L3DT Users' Community

Hi everyone,

I've finished the implementation of bump-mapping for the light-map generation. You can see some of the preliminary results here:

http://www.bundysoft.com/L3DT/gallery.php
(note I've since improved the blending at edges, which is still quite rough in this example)

The speed penalty is minimal, so I'm planning on making this an on-by-default feature in L3DT Professional. I find it to be particularly useful for high-resolution light-maps, as the bump-maps provide nice detail that would otherwise be lacking.

Anyway, this addition requires a small change to the climate files, as each land type now has some settings for bump maps (similar to texture settings). I'll sort all this out over the coming week.

Cheers,
Aaron.

Well done indeed. I looked at the one with no bumpmapping, but I thought it was supposed to have it. Said to myself "well.. this doesn't look any different at all..." thought maybe the other would look better.. When I opened it the words "holy shit!" litterally burst out of my mouth.

Very nice

Thanks dEaThMaStEr, I'm glad you like it.

The blending in the previous images was a little rough at the edges, but I've fixed that up now. You can see the results on the algorithms page:

http://www.bundysoft.com/L3DT/algorithm ... hp#bumpmap

In the new images I've also toned the effect down a little, as I think it was a tad overdone in the original set. This will all be configurable via the climate files, of course.

Cheers,
Aaron.

That looks really nice. And I don't have school today so I'm able to use it right away! The speed with which you've been releasing updates is awe-inspiring. Great Job!

-Hinklemister

Whoa there Hinklemister,

I haven't released the update yet (sorry to disappoint). I think I'll need another day or so to finish upgrading all the climate files, and to make sure there aren't any bugs.

Cheers,
Aaron

hehe.. You knoww.. Something that could really help for some of your testings and small things like that would be to sort of pick beta tester kind of people. You know, get a few people who can test it all out in all sorts of ways and TRY to find any bugs and report anything to you. That way you get tests from different people who try all sorts of different things and saves you the time and worry. Then once they report anything big to you and its all sorted, you can release.

Who knows, maybe would be good to consider. *hint hint*

Hi dEaThMaStEr,

That's kind of what I'm trying to do by releasing updates as quickly as I have of late, and I don't think I can go very much faster. However, following release 2.4 I will be aiming for less frequent but very stable and polished updates, and at that point I will probably institute another beta programme as you suggest.

Cheers,
Aaron.