Terrain Texture Detail in TSE using L3DT

[dennis]

ran a quick experiment to see what level of texture detail could be generated in a unique terrain using L3DT as the terrain source. The heightfield is 1024 x 1024 px with a vertex spacing of 10 meters. Nothing special here, just the normal random designmap created by L3DT without any editing. This was used to create three finished tiled textures as described below.

Terrain #1: Texture map sized same as heightmap (1024 x 1024). Each texture pixel covers 10 meters. Atlas size: 42,585kb. Image is here: http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e216/zedd10/StewartE1T4VPC2548.jpg

Terrain #2: Texture map created at 16k x 16k. Each texture pixel covers 0.625 meters or about 2 feet. Attributes map, Lightmap and texture are all 16k x 16k. Atlas size: 77,417kb. Image is here: http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e216/zedd10/StewartE1T4VPC2548x16.jpg

Terrain #3: Texture map created at 32k x 32k. Each texture pixel covers 0.31 meters or about 1 foot. The attributes and lightmap were not regenerated at 32k and were left at 16k. You'll notice a black grid on this terrain. It is probably from the mismatch in map sizes. Image size: 171,420kb. Image is here: http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e216/zedd10/StewartE1T4VPC2548x32.jpg

I plan to try 4x and 8x textures also. I'll post these results when they are done.

[Aaron]

Hi Dennis,

Thanks for the comparison. I think this shows that 32x textures are too bland up-close. This can be probably be fixed by adding detail maps in either TGEA or L3DT, and it might also help to add more high-res texture layers in L3DT. If I get a spare moment I'll have a play with the climates.

I'm not sure about the cause of the black grids. Do these appear in the texture in L3DT if you zoom in?

Cheers,
Aaron.

[dennis]

I think (but am not positive) that the black grid is due to not being consistent with the level of detail. ie: 16x in most maps, 32x on the texture. Regardless, it has not been a problem overall. And yes, these black bars are in L3DT too.

TGEA 4.2 now has the code for detail textures in it. The results aren't too impressive since it almost completely masks the terrain textures created by L3DT. Here is an example: http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e216/zedd10/Test1024withMS42DetailTexture.jpg

The question of course is how to increase the transparency of the detail texture.

[Aaron]

Hi Dennis,

L3DT is supposed to handle different sizes of the AM/TX maps, and indeed I normally operate with a smaller AM than TX. I'll have to do some more debugging to see what's going on.

Normally I believe detail textures are applied in modulation mode, not addition. That would remove the whitening caused by the the detail map in your image. Anyway, that's how we did it in L3DTVi2. If possible, smoothly fading-out the detail map in the distance is probably a good idea too, as you can start to see repetition artifacts in the screenie you posted.

Cheers,
Aaron.