Sorry your browser is not supported!

I have been looking at creating 3d terrain and was wondering what the difference is between the terrain commands that come with dbpro and the advanced terrain commands?

I would like to create a large 3d outdoor terrain and I think the advanced terrain suits this scenario better but what products would I need to create the heightmap file for instance ?

I have looked at the help that sixty squares provides at http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=135172&b=1 which is very good but does not explain what he has used to create the various files such as the textures or the heightfile etc.

Additionally within this terrain I would like to place 3d prefab buildings such as those created in fpscreator. Any guidance would be appreciated.

As its name suggests, advanced terrain are more powerful in the creation of terrains.

A hightmap is just a image normally in grayscale colours, which rise up you matrix, modeling therefore your terrain.You can make this image with most paint programs, just making differents shapes in grayscale, an last bluring the image to get something smooth.When you have your terrain ready, you can add all kinda objects you need, houses , animals, trees or whatever you like in you game.

Just search for advanced terraing, and you will find a lot of examples.

cheers.

so I basically use a terrain editor such as t.ed which allows me to create the terrains and (i think) place 3d objects such as buildings. I can then save this as .x files and load them into Darkbasic. Im still not sure whether I need advanced terrain commands or just use the normal darbasic terrain command set. Before I purchase T.ed, anyone got any recommendations ? I have just trialed T.ed and it seems ok, is there better ? If I placed a 3d object in a terrain such as a log cabin and wanted to walk over open the door and walk into a room, would this just be a matter of programming or are their utilities to help with this also ?

You can use objects from many 3D programs if they are X, DBO, 3DS, MDL, MD2 or MD3 format.When you load this objects into Dbpro, you can check for collision and do all you need.No One 3D programm will do that for you, unless it is a drag and drop.If you have the skills enough to do that, you can make a complete game.

cheers.

Hmm I'm not making myself clear. I am able to write the Darkbasic to walk across a 3d landscape and check for collisions but I am trying to work out how I would open a door on a log cabin and allow a smooth transition into that cabin, with a view of the outside through the open doorway and windows.

Additionally I am wondering what is the best products to use to create the 3d terrain and the log cabin. T.ed looks good and I am currently using this on a trial basis and will purchase if noone else can recommend a better product.

Thirdly I seem to be getting buried in the various darkbasic Terrain plugins available, I just make a decision on one when I find an even better/faster one, first I was going to use DB's terrain commands then I found Advanced Terrain and now I have come across blitzterrain plugin. I am trying to make the right decision with the packages i buy, such as t.ed, and I am also hoping to choose the right terrain plugin to save rewriting it if I come across a limitation, such as speed, with the terrain commands I employ. Anyone got any recommendations on Blitzterrain or some other plugin I have yet to come across ?

Essentially, the cabin object would need to include an animation of the door opening... or have the door as a separately loaded door object, positioned correctly and have it's rotation axis set to rotate correctly (as if hinged at the side) - either of which methods your character would trigger if the user pressed the 'Use' key when standing in the correct position.

With collision done correctly, walking into the cabin would not use a different scene so the views through windows would automatically be seen.

TDK