   Real-Time Strategy terrain fetures and buidling questions
  I am strating to make my terrain map for my RTS. natural terrain features 1)hills - mounts2)cliffs3)rivers - streams4)ponds – oceans5)Plato6)Craters7)vegetationMan Mad features1)roads2)building 3)rubbishFirst question is should I use HeightMap? If yes then what are the difernt ways of making a hieght map.Second Question is textureing the map should I use one texture or tiles with tranpaerncy?Should I use some prerender terrain were the player cant go and dynamic terrain were the player can go?What are the methods Starcraft II uses? Or any other recent RTS game?Using "Programming an RTS game with Direct3D" by Carl GranbergI am just not sure his way is the best way because the examples dont look up to date.   
  I'm not entirely sure if this is the correct section, but anyway.Quote:Original post by kingpinzsI am strating to make my terrain map for my RTS. First question is should I use HeightMap? If yes then what are the difernt ways of making a hieght map.That's really up to yourself. It's a lot easier if you dont use them. Units standing on a hill have an advantage over units on lower ground. They may shoot further or see more, than other units. Units going down a hill might move faster or, in case they go up, move slower. Are you ready (able?) to implement such features? I mean, creating an rts is a lot of work. Perhaps you should add the basics first and then add things like height. Quote:Original post by kingpinzsSecond Question is textureing the map should I use one texture or tiles with tranpaerncy?There are lots of ways to texture a terrain, each with their own benefits. There is no good or bad way. Well there actually are bad ways, but really, pick one you're most comfortable with. Quote:Original post by kingpinzsShould I use some prerender terrain were the player cant go and dynamic terrain were the player can go?What are the methods Starcraft II uses? Or any other recent RTS game?I am just not sure his way is the best way because the examples dont look up to date.I can't say for sure of course, as SC II has not been released yet, but I'd imagine they have some fancy 3d map editor which they use to build the entire map. It would probably include tools to 'paint' the various textures on the map, as well as tools to mark certain sections of the terrain as obstacle. With that said, it's never a bad thing to look at how the 'big guys' are doing things. But keep in mind, in this case, there's a whole team of people working on SC II (25 iirc from an interview), and there's only one of you. Tbh, it sounds as if you're doing a 25 man project.;  I am thincking about using texture splating to apply my textures to the terain. I am just not sure that is the best way to make the the edge of the textures to blend with the other types of textures.   ;Quote:Original post by kingpinzsI am thincking about using texture splating to apply my textures to the terain. I am just not sure that is the best way to make the the edge of the textures to blend with the other types of textures.If you're using texture splatting then the edges should be able to easily blend together just by the layout on your alpha map. As long as your alpha map doesn't have hard edges then you'll be fine.   ;  What are some better ways of smoothing out the terrain then what I am doing below? void HEIGHTMAP::SmoothTerrain(){//Create temporary heightmapfloat *hm = new float[m_size.x * m_size.y];memset(hm, 0, sizeof(float) * m_size.x * m_size.y);for(int y=0;y<m_size.y;y++)for(int x=0;x<m_size.x;x++){float totalHeight = 0.0f;int noNodes = 0;for(int y1=y-1;y1<=y+1;y1++)for(int x1=x-1;x1<=x+1;x1++)if(x1 >= 0 && x1 < m_size.x && y1 >= 0 && y1 < m_size.y){totalHeight += m_pHeightMap[x1 + y1 * m_size.x];noNodes++;}hm[x + y * m_size.x] = totalHeight / (float)noNodes;}//Replace old heightmap with smoothed heightmapdelete [] m_pHeightMap;m_pHeightMap = hm;CreateParticles();Sleep(500);}