New Eye Candy!
To be honest, I am running this on a 60" DLPTV @ 1920x1080 and these photos do not quite do the system justice - but at least they give an idea.
What's more is that the new Statics system is much more than just grass. It is a terrain system - any type of terrain can be used.
What you don't see (because it is sound): Each terrain has it's own "footstep" sound. When walking on sand, you can hear the crunch-crunch in the gravel. Walking in grass or flowers, you hear soft footsteps and occasional brush crackling. And when walking on road or rocks, you can hear much more solid footstep. All this is scripted, so any sounds can be added to any type of terrain.
A shot of the new and improved grass.
New and improved flowers
Statics will use the default static-object (which should be flat dirt) under any object, such as this house or trees. This avoids grass from growing inside houses and such problems.
Blended terrain with 4 Terrain types: Grass, Road, Flowers and Rocks
New and improved rocks.
Grass transitioning to dirt to sand and looking off into the ocean.
A side view of the grass-dirt-sand transition.
Next update will be grass that "crushes" down when walked on. The more it is walked on, the more it will crush down. Eventually, if the grass is crushed down enough, the Statics system will do a real-time update and replace the grass with dirt, making a path or a road.
Statics are also easy to use. Here is a sample of the heightmap used, and following is the Statics map. The terrain is simply painted. Throw in a script file that tells which models to use for which map colors, and you get fantastic terrain!
HeightMap
StaticsMap
Open MMORPG: It's your game!
