My First Terrain

[RhinoMatte]

Here are 11 screenshots of my first terrain/level (please forgive image quality if it's bad).

I was wondering what you guys would think and how I could add more detail/make it more beautiful. I'm just trying out some stuff before I really start on a game.












Album link: http://img12.imageshack.us/g/screenshot1tx.jpg/

[RhinoMatte]

Due to image limit, here are the last two:

[Sir. Polaris]

Looks like a Gameworld, but it looks nice and for a first attempt it's great.

The key to a realistic world is imperfection. Games make things perfect, straight lines, smooth mathematical curves that are equal on each side, rarely exist in nature and are captivating to our minds but unrealistic when done too often, in what should be a real world.

Take a look at this picture of avatar the game:
http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/...22671_640w.jpg

Notice that log and how straight legged it is? Kinda looks unnatural when compared to somthing like this:



I would take a look at some Computer Generated worlds in movies - like say Avatar (as it's newest) and take a look at game worlds like Operation Flashpoint, FarCry 1/2 and and see how they bump up and work the world

Do note that games have limits and budgets, Sure you could have a 3mil poly world and single char - but thats all you get. When breaking out your world you need to ask your self how inportant each feature is and how much you want to invest in it.

Compare these games in your mind

[RhinoMatte]

Thanks for the reply, it's really helpful. I certainly agree that games go over realism sometimes. I'll update when I've got something new to show.

[Blades]

I appreciate your response too Sir. Polaris. Very helpful and a good reminder for us all. And RhinoMat: Good work, keep it up. Practice makes perfect when it comes to doing terrains. With your rock formations I would try and mix it up a good bit. You can mix the rock meshes together and make some really interesting rock formations, by rotating the rocks at different angles. Look at some of the pre-built maps that have rock formations and see how they did it.

[Deranged]

Grid size is wayy too small in UDK to achieve anything close to those pics without source Polaris.

[Blades]

I beg to differ, you just got to know how to do it. It's more than just setting up a terrain with coordinates.

[Sir. Polaris]

@Blade
Agreed.

@General
The key to always remember is that games are just a illusion. Everything is a lie, a cheat and hack.

STALKER and ARMA's ground resolution is quite small. They just populate the terrain with immense amount of static meshes you don't take note. I don't know how well Unreal does streaming but if it was good, perhaps somthing close is obtainable.

To that end on streaming, I don't know and I wont pretend to know, I can only extrapolate so much based on my experience and knowledge with unreal and other games.

Games like Farcry and Crysis are built around the foliage I think it's one of the weaker parts of unreal and the reason why it's a common target in other engine producers selling features.