How do you use Blitzgrass with A.L.E?

Community Forums/Developer Stations/How do you use Blitzgrass with A.L.E?

GameCoder

(Posted 2004) [#1]

I have tried to make BlitzGrass3d work with my A.L.E terrains but I have discovered that it only works with Loadterrain and not loadmesh. Is there a workaround that can sort this issue out?, a code snippet i could add to the bltzgrass source or anything.

I have managed to make blitzgrass and blitztree work with heightmaps using the loadterrain function. I can tell you this they are two top apps.

Skitchy

(Posted 2004) [#2]

You'll need to use LoadMesh to load the landscape.
You'll also need to replace any terrain-specific commands - I don't own BT or BG but I'm pretty sure its just a matter of replacing the TerrainY() command with this :

(Just typed this in, so code is untested, but this is how I do it in the ALE engine : )

;make sure the base layer of your landscape is pickable, but temporarily
;disable picking on any object that might interfere with the LinePick.
;maxheight# should be greater than the highest point on your landscape. If 
;you're unsure just use a high-ish number
Function ALETerrainY#(x#,z#,maxheight#=30)
Linepick (x,maxheight,z,0,0-(maxheight*2),0,0.1)
Return PickedY()
End Function

Also, make sure you load your landscape with LoadAnimMesh() instead of LoadMesh(). This stops Blitz getting confused with the z-buffer and stuff :)