Terraindetail - what does it do?

[Helmut_AUT 0]

Sorry for the maybe dumb question, but I searched here and at official board, yet found no answer.

 

What does Terraindetail actually change when set to medium or low? Number of buildings inside cities? There's a separate option "Ground Objects" so I doupt setting it to low gives an "empty" map.

 

Does it change the mesh detail, heightmap detail or such? The geometry of the landscape itself? It seems to me that with a high number of ground objects and high res textures, it looks not any worse at LOW than at HIGH - but I get a significant framerate difference.

 

Thanks for the help

 

Helmut

[Helmut_AUT 0]

Okay, after a bit of testing around: Objectdetail determines the distance at which LODs are swapped. I assume it's the same for terrain features.

[+malibu43 142]

Sorry for the maybe dumb question, but I searched here and at official board, yet found no answer.

 

What does Terraindetail actually change when set to medium or low? Number of buildings inside cities? There's a separate option "Ground Objects" so I doupt setting it to low gives an "empty" map.

 

Does it change the mesh detail, heightmap detail or such? The geometry of the landscape itself? It seems to me that with a high number of ground objects and high res textures, it looks not any worse at LOW than at HIGH - but I get a significant framerate difference.

 

Thanks for the help

 

Helmut

 

I've always had a hard time telling, but I think it does change the heightmap detail or something like that. Fly nap of the earth over europe on low and then switch to high. I think I see difference...

[+Stary 2,427]

Malibu is right I think. Heightmap resolution and the use of _hm.bmp files for extra amount of detail; clearly visible on Israel2 by Gepard

[+PureBlue 71]

How about this section in the terrain_data.ini:

 

[HeightField]

DetailScale=20.0

DetailFrequency=1.0

MaxHeight=1000

MinHeight=0

 

This is from Israel2. In contrast I have DetailScale=10.0 for Anatolia. (This is from WOE 4 seasons)

And the Stock GermanyCE_data has 1.0. Any idea how this effects the terrain?

 

Plus there is this unknown:

 

[HeightOffset]

NonTexturedMesh=-10.0

TexturedMesh=-5.0

DetailedMesh=0.0

LowDetailMesh=-1.0

WaterMesh=0.8

 

I wonder if we could enhance the game by changing these values.

[+Stary 2,427]

[HeightField]

DetailScale=20.0

DetailFrequency=1.0

MaxHeight=1000

MinHeight=0

 

these values apply to the ground shader normalmap noise you see from below MaxHeight=, DetailScale= is the multiply factor of the noisenormal.bmp and waternormal.bmp normalmaps mapped on the tiles.

 

[HeightOffset]

NonTexturedMesh=-10.0

TexturedMesh=-5.0

DetailedMesh=0.0

LowDetailMesh=-1.0

WaterMesh=0.8

 

these apply to the far low res terrain mesh IIRC, prevents that ugly water triangles among other things

[Helmut_AUT 0]

Malibu is right I think. Heightmap resolution and the use of _hm.bmp files for extra amount of detail; clearly visible on Israel2 by Gepard

 

Okay, so for flat Germany Terrain or First Eagles terrain - does height map detail actually matter? I could see it being an issue when flying over mountains...

 

Not clear what the _nm.bmps do, if you want to explain that a bit more.

 

Thanks for the answer

[+Stary 2,427]

Okay, so for flat Germany Terrain or First Eagles terrain - does height map detail actually matter? I could see it being an issue when flying over mountains...

 

Not clear what the _nm.bmps do, if you want to explain that a bit more.

 

Thanks for the answer

 

No, it doesn't matter. The terrain HFD file is the one that holds the elevation data.

 

The black&white usually 8bit _hm.bmp files are used to

1) draw the ground radar image of the tile (so you have nice rivers and mountains rendered on scope in GM mode)

2) bump the tile by the amount specified in terrain data.ini:

 

[Texture086]

Filename=germanyG-RivS3.TGA

HasWater=2

HeightMap=germanyG-RivS3_hm.BMP <- name of the _hm file to use

HeightMapScale=10.000000 <- amount

Color=0.328488,0.374616,0.260325

SolidObjectTexture=TEROBJECT_HOUSES1.BMP

AlphaObjectTexture=TER_NEWTREES1.TGA

[+PureBlue 71]

Thanks for the explanation Stary, so the HeightField is all about the noise map, not about the mesh detail or anything about the terrain/elevation model. It's true that this is all created at the beginning of terrain building in TE. Most terrains use the standard max. values, if you bump it up a level the game engine chokes big time.

 

I was wondering how the Ground Map radar worked, because some of the rivers/lakes I had done weren't showing up correctly in the Anatolian terrain. Turns out some of the tiles, for example Sea: SR25,SR50,SG25.. didn't have HeightMap's defined. This _data is from your 4xSeasons ;) Although the stock GermanyCE_Data.ini has some of these tile heightmap values covered, some are missing from there too, the files are in the CAT but not used

 

I think I'll see how things change after fixing this, wrench had some heightmaps uploaded too, this is a part of terrain building I'm yet to get dirty in, everyday is a new discovery