Tessellation feature - accuracy

[LJFHutch]

I'm currently using L3DT to edit the terrains for use in our game, BeamNG.drive and with the latest beta [14.02 beta 3] the tessellation feature has been causing me some issues due to being somewhat smooth shaded. The problem is that because we simulate street cars realistically things like potholes/bumps etc must be sculpted with quite a bit of accuracy or it becomes unplayable. We're using a 1:1 (1px = 1m) heightmap so potholes and bumps are often only a few pixels and it's incredibly important that their depth/height is minor.


You cannot see the potholes or bumps without the aid of decals on the road because of the very small elevation change yet they still have a huge impact on the driving experience.

The current tessellator is smooth shaded along one axis which makes editing delicate elements like this almost impossible. At that level when smooth shaded it is almost as invisible as in the screenshot above.



Will the tessellator remain partially smooth shaded or will it be shaded the same as the rest of the map (hard shaded)? Also, are there any plans to include an option to disable it?

[Aaron]

Hi LJFHutch,

Thanks for the feedback. I'm now using triangle strips to brute-force render the area around the brush tool, which means the geometry is at maximum resolution (and renders faster), but alas it also means I can't do flat shading because the vertex normals are shared between faces. However, I can also over-draw with a wireframe (see below). Would this suffice? If not, I've also added an option to disable the brute force rendering around the brush, so you'll get the old behaviour back. These changes will be included in the next beta release, due May/June.



Best regards,
Aaron.

[LJFHutch]

The wirefram definitely helps and I can see myself using the tesselation feature for most of my work. The option to use the old method as well is great though, thanks for the reply and your work on the program; it's incredibly useful in my workflow

[Aaron]

Hi LJFHutch,

I've uploaded a new beta release of L3DT Pro* that includes the new wireframe overlay and improved mesh lighting behaviour around the brush tool. Please let me know if you find any problems with these changes.

Best regards,
Aaron.

* Version v14.05 beta 4, dated 19th of May 2014.

[MacroManJr]

Hey, it works nicely. Thanks, Aaron. A small but helpful feature.

[LJFHutch]

Is there an option to toggle or disable the tesselation in 14.06? I had a pretty good look and wasn't able to find it.

[Aaron]

Hi LJFHutch,

Do you want to disable the high-res brute-force tessellator that is active around the brush area, or the mesh-optimising tessellator that renders all the other terrain? If the former, the option can be changed by selecting the 'Extensions->Sapphire->Renderer settings' option in the L3DT menu, then disable the 'Terrain->ROAM->BruteForcePatchRenderingForEditor' option (double-click on items in tree view to edit / change state). If the latter, there is no option to generally disable the mesh optimiser, as this would be punishingly slow.

Best regards,
Aaron.

[LJFHutch]

Hi LJFHutch,

Do you want to disable the high-res brute-force tessellator that is active around the brush area, or the mesh-optimising tessellator that renders all the other terrain? If the former, the option can be changed by selecting the 'Extensions->Sapphire->Renderer settings' option in the L3DT menu, then disable the 'Terrain->ROAM->BruteForcePatchRenderingForEditor' option (double-click on items in tree view to edit / change state). If the latter, there is no option to generally disable the mesh optimiser, as this would be punishingly slow.

Best regards,
Aaron.

Ah yes that's it, thank you so much