I was experimenting with different terrain generators and this was an unexpected result. This wasnt planned at all just testing and I think I can make some really great looking stuff if I can figure this program out a little better (L3DT).






Anyway, you mappers should check this out, it looks like it could do wonders for realistic 3d skybox if you know what your doing.

L3DT terrain program (http://www.bundysoft.com/L3DT/)


Nems terrain generator (exports to hammer format) (http://nemesis.thewavelength.net/index.php?p=8) (this looks like its a newer version from what I used but it probably still works the same)

looks sweet !!
i should really check it out.
tnx for posting, meleeme!

Originally posted by pedroleum
looks sweet !!
i should really check it out.
tnx for posting, meleeme!

NP, I almost ruined my underwear when I saw it in-game. It was just my first time using that program I had no idea what I was doing with most options and it was looking crappy in both terrain programs and in hammer so I figured it would look bad in-game aswell but I wanted to test it anyway. Im glad I did!

Can you post a simple idiots guide on how to get it from the program into the game?

Source engine ftw! Thats amazing! i dont think ive used that before but please post a rundown because if more maps with nice ones like this come out the game will have that much more detail.

hmm, is this done with the free version of the programm (l3dt) or the professional-edition?

Free version.

I really have to learn the program a bit more before I could write any kind of guide. What I posted was made using the walkthrough from the program itself. I have'nt even attempted one from scratch yet. I also have to find a better way to get it in-game. I think I could make it much higher-res if I know what im doing.

What I posted was screens from a 2048 texture placed on a giant terrain mesh thats why its blurry. Also Nems terrain generator completely butchers the quality of the terrain when its made into displacements but I think thats just the way it is since I cant really go overboard and make it with a million triangles.

Let me fool around with it for a week or so and ill see if I can write something up that will make sense. in the mean time you guys might aswell play around with it. Take the heightmap you get from L3DT and use it with Nems terrain generator to get your displacements. The texturing I will leave for you guys to explore. I havent figured how im going to go about doing that yet but the way I did it was just for testing like I said. I didnt expect it to actually look nice.

nice look forward to seeing that TUT

omg this thing would be so much fun on a map this big. I was getting 80fps when not recording also. :)

zooka long shot (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rd_-4OD9A4A)

I was thinking about doing a N.Africa map with generated terrain. In fact if I can figure out the texturing then I would in a heartbeat. I was playing around with desert settings and it makes some really cool rock formations with a nice texture.

Thx for heads up. I had tried with DEM satellite data to come up with something too. While that works, it's pain in the butt to make it look right and find the right setting on earth for your map.

I find this tool a lot better, in that it entirely lets you create your terrain, but helps you a lot doing so.

I'm experimenting with it right now for dod_rive, maybe I can post a screenie if it looks good

http://www.interlopers.net/images/hl2tutorials/terrain2/test100042ql.jpg

;)

Really cool stuff.

L3DT is a great free terrain generator. When I first started working on TG v4.0 I added native support for the L3DT file format. The idea was to do most of the generation in L3DT (and other packages), tweak the terrain in TG and place models in TG, then load it into hammer and add other geometry. (Hammer is really clumsy when it comes to model placement, I'm thinking of point and click model placement with the ability to randomly place models on certain surfaces/slopes with random scaling/rotation/spacing to make planting a forest a piece of cake).

Unfortunately I've been to overwhelmed with my other tools to complete TG v4.0, and TG v3.0 (which I wrote years ago when I had no idea how to program) is getting quite cumbersome.

Some day...
Nem

Wow I forgot about this thread. I had big time hard drive problems not long after this and lost everything. I completely forgot all about L3DT. Im gonna have to d/l this again and see if I can remember what I learned before. I was starting to get pretty good with it too.

I really hope you find the time to do some of those things with your terrain generator. The model placement sounds fantastic.

Lol I thought this was recent. It answers my prayers to a better skybox. Good timing too, my skybox is holding up vigilance_rc1 release, it's just plain poo at the mo.

*Edit* How do I get the L3DT terrain into Nems generator so that I can then convert it to Hammer friendly displacements?

Originally posted by MeleeMe!
Take the heightmap you get from L3DT and use it with Nems terrain generator to get your displacements.

Thats how I did it.

thats some good stuff

Originally posted by Nem
(Hammer is really clumsy when it comes to model placement, I'm thinking of point and click model placement with the ability to randomly place models on certain surfaces/slopes with random scaling/rotation/spacing to make planting a forest a piece of cake).

This sounds wickedly cool !!!

Thanks in advance !

:p

I'm still having trouble figuring out how to get it to hammer properly.
Here's what I'm doing so far:
In L3DT:
-Generate terrain
-Export to image files

In Nems tools:
-new map with default settings
-generate > off height map > filename_PT.BMP

Then it just generates nothing...

Originally posted by Ca-Chicken-Soup
I'm still having trouble figuring out how to get it to hammer properly.
Here's what I'm doing so far:
In L3DT:
-Generate terrain
-Export to image files

In Nems tools:
-new map with default settings
-generate > off height map > filename_PT.BMP

Then it just generates nothing...

I remember having that exact same problem. Unfortunately I dont remember why and I havent got LT3D or nems generator installed right now to test it myself. I think it was something with Nems generator. Maybe try some different settings or try using a different filetype (TGA/TIFF/TIF maybe?) for the hightmap file instead of BMP if possible. If I get some time tomorrow to fart around with this I will.

I found the problem, the exported heightmap had too much information and was too coarse so that Nems generator couldn't assign triangles to anything. In Nems Generator, goto Terrian > snap to grid > none
Or make a bigger grid and smaller heightmap.
Found answer here (http://nemesis.thewavelength.net/index.php?c=2&o=15#p2)
BTW. Nems old site is gone to this one Nems home (http://nemesis.thewavelength.net/index.php?p=1)

Good looking skybox ;)

AK's looks sweet, but the first pics look out of place with source i ono, but if u can do what AK did, thats awesome! Grand Canyon FTW!

Originally posted by Ca-Chicken-Soup
I found the problem, the exported heightmap had too much information and was too coarse so that Nems generator couldn't assign triangles to anything. In Nems Generator, goto Terrian > snap to grid > none
Or make a bigger grid and smaller heightmap.
Found answer here (http://nemesis.thewavelength.net/index.php?c=2&o=15#p2)
BTW. Nems old site is gone to this one Nems home (http://nemesis.thewavelength.net/index.php?p=1)

Heightmaps don't contain too much information and contain no scale information, so you're going to want to set the heightmap scale to around 8 (this value will require some tweaking, basically that would give you a height variation on 255 * the scale), set the grid way back, and enable one or both type of smoothing (to remove jagged bits). Again its best to experiment with most options.

Hey I thought you were long gone Nem, yeah thanks I will try that I forgot about the smoothing.

The L3DT trial program has annoying limitations, but I can't afford the Pro (About $40NZD..) Just going to have to live with seams in the texture..