combined iceland-vietnam?

[kurdistan1]

Hi everybody

i have a question:

How i can use iceland terrain tiles in vietnam terrain?specially the sea tiles?

[+Wrench]

you can't 

Iceland NA is NOT a "TFD/HFD" style terrain. It's LOD based, and as such, for all intents and purposes, has no "tiles".

Also, the shaders are completely different because it's LOD based

[kurdistan1]

Tnx . I Guess that    .and ... Can we make a completely new vietnam era terrain with those LOD files or not?     or at least make this amazing reflection?

[Tony_Spike]

ya know, after studying the iceland data it looks to me like it would involve basically taking a map of vietnam, slicing it up into the same kind of tiles used by the iceland terrain (if they are not tiles than what would you call them ..they look like tiles to me even if they dont act the same way) saving them over the iceland ones in the right order than creating LOD files for the height maps

problem is even if it was that simple, its a lot of work and that is probably why no one has done it yet

[+Wrench]

No, it can't be done.

Period

end of statement. 

(we're talking about apples and shrimp here. No comparision, no blending, no luck)

[Tony_Spike]

17 hours ago, Wrench said:

No, it can't be done.

Period

end of statement. 

(we're talking about apples and shrimp here. No comparision, no blending, no luck)

no offence, but i dont believe in such petty absolutes 

dont get me wrong im probably not going to attempt it anyway (it sounds like too much of a time sink for one thing) but unless you explain why you have come to this conclusion, then im going to remain convinced that creating other LOD based terrains is theoretically possible, even if getting them to work in game isn't going to happen

[+Menrva]

43 minutes ago, tonyspike said:

no offence, but i dont believe in such petty absolutes 

dont get me wrong im probably not going to attempt it anyway (it sounds like too much of a time sink for one thing) but unless you explain why you have come to this conclusion, then im going to remain convinced that creating other LOD based terrains is theoretically possible, even if getting them to work in game isn't going to happen

When Wrench talks, you can rest assured he is right to a high degree, he's been in the business for a long time. That being said, I am going to explain it a bit more to you: the IcelandNA terrain that comes with SF2NA is LOD based, which means that the terrain itself is one huge (and much unoptimized) 3d model put over a flat surface of water. The IcelandNA terrain uses its own set of terrain shaders; for instance, water rendering is due to two different shaders, one which controls reflectivity, another one which controls the dynamic wave movement.

The other terrains like Vietnam are tile based, they use a heightmap bitmap which is responsible of the terrain's elevation changes, and repetitive squared tiles. The terrain is not a LOD, a 3d model so to speak. Water is rendered by a single shader which applies wave bump maps to a tile in accordance to the level of alpha channels/transparency present in it.

To create LOD terrains is possible, but only if you have any knowledge of 3d modeling skills. A fellow modder, Stary, managed to create a simple ocean LOD terrain, which you should find available for download. But the shaders are highly unoptimized, and it's not worth to build an entire country as Vietnam as a 3d model. Not to mention that it would be difficult to add some decent texturing to a huge LOD. We don't have any real tools for creating LOD terrains.

Unless you're capable of rewriting entire HLSL shaders to recreate that kind of water effect for the non-LOD based terrains, you'll have to live with what we have. The IcelandNA shaders don't work on the tile based terrains because there is no 3d model over flat (water) areas; you end up with coastline tiles being totally cut from the rendering, an awful bug.

Edited September 23, 2018 by Menrva

[Tony_Spike]

2 minutes ago, Menrva said:

When Wrench talks, you can rest assured he is right to a high degree, he's been in the business for a long time.

yes i know, no offence to you but i technically i joined this forum in 2011 and have been active in the community since at least 2006 ...just not ..actively active (if you catch my meaning) i know who Wrench is ........i have spoken to him before and i like to think he will get my sense of humour ;)

having said that i just bought North Atlantic and im just getting acquainted with it hence the newbie questions

im still getting to grips with modding regular none LOD based terrains (i mod multiple games at once ...F1 challenge/rFactor for example, so i haven't often the time to learn complex things for any one game) so thanks for the extra info its appreciated

starys mod was what got me thinking in the first place

of course ...this information basically confirms what i already thought, ......its possible in theory, just too much of a ball ache so to speak, but like i say im unlikely to attempt it anyway, my questions are based more on curiosity than not wanting to live with the regular stuff