Getting a good basic terrain mesh

[jngrow]

Well, from looking at a lot of WIPs over here, and from looking at most of the original BSPs, I was wondering, how does you peoples get those nice, even, triangular meshes? I tried creating a plane, editable poly and cutting, mesh, none of it worked too good.

[Roostervier]

This way could take a while, but it allows for maximum customization. Simply create verts in the spots you want and create faces from them. It usually turns out pretty well, and that way detail doesn't have to be "universal" because of the poly distribution. You can have more detail in the areas you want and less in the areas you don't need it in.

[TeeKup]

http://img332.imageshack.us/img332/3835/maprz1.png
Shame I never got this ingame.

[MetKiller Joe]

What I usually do is tessellate a skybox where I want to put terrain, and then when the terrain has been fleshed out, I do a lot of optimizing. Its good to get into a mindset of wanting to optimize whenever you have the chance with this method (because it is necessary). This is labor intensive; the positive side is that you don't have to create verts individually.

[Sel]

What I usually do is tessellate a skybox where I want to put terrain, and then when the terrain has been fleshed out, I do a lot of optimizing. Its good to get into a mindset of wanting to optimize whenever you have the chance with this method (because it is necessary). This is labor intensive; the positive side is that you don't have to create verts individually.

Bad.

Go look at levels with good terrain, such as arteens stuff, and look at it in Wireframe. That can give you a bit of an idea.

[Con]

I basically do it FR's way but with a pre-existing surface and using edges. I pretty much just draw on the edges where I want them.

[Corndogman]

I like to do it both conscars and FRs way. i drag edges and create new verts in certain areas.

[Sel]

I usually do it verticy by verticy.

[jngrow]

Thanks for the input guys very helpful. Sadly I will probably never get a map in-game because I get this: 05.03.08 16:12:23 reference function: _write_to_error_file
05.03.08 16:12:23 reference address: 42ca20
05.03.08 16:12:23 Couldn't read map file './toolbeta.map'
05.03.08 16:12:23 EAX: 0xFFFFFFFE
05.03.08 16:12:23 EBX: 0x05990001
05.03.08 16:12:23 ECX: 0x0012A320
05.03.08 16:12:23 EDX: 0x000002CC
05.03.08 16:12:23 EDI: 0x0012A320
05.03.08 16:12:23 ESI: 0x00000000
05.03.08 16:12:23 EBP: 0x0012A1F8
05.03.08 16:12:23 ESP: 0x0012A1E8
05.03.08 16:12:23 EIP: 0x77929A94, C3 8D A4 24 ?????
05.03.08 16:12:23 EXCEPTION halt in \halopc\haloce\source\cache\cache_file_builder.c,# 109: !((unsigned long)scratch&31)

Thanks again, though.

[Con]

Thanks for the input guys very helpful. Sadly I will probably never get a map in-game because I get this: 05.03.08 16:12:23 reference function: _write_to_error_file
05.03.08 16:12:23 reference address: 42ca20
05.03.08 16:12:23 Couldn't read map file './toolbeta.map'
05.03.08 16:12:23 EAX: 0xFFFFFFFE
05.03.08 16:12:23 EBX: 0x05990001
05.03.08 16:12:23 ECX: 0x0012A320
05.03.08 16:12:23 EDX: 0x000002CC
05.03.08 16:12:23 EDI: 0x0012A320
05.03.08 16:12:23 ESI: 0x00000000
05.03.08 16:12:23 EBP: 0x0012A1F8
05.03.08 16:12:23 ESP: 0x0012A1E8
05.03.08 16:12:23 EIP: 0x77929A94, C3 8D A4 24 ?????
05.03.08 16:12:23 EXCEPTION halt in \halopc\haloce\source\cache\cache_file_builder.c,# 109: !((unsigned long)scratch&31)

Thanks again, though.
could've sworn someone posted that here recently, but try these pages
http://www.google.ca/search?q=unsigned+long)scratch%2631 (http://www.google.ca/search?q=unsigned+long%29scratch%2631))

[LlamaMaster]

I make terrain like this: Making a plane with however many segments I need; using the cut tool to make the outline of the cliffs; target welding any stray verts along that outline; extruding down all the polys within the outline; and adding height segments with the connect tool for the cliffs. After that I use zbrush to shape the cliffs and the terrain.

[GameGodLazy]

i like to start high poly and get the basic shape of my terrain by using the z brush and the soft selection tool and then optimize it to have the amount of poly's i need for the map.

After that i get it ingame just to see how the terrein works while walking or driving over it

then go back and change the terrein

and i keep doing that
getting it ingame then redoing it until the terrein is the way i like it

caus i hate redoing the terrein at a later point or driving or walking in it in a beta or something then finding out i need to redo the whole terrein or something

[kenney001]

I make a displace map, make a plain with 1000x1000 divides, apply it, meshsmooth it with 3 iterations, and then teselate a couple times in the areas with more detail......then I continue by using multires to get rid of all the unneeded polygons, usually ending up with holes and such, then I turbosmooth the whole thing to cover it up and pray to god it makes it through tool.

[SnaFuBAR]

I make a displace map, make a plain with 1000x1000 divides, apply it, meshsmooth it with 3 iterations, and then teselate a couple times in the areas with more detail......then I continue by using multires to get rid of all the unneeded polygons, usually ending up with holes and such, then I turbosmooth the whole thing to cover it up and pray to god it makes it through tool.

that has got to be the most retarded way of modeling terrain that i've ever seen. 1000x1000 divides, meshsmoothx3, then tesselatex2, then turbosmooth? are you retarded?

[Corndogman]

I think it was a joke...

[Tweek]

when making a map, i usually start with the ground, usually i start from a single 1 by 1 plane.

i then lay out the general walking paths, or the outlines off hills (like the lowest points in general) i do this bu shift-dragging edges, and then manually moving them.

once i've got a rough layout, i fill in some gaps start making the bottoms of the surrounding cliffs, so basically i've got the edges of my canvas defined. then i just start filling the rest of the holes with hills, or structures or whatever.

the best thing to do, is just play it like a puzzle, because that's really what it is, in a way. start with the most important features and outlines. then just start filling in gaps.

i actually make AT LEAST 70% of any given piece of geometry, for anything, per-poly, manually. by just selecting edges, shift-dragging them out, and connecting them.

[Apoc4lypse]

i actually make AT LEAST 70% of any given piece of geometry, for anything, per-poly, manually. by just selecting edges, shift-dragging them out, and connecting them.

I think that this is the key to making any kind of mesh, you need to touch most of it, you cant just make planes and tessellate them, you get poor results then and the triangulation will be screwy making for ugly terrain.

I pretty much plane model the majority of my terrain and go poly by poly like tweek was saying. It helps to know hot keys because it'll make things happen more quickly, knowing how to weld good also helps, the "cut" tool is pretty useful too.

Another thing is it helps to have some sort of planned layout, if not drawn at least some idea in your head, otherwise you'll just end up making randomness. Try to make each section of terrain affect the gameplay of the map too, imagine playing a game and imagine how the terrain will affect the players, hills to hide behind, spots for sniping, and my favorite is trying to make fun terrain for vehicles, stuff to jump etc, nothing too complicated but stuff that makes for a good game, not just flat boring and roiling hills.

[Corndogman]

This is some terrain i came up with over about 2 hours, with lots of breaks and distractions in between:
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa303/corndogman939/terrain.jpg

I think it came out pretty decent, will probably turn into a full BSP.