L3DT Users' Community

QUESTION #1

My terrain was a bit too bumpy (lots of little sharp hills).

What is the best way to go back and smooth all of it at once?

I don't want to erode the coastline, it is just the way I want it.

QUESTION #2

Can someone explain in a nutshell what the Alpha Layers does?

Hi Jim,

Question 1:

At the moment L3DT doesn't have much of a facility to post-process heightfields after the initial generation. What will work, to a degree, is to re-size the heightfield to something smaller (using operations->heightfield->resample map), and then to re-size again back to the original. The effect of this will be to do a linear blur of the map, but it wont affect the locations of coastlines &c.

Here is an example of a before and after sequence, where I've taken the heightfield down to 1/4 the size, then brought it back up again:

Before:



After:



You can see that most of the high-res noise is gone.

Question 2:

By alpha layers are you referring to the 'operation->alpha maps->generate maps' option? If so, I have a brief rundown of alpha maps here, a more fulsome discussion of their meaning and use here, and a user-guide on generating them over here. Basically, they are mask images used to create textures for objects 'on the fly' from a set of base textures. It's a trick commonly used in games these days. If, however, you meant something else by Alpha Layers, could you give me an idea of where you're looking?

Cheers,
Aaron.