Hi Gleb,
jack.dingler wrote:The size is limited by disk space and how many CPU cycles you want do devote to map generation.
To the best of my knowledge, TGEA Atlas is currently limited to around 4096x4096 heightmap pixels in a single Atlas instance, principally due to the limitations of the chunked LOD geometry generator. Have you been able to generate larger Atlas maps Jack? If so, how?
Gleb.G wrote:As i know, TGEA can't merge nicely multiple terrain files, does it mean that making one big, continuous terrain in TGEA is impossible?
As far as I know, yes. You could, in theory, use several Atlas instances as 'tiles' to create a larger terrain. However, this approach wouldn't create continuous terrain because there would be visible seams at tile edges where the geometry wouldn't match up. Some people have hidden these seams by making island maps, where the edges of each tile are always underwater, and thus the seams are invisible...unless you're making a submarine game.
I might also mention that TGEA includes a terrain engine called 'MegaTerrain', in addition to Atlas. As I understand it - which is not very well - MegaTerrain can cope with very much larger terrain maps because it does not pre-calculate geometry LODs. However, I understand that it's performance is not as good as Atlas.
Another option may be to use
Ogre3D's PLSM (paging landscape scene manager), which apparently is also rather good at rendering large terrain.
Cheerio,
Aaron.