 |
Submitted by , posted on 17 June 2002
|
 |
Image Description, by
After looking at IOTD for more than 2 years now, I decided it was my turn to
show up what I was up to. I know this looks like a cheesy terrain renderer,
in fact it is but by posting this IOTD I wanted to put the emphasis more on
the terrain editor than the terrain renderer itself (I know it's not the
prettiest terrain renderer you have seen!).
So you guessed it, this is a demonstration of my terrain editor I am
currently working on, as well as a Java pathfinding demo I have done last
week on my lunch time. The pathfinding code has yet to be translated to C++
so I can incorporate it in my terrain editor. : )
The editor is built for a strategy game I am working on. This is not my
first game, but it is my most serious attempt to build a complex one. This
time I am building all the necessary components (engine, editors, etc)
before writing a single line of code for the game, I really want to finish
it. The UI isn't the best in the world since I am learning MFC along the way
(we should have something along the line of JFC/Swing in C++!). I have been
working on this for a few months in my spare time (some weeks I can work
something like 5-10 hours while other times I won't touch it for a few
weeks).
Right now the team consists of two artists and one programmer (me). The
artists are working on the concept art for the game so I have the time to
finish the editor.
There is a build you can try at www.creationobjet.com
(no source code). If you try it, I'd like to hear
from you.. Specs of your machine, fps, etc. And if you encounter a problem,
send me the WhatsWrong.log file in the data\log directory.. : )
The controls are a bit flaky at the moment, I have a bug in my DirectInput
code with MFC. It works well when in fullscreen though (but the editor is
limited to windowed mode). The controls are: Arrows for movement, Page up
and Page down for looking up and down.
It has only be tested on my two home computers which are:
Both are Athlon 750
Win 98 and Win XP
Both have GeForce2 MX 400
512MB and 1Gig of RAM
On the technical side:
The editor is built using MFC and DX8.1
Properties editor (heightmap, detail texture, skybox, texture
layers, etc) so you can see the modifications on the fly
Terrain, loaded from a heightmap, uses a quadtree for culling (no
LOD yet)
Terrain textures generated based on height and slope using
configurable texture layers
Uses skyboxes
Uses DX Effect Files for different rendering effects
Missing features:
Terrain editor generating a lightmap (next on my todo list)
I have to fix a bug in my DirectInput code using MFC (works well
in fullscreen)
Vegetation based on the texture layers (which can be compared to
regions)
Console (the underlying model class is done, I just need to plug
it in the UI)
Day/Night cycle (will play a role in the final game)
Water (I had a transparent water plane slightly moving up and
down, it sucked so I removed it!)
Fog
Get rid of all programmer art!
Feel free to visit www.creationobjet.com for more
details. Any suggestions or comments can be sent to
patrick.lafleur@creationobjet.com.
Patrick Lafleur, aka nosfy
|
|