Hi Guys

thought I would start a new thread on Static Terrains (think I hijacked the other thread sorry for that)

Anyhow I have been trying to create my terrain as a single entity to increase FPS ( I have based it on the area in which I live), the FPS increase is amazing, yes it is more work building a huge map but it is also a learning exercise all the models are my own with the exception of foliage, I have recently (after reading Wolf's optimisation guide) optimised my entity so that if the terrain is on I get 90FPS + with it off I get 176 + (please bear in mind bandicam slices about 10 FPS off GG) I still have a lot of work to do i.e textures are not quite right and the hills could do with refining but I am quite pleased with the results.

Forgot to mention Settings are on Highest too

I am currently working on animation and hopefully the next video will have boats running up and down the canal

what do you guys think ?

@GraPhiX Once again you have presented something wonderful. Your town looks nice! but the improvement in FPS is quite dramatic! A big plus I see is the removal of the terrain to get better use of the water.

So here's the thing about terrains made as single entities - short of having one enormous texture file, you're most likely going to be tiling a single texture across the entire entity. Doesn't that then sort of defeat the point of having the 16 graduated texture brushes built into Game Guru? How are you going to texture mountains, forest, plains and a beach in the same map?

AE

I think it comes down to more realistic terrain. GG terrain looks like Dark Basic terrain.

If you look at games like Planet Coaster, their terrain editing is light years ahead of GG. You can EASILY create tunnels, cliffs, overhangs, etc - it's all voxel based and amazingly powerful and good looking. If we had THAT kind of power, GG would be unstoppable.

As I have said before, at a minimum, we need a stamp system where you have 'brushes' and stamp the brushes into the terrain - this would allow for erosion, riverbeds, lakes, strata, fractal mountains (much more realistic), etc.

Eventually, the ability to create in-ground items, like tunnels, volcanoes, etc. would be really great. For now, they have to be created as entities.

Mike

@Avenging Eagle yes it does take away the 16 textures of GG but then gives me unlimited textures, all the items in my level were made independently (components/groups) I then made a sandbox and I add the individual components to my sand box (the sand box is what you see in the video), the ground texture is just the grass texture in most places at the moment but I have already created different textures for different areas I have just not applied them yet (been tweaking and cleaning them up) the last thing I created and added to the level were my fake hills, before now all the level was flat in my vids (I don't really need hills I live in a town but I wanted to see if I could add them to my sandbox).

I am going to push this as far as I can and keep adding to the static layer, I have already added other entities to my entity and everything works as it should, I can even paint grass on it

So basically in theory all I am doing is creating my level out of the GG editor removing some of the limitations, yes there are trade offs like the terrain editor cannot be used, which is ok for doing internal levels, what I am doing is creating an external map without terrain.

yes good for indoor levels , I did this 2 years ago in 2015 and my FPS shot way up, although in the video my FPS was only lower due to the video software running at the time.

I actually see a big advantage for creating urban areas with terrain entities.

Before I try to handcraft every inch of streets, sidewalks and foundations, I would welcome large modular terrain entities that enable me to fast & easily put together a large city grid that only needs the buildings and scenery added. With included ramp parts, the grid could easily be made multi-leveld too, not to mention what a modular harbor system could save on time,

Anyone who has ever tried to hand-align 50+ street parts knows what I mean......

rolfy made something similar with his "Road & Terrain Pack" for FPSC: https://forum.thegamecreators.com/thread/173451 He made the parts segments though, but you get the idea.

This is how i'm working on my first level:



Everything snaps together on a 100x100 grid, so it's nice and neat with no seems, most of the pieces share textures or models, which makes it easy to make it repeat less. In fact I've even started making new building models that will be 5 different building shapes, with 5 separate windows, 5 separate doorways, and 5 of each walled yard section, each with multiple textures, although there will initially be more individual models, once lots of each are in it will mean less loading of models and textures because they share them, it also means way more variation.

That looks just like what I'd like to have if I wanted to create an urban level.

Because to create a believable urban area a lot of details have to be added and the less time I'd have to spend on the streets, the more time I'd have to work on the details.

I think you really are onto something here that would make a great model pack for the store.

Nice.

Mike

@GraPhiX: Yeah, my point was that you now can't have the texture blending that the GG texture system allows, although for some terrain features, your method might actually work better. Surprised you can paint grass on your terrain entity too.

AE

He's not technically, he's probably painting the grass through his terrain object.

@Avenging Eagle - Belidos is quite right I can paint through my entity the downside is I do not see the brush it also works in F9 mode,

Texture Blending is done in my sandbox, I am doing a lot at the moment when I get time I will post a video of my custom terrain

Yes with the terrain switched off, you can make some huge urban areas, like the one in my video below.

wow how long did it take you put that together that looks really nice

Juggling with full time work, about 2 months of slog and meticulous and ridiculous asset placement. Getting between 35 and 56fps sometimes it drops to about 25 when the occluder is working to hide objects. That level will be split into 4 or 5 sections just deleting out the bits I dont need and re-saving the level as new filename, so the game keeps its consistancy, and a good framerate.