L3DT to Blender tutorial

[Lekane]

Wow, first, congrats to the coders for this amazing software, plus it has a free version

So here is my 2 cents.....

This is how I bring my l3dt terrains to blender.... I assume you know your way a little in Blender, and that you can export image maps from l3dt.

First, create a plan from top view (7 for top view, space>mesh>plane), then enter Uv face select mode (F), and project from view bounds (u), this has to be done in top view. Change 3d view to uv/image editor (shift-f10), load your heightmap texture, get back to 3d view (shift-f5), your heightmap should appear on the plane...

(nb: you can split your 3d view in 2 by rightclicking near header bar where the mouse icon changes, and make one half a uv/image ediot view, that way you don't have to change all the time)

Then exit Uv face select mode (F) and enter edit mode (tab) and multisubdivide (W>subdivide multi) it (number of subdivides is up to you, the more, the better, but not very good for realtime hehe). Exit edit mode (tab)...

edit: oups forgot before you can access textures in texture panel you have to add a material --> Material panel (F5) > Add new material

Now on texture panel (F6) , make a new texture, call it "disp" for example, assign your heightmap to it.

Go to Edit panel (F9), and add Displacement modifier, in texture, enter "disp", and replace "local" by "uv" and voila the plane changes to a nice terrain...

NB: if you plan to change anything later on in texture panel for example to make a render with the colour map, i suggest you apply the modifier first.

reread, check hotkeys (that's not a lot of hotkey for a Blender user if you wonder :p ), all good, sent

[3DUser]

What file format did you use to export your terrain to Blender?
The reason I ask is that I tried to export a .x format from L3DT into Blender Versions 2.43 and 2.44, and it did not work.
Advice?

Regards,
3DUser

[Lekane]

Hum, actually, if you follow the mini tut, you'll notice i use the heightmap to rebuild some geometry out of a subdivided plane in Blender, hence no need to use the exporter (which i wasn't aware of the existence tbh )...

I'll check out what's going on with the exporter though, even if i probably won't use it myself since i don't like tris hehe

But for the moment you should follow exactly my first post, and your terrain will be

edit: well i must be blind i don't find any directx export option in l3dt

[Aaron]

Hi Lekane,

Wow, thanks for the tutorial! To make this more easily findable for other users, I've added your post to the wiki at:

http://www.bundysoft.com/wiki/doku.php? ... der:lekane

I hope this is OK.

Best regards,
Aaron.

PS: To export to DirectX mesh files, go to File->Export->Map...->Heightfield, then disable 'split map into tiles' if enabled, and select 'X (DirectX)' from the file format drop-list.

[Lekane]

No problemo

I'll test the x exporter right away hehe

[Aaron]

Hello,

What file format did you use to export your terrain to Blender?

The tutorial says "image maps", so I assume BMP/JPG/PNG. Is that correct Lekane? Do you use (or does Blender support) 16-bit PNG?

Cheers,
Aaron.

[3DUser]

I'll try your method in next few days. I would really like to export a terrain from L3DT into Blender and texture it. From that, make something as close to a Terragen output as possible. Since L3DT by itself is not a rendering package, I hope to find a Blender compatible renderer to make these terrains look photo-realistic. Since I'm not an artist, it may be doubly difficult for me.

Anyway, for the Direct X exporter, here is what I did (a bit abbreviated) -

File - Format Preferences - Project Maps - Heightfield. You'll see Direct X as a choice.

Make a heightfield using L3DT, then
File-Export - Active Map - Export map window displays
Choose which file format you prefer for export and export. I tried this process, and Blender gave an error.

From the Blender bug tracker, Ideasman42 is working on a fix for the Direct X importer. I do not have current status.

History -
When I tried L3DT some weeks back, I looked for something to quickly export my heightfield to Blender. Only saw the Direct X importer and you know my results were nil. Blender gave me an error. That is why I requested a .obj exporter. Generally, I find the .obj file format used by many 3D apps along with 3DS.

Anyway, I hope this helps. Glad you found another way to import a terrain into Blender. Thanks to Aaron for building this app.

Regards,
3DUser

[Lekane]

Ok after a few tries (including load/save with microsoft directx mesh viewer), I'm a bit disappointed hehe... But i'm not surprised, i remember i had troubles with this format in the past when trying to export models from Blender to Irrlicht....

Mview loads the terrain well though, so your exporter Arron works fine... I hope ideasman will fix all this mess hehe I often chat with him on Irc i'll try to know what's going on with this

As for Blender's external renderers, you have Indigo which is unbiased hence extremely photorealistic, Blender has a nice exporter for it (Blendigo), you can even start the render from Blender with it

To finish, you might want to review my technique even though a better importer is coming, cause it allows you to fix a polycount, which is not the case with the directx format (i looked at file size OMG ).... One could argue that the polycount can be lowered after import with some script though.


edit: @arron, yes it is BMP/JPG/PNG, i don't know for the png question, i assume it does, i'll test though...

[Lekane]

Seems Blender opens 16 bits, but changes it to 8 bits

[3DUser]

Lekane, thanks for the info.
I have heard of Indigo but not Blendigo. Will look.

I relooked at your tutorial and noticed the reference to image that I overlooked earlier. I have not tried displacement yet, so I'll try that.

Next, will run your tutorial.

Will be glad to hear other advice.

Regards,
3DUser

[Aaron]

(i looked at file size OMG )

That's because I'm writing the files in text mode. Hmmm...I really should finish the binary X file writer!

[Lekane]

Oh well changing the txt to binary in mview still gives a big file hehe

edit: ideasman just fixed blender's directx importer, soon enough you'll have a simpler pipeline L3DT>Blender

[Morgan]

What is blender? wait nvm

[Lekane]

http://uploader.polorix.net//files/157/ ... mporter.py

To place in your .script directory (yeah replace the old one)
Don't thank me, thank ideasman