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Large 3D terrain generator

Testing, testing...

Important stuff.

Testing, testing...

Postby Aaron » Thu Nov 30, 2006 12:52 am

Hi Everyone,

Would anyone care to test the latest dev build for L3DT Pro? I've seriously re-worked the 2D-rendering code for the main map display, and whilst I'm pretty sure it all works, I can't test every case myself.

The main change is to the way mosaic maps are rendered in the display. Whereas previously I used a hacky sub-sampling mode to render mosaics, I've now implemented a mipmapping system, which both improves the rendering speed on large maps and also the maximum achievable detail*. Removing sample mode has also fixed mosaic support for the water flood / delete water body mouse tools, and removed some potential gotchas from plugin development and the development of future mouse tools. Additionally, I’ve finally threaded the map rendering code so that you can cancel the operation if it’s taking too long.

I think these changes make for a more responsive UI, and one that handles extremely large maps much better than before. Of course, it's not my opinion that matters here, so I'd love to hear your thoughts on the subject. Bug reports are also welcome, so if you can break it, please do.

Cheers,
Aaron.

* Note I'm just talking about the display here, not the calculations to generate the maps.
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Postby JavaJones » Thu Nov 30, 2006 2:11 am

That sounds excellent. I think some of the ME-DEM folks might be interested in those changes. :D

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Postby DeathTwister » Thu Nov 30, 2006 2:22 pm

WOW Aaron,

Sounds great I will download and try it out thios weekend after all the people leave me home, woo hoo new build , hahahaha. Since I am here I will ask, as I have been meaning to ask for this for quit a while. Aaron would you please make an undo button? I find myself all the time wishing I could do undo and redo something so I do not loose other stuff I had, and sometimes if you do do something wrong, we can loose something good because we screwed up, (Well I do anyway) so Please make a undo button in one of your updates? or am I just a screw up?? and have to live with it??? ROTFL lololol hahahaha, Seriously it sure would help me allot anyway, don't know about other peeps.
I know I know in the do do list page, but I thought of it here, and wanted to remember to ask hahahahaha... need more coffee......

DT
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Postby Aaron » Thu Nov 30, 2006 3:01 pm

Hi DT,

We should probably make a new thread for the undo request, but its late, so I'll answer here:

A single-level undo is possible, but it will cane your hard-disk, because I will backup the maps before each operation, and restore them if you call undo. Multiple levels of undo, such as you get in word processors or other low-memory programs, could be absurdly wasteful of hard-disk space (depending on the type of changes made, and the desired undo depth.) So, the short answer is I can probably do a single-level undo button early next year.

Cheers,
Aaron.
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Postby SeerBlue » Fri Dec 01, 2006 3:43 pm

I will try it out this weekend, if the kids give me a break, and let me on the computer,,,Damn Dell and it's free game trials downloads ( not really some are quite good, even for the gaming inept).SeerBlue
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Postby Ch3rokee » Fri Dec 01, 2006 4:12 pm

I just generated a 2048x2048 (131072 x 131072) mosaic map - tile size 512 and the showing time (also zoom) is slightly slower than in v2.4b (excluding "calculating mip maps" and "preparing display" that took around 18 secs total), but the detail is much higher, so that's a good change for me.
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Postby monks » Sat Dec 02, 2006 11:45 am

Great! just downloaded it- hope to have a gander at it later today :)

edit: I like the way L3DT handles image overlays now- that's a great improvement Aaron- very fleet of foot with the zoom as well. Marvellous! :)
Just a suggestion (rather than a feature request). Though it's probably not necessary, a Deselect area on the Area select Mouse tool would be somehow reassuring- maybe it's because I'm so used to using Ctrl+D to deselect all.
The Mouse ruler isneat too. I think you could add value if you had a visual profile on that- but again not requests just having fun.

I'm intrigued by the overlay manager- :D

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Postby DeathTwister » Sat Dec 02, 2006 4:41 pm

Hum,

Yup I downloaded the new version as well, and will install it later and maybe see since I have not the time to work in TGE/TSE to maybe just do a quicky for my third entry with new build and TG. Maybe have time later if I get lucky /wry smiles.....Sounds like it is getting KEWLer if that is possible /winks.....

Great, I think one undue is all I need /smiles.........Don't need it much, but when I do Whew it's a biggy hahahahahahaha, Thanks brother Aaron.

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Postby Aaron » Sun Dec 03, 2006 4:41 am

Hello,

Ch3rokee wrote:the showing time (also zoom) is slightly slower than in v2.4b (excluding "calculating mip maps" and "preparing display" that took around 18 secs total), but the detail is much higher, so that's a good change for me.


You can speed-up the vieing time bo going to 'Settings->Local', and disabling 'UI->View->Buffer->PrepSurrounds', or reducing the 'PrepSurroundsFactor' (default is 3, 2 is probably OK). These values determine how much (if at all) of the surrounding map display L3DT should prepare, just in case you try to pan left/right/up/down. If you don't use the pan feature, you can turn this off and get a greater draw speed.


monks wrote:Though it's probably not necessary, a Deselect area on the Area select Mouse tool would be somehow reassuring- maybe it's because I'm so used to using Ctrl+D to deselect all.


I'd rather not add an extra button or control so I'll do this as a keyboard shortcut. Probably as a SHIFT+key combo, since I'm running out of CTRL+key options, but maybe not.

Cheerio,
Aaron.
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