on top of the other, however, they're already defined for the textures that support it.

Otherwise, you have to use overlays, like Fishy said.


Blame it on Microsoft, God does.



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 Re: Custom terrains made by dem's
Posted by fishy on Tue Mar 21st at 10:28pm 2006

? quoting Crono


Well, you have to use a "two tone" texture when painting geometry....They're not actually called two tone, I don't remember the name....

Otherwise, you have to use overlays, like Fishy said.

use the word 'blend' as your texture filter. there's various blend types, like rock and grass, or mud and grass, or sand and gravel, etc.

the paint alpha option [in the displacement dialogue box] allows you a lot of freedom as to how and where the two textures will blend. you can use overlays on top of a blended texture too, and it can be really effective. see AgentSmith's pics in the WIP thread.




i eat paint



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 Re: Custom terrains made by dem's
Posted by rs6 on Tue Mar 21st at 11:32pm 2006

There is a tutorial floating around the pit on how to make those blends. Go look for it if you want.




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