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Large 3D terrain generator

Feedback request

Important stuff.

Feedback request

Postby Aaron » Tue Aug 29, 2006 7:06 am

Hello all,

I'm gearing-up for the release of L3DT 2.4b on October 1. Amongst other things, this release will aim to improve stability and general usability. Thus, I'd like to take this opportunity to ask for some feedback from all the wonderful users out there (yourself included):
  1. Are there any outstanding bugs or glitches you find when using L3DT? (excluding L3DTVi2 bugs.)
  2. What do you think is the most confusing aspect of using L3DT?
  3. Is there a tutorial, as yet unwritten, that you think would be helpful?

My goal here is to find ways to make L3DT easier to use for newbies and veterans alike, so I'd greatly appreciate any suggestions you might have on the subject.

Cheers,
Aaron.
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Flood Wizard processing time

Postby Jovin » Sat Sep 02, 2006 4:09 am

Not really a bug, but the render time for the Flood Wizard working on maps >= 2048pixs X 2048 pixs is immense. On a P4 3.0 HT proc, 2GB RAM, NVIDIA 6600GT machine I aborted the render after more than 3 days. The maps in question were built up via L3DT's Design and Heightfield processes prior to running the Flood Wizard (all options except clear existing, because there was no existing water map).

If that's just the way it is, so be it, no worries! It's just the most notable issue I've run into.

Thanks!
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Postby Ch3rokee » Sat Sep 02, 2006 12:57 pm

After thinking about it, there are two things that I would change to make it easier to use:

-When using the design map, it would be easier to have direct access to the different Schemes, be it placing buttons in the tool bar or the list directly in the right click menu. Or maybe placing the dropdown list in the tool bar or even just a Schemes button or maybe you think that I'm crazy and forget what you just read. :shock:

-If you paint your terrain in the design map, click next to generate the height field but want to go back to the design map to change anything, it would be better if when you click next again it generates the new height field instead of jumping automatically to the water flooding.


Anyway, once you get familiar with the right click menu, everything is easy to use.
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Postby Aaron » Sat Sep 02, 2006 5:17 pm

Hello,

Jovin wrote:...the render time for the Flood Wizard working on maps >= 2048pixs X 2048 pixs is immense.


Hmm...this might be a bug. The time it takes my 2GHz AMD to do a 2048x2048 water map is minutes, not hours or days. I'll have a look into it.

In any case, the water flooding algorithm is very (and necessarily) intense with floating-point operations, so even with optimisations it's still going to be one of the worst CPU-killing calculations in L3DT.

Jovin wrote:-When using the design map, it would be easier to have direct access to the different Schemes, be it placing buttons in the tool bar or the list directly in the right click menu. Or maybe placing the dropdown list in the tool bar or even just a Schemes button or maybe you think that I'm crazy and forget what you just read.


No, that's a fair suggestion. I think adding the scheme list to the right-click menu would be good. I'll put that on the to-do list for v2.4c.

Jovin wrote:-If you paint your terrain in the design map, click next to generate the height field but want to go back to the design map to change anything, it would be better if when you click next again it generates the new height field instead of jumping automatically to the water flooding.


This is already in the latest release (v2.4a). The 'next' button was replaced by a 'calc' button, which opens a wizard in which you choose the operations you want to do (you can also queue-up several calculations).

Cheers,
Aaron.
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Postby Ch3rokee » Sat Sep 02, 2006 6:06 pm

Thanks for the info Aaron, it seem that I forgot to upgrade to 2.4a. :oops:

I just downloaded v2.4a (build 6) and I can tell you that I like it more this way.
I suppose you know this, but anyway, when creating a blank map, the calc menu should not select the design map by default, as there's no design map to generate and it show an error if you left it selected.
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Postby Aaron » Sun Sep 03, 2006 10:29 am

Hi Ch3rokee,

Ch3rokee wrote:I suppose you know this, but anyway, when creating a blank map, the calc menu should not select the design map by default, as there's no design map to generate and it show an error if you left it selected.


Thanks for spotting that. I've fixed it for the next release.

Cheers,
Aaron.
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Postby DeathTwister » Mon Sep 04, 2006 1:34 pm

Is the new build 2.4b ready yet? I haven't checked, humm I go check now hahaha.
Hehe neber mind downloading L3DT_PRO_dev_ins-2.4.1.7 as I speak hahaha, dumb artist

DT
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Postby Ch3rokee » Fri Sep 22, 2006 1:53 pm

I have another suggestion that would make fine tunning the design map even easier. Right now (2.4.2.13) you can zoom with the mouse wheel, but you need to select the "normal mouse mode" to pan, so, could it be possible to pan with the mouse button 3?

I know you have betters thing to do, but it doesn't hurt to suggest :lol:
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Postby Aaron » Fri Sep 22, 2006 2:41 pm

Hi Ch3rokee,

Sure, I've put it on the to-do list for v2.4c.

Cheers,
Aaron.
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