GPU Terrain

Community Forums/Showcase/GPU Terrain

JoshK (Posted 2009) [#1]

This is kind of interesting. I am not sure how useful it is, but the fact that you can display such huge areas with no memory usage gives me pause: http://leadwerks.blogspot.com/2009/02/i-had-choice-today-between-playing-doom.html

slenkar (Posted 2009) [#2]

you could define terrain in blocks.... like instead of recording every vertex you could record every 10 vertices, the terrain would be blockier though, then you could come up with a smoothing algorithm to make each block smoothly transition with the next

JoshK (Posted 2009) [#3]

I am thinking about maybe using a low-res unique heightmap and then a high-res repeating texture for smaller detail.

Sung (Posted 2009) [#4]

Hi Josh, this idea is great and usefull. Please complete it!

taumel (Posted 2009) [#5]

Well, procedural terrain engines have been there since the C64, Amiga (fits into a track :O), ... If it's reasonable depends on your game design. For a more abstract design you're mostly free to go. For content which needs a specific look and a certain definition it comes down to a) how flexible is the routine to make changes you want, say i want a mountainline here and a base camp there, the path leading from the camp to the mountains is here, b) how easy can an artist access/alter this data for instance for texturing, placing objects, working together with physics and so on and c) how well does the technology scale on different performing cards.