Old L3DT map settings dialog vs new

[Hypnotron]

I came across that image on a tutorial page and I noticed it was from before I started using l3dt. But my initial reaction was that the naming of some of the sliders was more intuitive than the new dialog. Specifically the "roughening" and "hillshape" labels which I think are better for the lay person than "fractcal roughness" and "peak overlays."

[dennis]

Wow, is that what "fractal roughness" is? I always wondered about that.

[Aaron]

Hi Hypnotron and Dennis,

Okay, I'll see if I can re-jig the UI to convert the fractal & peak settings into strength and rolling/jagged. At the time there was a problem with the conversion forumla in some boundary cases, but thinking about it now, I know how to fix it.

Thanks for the flashback.

Cheers,
Aaron.

[Aaron]

Okie dokie,

I've made the change to the design map parameters wizard and will upload the update at my next convenience. If it is popular, I'll re-do the design map brush and edit design map pixel dialogs at some later date.

To fend of any future confusion, I should explain in more detail the meaning of all these roughness settings:

There are two algorithms in L3DT that apply roughening; one adds lots of roundish peaks to the terrain, and the other adds fractal noise. Thus, there are two settings for roughness; peak and fractal. However, since we agree that using 'roughness' and 'hill shape' in the UI is more intuitive (certainly for new users), L3DT has to convert the numbers between the low-level peak and fractal settings and the high-level roughness and hill shape settings*. The down-side to this change is that it could be even more confusing for a user if they unexpectedly stumble across the low-level peak/frac settings somewhere deeper in L3DT (e.g. 'Settings->Current project->DM'), or when developing a plugin. I'll probably have to field questions on this in the future, but I doubt it will be too often.

Cheers,
Aaron.

* For the algebraically inclined, the formulae are:

Code: Select all

R = (P+F)/2

H = 50*(1+(F-P)/(F+P))
(note, if F=P=0, H is defined to be 50)

F = (H*R)/50;

P = 2*R - (H*R)/50


Where P = peak, F = fractal, R = roughness, and H = hill shape. All variables are constrained to the 0...100 range.