Terrain Rendering

[arne]

how? aren't we getting a bit offtopic here?

yup

on the 'non-core' topic:
a: the terrain package ( and some others ) were moved to the toolkit

ahh that's reasonable - it moved then with the other loaders. I already wondered.

b: i'm ( and i guess arne isnt either ) by no means a core developer just some guy who came along and thought i'd contribute something to xith ...

actually nobody here is a core developer, most code the stuff, what they need for their game, and contribute that. Will might be the only exception (because he's the project owner - but don't expect him to do all that stuff - he also got loads to do!) + About myself - I haven't actually got a developer status yet - mmh I really should have one for the xith-tk, when Goliat has finished his code, so we can use the cvs

as of the progress:
i externalized the loading to modules .... at the moment there is a 'load from image', a 'load from binary file' and a loader that loads a plane terrain that can be modified afterwards ... the modules implement an interface ... so everybody can implement an own loader

Nice 
I am dying to test it.

Arne

[Goliat]

just another progress report:

the heightmap editor is more or less functional ( not a beauty ... but it works ) to be honest the interface is very clumsy but you can create, modify and view bezier heightmaps with much less hazzle than to do it by hand
i'd like to post another screeny ... but this time i really got no one here ...
there are some few things left to iron out ( like some little scaling problems ) but it hope by the end of the week i'm able to give you a little 'demo' version to play around with

next things on my shedule:
- get some sleep
- work ...
- get some more sleep
- try to find a new apartment
- etc ...

no serious:
now that i have a working heightmap editor i'll concentrate on the terrain itself again and there a lot things have to be done ...

Florian, the forever restless ...

[arne]

So, how has been progress?

Maybe you'll simply add that what you've done to the xith-tk and let the community do the rest, if you haven't got enough time for it.

Arne

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[Goliat]

hmm... now that i see i've got much too less time i'd just do that ... but my pc's at my girlfriends home with (almost) no internet

progress:
have a nice terrain with 5 resolution levels per patch, with multiple texture layers ( currently just two types: baselayer and additional texture layer )

now i have to find a way to set the right resolution per patch ... i would like to use some kind of screen error check ( meaning there is a error in the 'up' direction which is projected on the screen where it is compared to a given max error )
i have the error per patch ... but i have no idea how to do the projection part ... any hints?

[Goliat]

just as i promised ( to arne ) and without a lot of words
my terrain code for everyone to play around

just one node: this is not the final thing ... i just havn't got that much time at the moment so i'll give you the current code
i'll do some more writing tomorrow ... and'll go to bed now

[edit] should attach the code right? - just remove the .jpg at the end of the filename [/edit]

[cylab]

To answer you question for the error-projection:

In my terrain, I determine the height-error of every detail-level in respect to the most detailed one by calculating ray plane intersections from each vertex in the latter to the triangles of the less detailed patch. In the rendering, I set up a vector like [0,0,<heightError>] for every detail level patch (starting with the less detailed one) and multiplicate this vector with the current ModelView Matrix. The first detail level patch is choosen for rendering, for which the length (or squaredLength for performance reason) of this vector is less than the maximum allowed error.

[arne]

hmm.. I get an error with (TerPath.java L.17)

1	import org.xith3d.geometry.Patch;

[Goliat]

oh ... jup .. just another class i forgot to upload

[arne]

ok I haven't still tested your code - hrrg - I really should do this

a nice topic about this, I found here at the forum (for everybody who missed):

http://www.java-gaming.org/forums/index.php?topic=12102.0

EDIT: woot, woot I finally managed to have some time to test it (I had to write an test-case is that correct, or did I simply miss something?) And then it wasn't able to find all the resources (images and .gsgl files)

[Goliat]

arg .... slap me, hit me, beat me ... whatever ... i'm depending on to many external files ... i guess i'll include the gsgl stuff 'inline' ( which was in my mind before as i like to use a dynamic number of texture states )

what else is missing? i guess you xith build doesn't handle Branch-/TransformGroups which implement NodeUpdater ... there was another topic started by me some time ago ... but i don't think anything got changed in the xith core

  [person related babbeling: i'm currently offline ... just around 20 days to go ... am at seminar for this week and have inet here ... but that doesn't help me ... right?  ]

Greetz Florian