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Large 3D terrain generator

Useful software

Cool programs, tutorials, texture libraries, et cetera.

Useful software

Postby Aaron » Mon Nov 21, 2005 5:51 am

Hi all,

Just to get the ball rolling, I though I might list some of the software I use to maintain this project.

For the actual programming bit, I use MS VC6. It's an old compiler now (’98), but I'm more comfortable with the VC6 UI than with VC7's floating-window idea (it gives me the shits at work). I’m thinking about upgrading to VS2005 next year.

To build the website, I mostly use Notepad++ to edit the HTML, Firefox to view it (occasionally IE, to check for buggy rendering), and FileZilla's FTP client to upload it. This forum is phpBB, the users' gallery is Coppermine, and the wiki is DokuWiki. I use Google Analytics for site stats.

My preferred terrain renderers are L3DTVi2 and VTP Enviro (both real-time). I occasionally play with Terragen, but I'm generally too impatient to wait for long renders, and I'm not very good with it in any event. However, I have found Terragen to be excellent for generating the skyboxes for L3DTVi2.

Hmmm…that’s about it.

So, what tools do you use, and why?
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Postby JavaJones » Mon Nov 21, 2005 10:39 pm

I hear there are potentially significant speedups possible using newer compilers (such as that in newer versions of VS). Have you had a chance to test this with L3DT at all?

I am primarily a Terragen user as many probably already know. At this point I spend most of my time with the Terragen 2 alpha as I am lucky enough to be a tester for it. To be honest I haven't tested an L3DT terrain in it yet, but I should. I do spend a lot of time with the built-in procedurals, which I think will make a lot of TG users focus less on heightfields when TG2 is released. But there is still a lot of room for apps like L3DT for more explicit terrain forms and particularly for erosion, as there is no substitute for heightfield-based erosion thus far. I am also a big fan of World Machine by Stephen Schmitt. I look at L3DT and WM as complementary since the both approach the terrain generation problem differently and have different abilities in that regard. I'd love to see closer integration of the two apps in the future. I am also a user of Leveller from Daylon Graphics, although I use it primarily for converting files as its import/export support is extensive. I find the actual terrain generation tools in it to be less enjoyable to work with than L3DT and WM.

As far as web stuff, I use a variety of CMS's for my various projects, mostly because I like to test different ones to see how I like them and to gain experience for work in future projects. :D Fortunately most of my experiments have been good ones, but it's true that many of my projects are the potential victim of that experimentalism. ME-DEM - The Middle Earth Digital Elevation Model Project is one such example. Another is Ashundar itself, the parent site - a Terragen-focused graphics community with forums, tutorials, file downloads, etc. ME-DEM uses Mambo (Joomla recommended instead now), which I quite like as an overall CMS. Very powerful, flexible, and a big support community. Ashundar uses LDU - Land Down Under which is a more integrated CMS than Joomla (it comes with forums for example), but is also less flexible as a result and also has a smaller dev community than Joomla/Mambo and therefore less addon modules, plugins, etc. to extend its capability. At Ashundar we have definitely felt the effects of this lesser community support, particularly in the area of good integrated gallery software. It's really a wonder that no good galleries are fully integrated with LDU yet, but that's the case still as far as I can tell. We had to have a custom Coppermine integration done.

I'm quite interested in giving Drupal a shot next, although it seems like it may be a bit daunting. Quite powerful and flexible though. I also have sadly little experience with using Wiki's in my own projects and I'd like to remedy that, possiby by putting one up for tutorials/documentation on Ashundar.

- Oshyan
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Compiler upgrade

Postby Aaron » Tue Nov 22, 2005 3:40 pm

JavaJones wrote:I hear there are potentially significant speedups possible using newer compilers (such as that in newer versions of VS). Have you had a chance to test this with L3DT at all?


I believe so, and I've been feeling vaguely guilty about not having tried it. I’m saving up my biscuits for a copy of VS 2005.

JavaJones wrote:I also have sadly little experience with using Wiki's in my own projects and I'd like to remedy that, possiby by putting one up for tutorials/documentation on Ashundar.


Until yesterday, neither did I. On my lunch-break today I bashed together a few pages, and I was really impressed with how easy and tidy the whole thing is. It's great.

Cheers,
Aaron.
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Postby Hinklemister » Tue Nov 22, 2005 10:42 pm

Well, I use VC++ 7.1 as it is the most recent stable version so far. VC++ 8.0, as it is still in beta, isn't good enough at the moment. I use 3ds Max for my sorry attempts at modeling characters and I use my home made Object Viewer to look at them.
The object viewer is what I use the most. My Object Viewer also does particle effects for my engine and it allows me to play with animations and move a camera around a scene that is moving in real-time. I can also pause the scene and move around it with my camera to make sure there are no bugs and such.

Other programs I use are notepad, paint, firefox, and, of course, L3DT.
I'm 17 years old and make games!
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Postby JohnJ » Tue Mar 07, 2006 3:40 pm

Programming Languages:
Microsoft Visual C++ 8.0, Borland C++ Builder 6.0, Blitz3D, BlitzMax

3D Engines:
Ogre3D

Media Creation Tools:
L3DT, Blender3D, Paint Shop Pro 5.0, Audacity

Useful Resources:
High-Quality Free Textures, Sprites, Normal Maps, Particles Effects, Cursors, etc.
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Postby Rofar » Tue Mar 07, 2006 11:14 pm

IDE:
MS Visual Studio.NET 2003

Programming Languages:
Visual C++ 7.0

Game Engines:
Building my own
I have played around with Irrlcht and Ogre3D
I have a license for Torque
I have a license for Realm Crafter
(possibly Blitz3d in the future when Realm Crafter pro comes out)

Media Creation Tools:
L3DT, PnP Terrain Creator, Realm Crafter Tools, Map Crafter, The Gimp, Milkshape, TreeMagik G2 and G3, Plantlife, Anvil Studios. and custom built tools.

Why these tools?

Best tools for the $.
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Postby fusi » Tue Mar 27, 2007 11:10 pm

Hi There

I use MSVC7.1 for most of my stuff, cant say i know what you mean when you say floating windows, all my tool windows are docked, but then again i have a reasonable amount of screen estate to do this.

i use an amasing tool called visual assist along with MSVC7.1 - i cant recommend it highly enough (http://www.wholetomato.com/).

most of my stuff for modelling and visualisation is home grown, bar a few nuggets such as wings3d (http://www.wings3d.com/) and l3dt of course!

i use my own framework for everything (i prefer the term framework over engine - seems more accurate) and i wasted 2 years of my life writing a vm/jitter for those places where i need that runtime scriptability.

i use irssi for irc which is imo by far the best irc client ever. Oh, and i use a modified version of scite (http://www.scintilla.org/SciTE.html) for webdev.

thats about it :)
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OBJ modification

Postby h.gieseke » Tue Sep 25, 2007 7:28 pm

I had problems with to big meshes and unused details.
While g**gling I found the following tool:

meshlab.sourceforge.net

This is a mesh modification and conversion tool.

From the website:
"MeshLab is an open source, portable, and extendible system for the processing and editing of unstructured 3D triangular meshes.
The system is aimed to help the processing of the typical not-so-small unstructured models arising in 3D scanning, providing a set of tools for editing, cleaning, healing, inspecting, rendering and converting this kind of meshes."

I hope, this might help somebody.
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