Terrain

I love terrain. I mean I really love generated terrain. I have no idea why – I’ve always been interested in it since I saw Outrun in the arcades (waaaay back) with its undulating roads. This was quite a novelty for me as all the computer generated roads up until then had been flat (pitstop, pitstop II, etc – and itf you have no idea what I’m on about then either you are too young or you never owned a C64).

Anyway, I remember seeing Zarch on an Archimedes at when I was at school (it was brand new and was the pride of our Computer Studies class – we only had BBC’s then!) and being blown away.

Anyway, every since then I have been into terrain and have implemented loads of versions (brute force, ROAM based, etc) in C, C++, Java, C# using Windows API, OpenGL, DirectX and now XNA.

Anyway, I have a WIP version http://imagineear.com/pharmacy/ almost ready for first release of my Zarch-inspired terrain engine.

Theres a couple of screenshots at the end..

Features so far:
Patch-work looking (not smooth)
Can be randomly generated or loaded from heightmap
Terrain endlessly repeats – by this I mean that you can move the camera forwards infinately and the terrain wraps round.
Terrain split up into patches (only patches that fall into visible frustrum are rendered – pretty much)
Screenshots can be taken (press the space bar)

Its currently Windows only BUT the Windows only part is the screenshot stuff which could be removed if you want 360 support. (Note – I don’t have – and don’t plan on getting a 360 for the forseeable future – so don’t really care about 360 development.)

An early beta will be available shortly (maybe with source code if any interest).

Anyway, some screenshots:

Looking down from up high
Looking down from up high

Looking across the landscape
Looking across the landscape

Looking across the landscape (with patch lines)
Looking across the landscape (with patch lines)

2 thoughts on “Terrain

  1. Yes! Terrain is a very!!! Interesting subject, but it’s also a very difficult! Subject (for a terrain noob). So I’ll be monitoring your site and projects and hopefully learn a thing or two about it. (if that’s o.k. with you?) Greetings xaMpi from Holland.

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