P-171: Oculus Rift/Virtual Reality Demo Part 4: L3DT Terrain Generation

by PhoenixGames on Jun.12, 2016, under Art and Designs, Software and Games, Tutorials

I used L3Dt to create the terrain for this project.

I haven’t used this program in some time, not since the old Atlas terrain that was used in previous incarnations of Torque. I find it quite powerful and easy to use, and even the standard, free version produces very good looking terrains.

Most of the important features of L3dt are explained in the documentation, but for integration into T3D, there are a few additional things to be aware of.

Firstly, when creating a terrain in T3D, it is important to specify the correct height, or vertical scale. This is entered in the “Height Scale” field in the Import Terrain Height Map. The value to be entered here can be found in L3Dt by selecting the heightfield, then going to set/change vertical range, and then taking note of the “altitude range”.

The next thing to bear in mind when important terrains to T3D pertains to texturing. It does not seem to be possible to export the texture that is created in L3Dt into T3D. It is necessary to first generate the alpha maps in L3dt by selecting Operations, then Alpha Maps, and then Generate Alpha maps. These maps can be combined if there are too many, I don’t go over 4 alpha maps, I am not certain if there is an actual limit.

These alpha maps are then added to the terrain import gui in T3D one at a time, using the “+” and “-” buttons in the “Texture Map” section. Then, a material should be mapped to each one of them. This is a little more difficult than just exporting a texture from L3Dt, but it allows a developer to very quickly add, change and swap out materials, completely changing the look of a terrain.