Quote: "You can multitexture them if your clever enough"
Compare a good matrix (for example my old Terrascape demo) to my LOD-Mesh terrain in Extranjero and - when you see it - my Scorched Earth style game. Matrixes are aethetically limited. Certainly a good programmer can make them better and more flexible than a beginner, but that's nothing to shout about.
Quote: "The other advantage is that you can lower and raise points,"
You mean THE advantage.
Quote: "plus its easy to get the ground height (intersect object can be a real pain to use)."
Here is an example of a 'standard' height function:
function height(x#,z#)
y#=intersect object(levelObject,x#,0,z#,x#,10000,z#)
endfunction y#
Here is the height command from TerraX-3, which is a procedural matrice-esque like system with a massive landscape with dynamically assigned independant LOD meshes and textures from a resource pool and features a full range of fail safes.
function height(x#,z#)
x=(x#+5000)/10000
z=(z#+5000)/10000
if x>0 and x<tiles and z>0 and z<tiles
if map(x,z,2)>0
y#=intersect object(map(x,z,2),x#,0,z#,x#,10000,z#)
else
y#=0
endIf
else
y#=0
endIf
endfunction y#
As you can see neither function is particularly complex and once written, it's written, and it's not as if you dont have to write your own height() command with a matrice anyway - if you are using a dynamic matrice (as most applications of a matrice would require).
Additionally .x terrains have the advantage of another command you can write yourself, lineOfSight().
As for mesh deformations, I put craters in my game by placing a crator object on the ground and I think that looks way better than adjusting the height of a matrice vertex anyway.
Sure in some applications, a remake of populous for instance, I would probably choose to use a matrice. However for most applications I see on these boards matrices are used for general purpose landscapes and it is my believe that .x terrains do this to a far greature visual standard and with far greater flexibility.
Of course, each to their own. I'm sure a very good programmer can create a better result with a matrice than I can using .x terrains, that's because i'm not a very good programmer - i'm somewhere in the middleground. What I do know is, I can get better results with .x than I can with a matrice and I think that would apply to many others here too if they're brave enough to make the leap.
God created the world in 7 days, but we're still waiting for the patch.
