Certain terrain feel

[Rick]

I've always enjoyed WoW's terrain look, yet I've never been able to duplicate it in LE. Anyone know of any tips or tricks to get this sort of look when doing mountains?

 

http://www.onrpg.com/MMO/World-of-Warcraft/popupscreenshots#17

[tournamentdan]

There are a few different ways you could achieve this. I do not know what type of modeling program you use. The only one I use is blender so I can only point you in the direction of blender tuts.

 

http://cgcookie.com/blender/2011/03/01/tip-using-the-ant-landscape-add-on/

This one may take some playing around with but it could get you there.

 

http://cgcookie.com/blender/2010/04/06/tip-adding-extra-detail-with-a-displace-modifier/

 

Same, some playing around.

 

 

http://cgcookie.com/blender/2010/06/05/sculpting-a-rock-face/

 

This is a pretty good one using sculpting in blender.

 

 

To get exactly what you want would take a bit more sculpting.

 

P.S. Do not forget that after all that sculpting you would have to retopo the terrain.

[Rick]

Oh sorry I meant using Leadwerks terrain tools.

[tournamentdan]

Oh sorry I meant using Leadwerks terrain tools.

 

My bad. Well then I do not know. It may not be able to create the terrain the way you like.

[Road Kill Kenny]

Judging by the closer cliff in the foreground it looks like specific models placed on top of a terrain. I wouldn't imagine you could achieve the same look with the LE Terrain editor without adding models to it.

[Pixel Perfect]

I got a quite similar appearance to this once Rick when importing some geo height map data and getting the scaling wrong. Admittedly it was not raised up into mountains like this but it could easily have been by raising larger areas with the terrain tools. I'd imagine you could also get some similar type effects using the turbulence tools originally provided with the editor (and subsequently dropped).

 

Otherwise, its as people have already suggested. You'd need to model it in a modelling app.

[Rick]

I'll check that geo height map data Pixel. I just can't imagine the mountains in WoW are separate models. There are so many of these like this in the entire world and it flows seamlessly with the terrain I just have to imagine it is the terrain itself. It would be a nightmare to do this with models in the massive world that WoW is.

[tournamentdan]

I'll check that geo height map data Pixel. I just can't imagine the mountains in WoW are separate models. There are so many of these like this in the entire world and it flows seamlessly with the terrain I just have to imagine it is the terrain itself. It would be a nightmare to do this with models in the massive world that WoW is.

 

 

Yes now that the mesh is in the WOW game it is one clean mesh. But I think you are going to find to get it exactly the way you want it you would have to do it with separate models. Then use topology tools and create the nice and clean mesh. I know it sounds harder than it actually is. You would only have to create a few different boulder shape rocks.

 

First you would make your terrain level the way you want it. Then take a boulder and place it partly through the mesh. You could actually only create one boulder then just duplicate then alter a little differently. You are going to want to start at the top of the cliff and work your way down to get it like they do. After you place all the boulders in the terrain mesh. Then you would re-topo and make a cleaner mesh.

 

Sorry I can not help you get it done in LE, but I think you will find to get it exactly the way you want it, yo will have to do it this way.

[Road Kill Kenny]

I'm pretty darn certain its not done with height maps and circular brushes like we have in LE. Perhaps Blizzard have a tool for fast generation..... I wouldn't be surprised.

[Pixel Perfect]

Although less smooth this took all of 5 minutes in the 2.5 Leadwerks Editor and shows what you could do if you spent a bit more time. You obviously have much more control in a modelling app but this could produce a reasonable approximation:

 

[Rick]

Thanks Pixel. That looks pretty good. I've played a lot in the editor with the given tools and just haven't been able to reproduce the WoW feel myself. I was thinking maybe someone knew of some terrain generation tool that would give results like that. If they aren't models (who knows maybe they are) then like Ken said Blizzard must have some kind of mountain generation toolkit to give that look. Thanks guys.

[tournamentdan]

I think he is looking for more of a rock face(Although I like what pixel came up with) on a hill side or cliff. The following took me less than three minutes to make. It's not the big boulder that rick likes but I just wanted to make like a rock face.

 

 

 

I first started out with one rock like shape.

 

I then duplicated the rock then rotated,scaled, and altered the duplicates a few time creating a pattern.

 

I then duplicated that again to make a larger pattern.

 

And again. Which quickly created a little over 34,000 triangles.

 

 

Obviously I could have taken a bit more time on this to make it look better. Just wanted to show that it is pretty easy.

And do not forget that after you would finish the rock face you would have to re-topo and make one clean mesh.

[tournamentdan]

And here is a boulder type face.

[Clackdor]

There's probably a team dedicated to cliffs in WOW. Blizzard has a **** load of resources.

[Josh]

There's probably a team dedicated to cliffs in WOW. Blizzard has a **** load of resources.

It still just boils down to one guy who probably has only been there a few months and just works 9-5, and probably doesn't give a **** what his cliffs look like, he just wants to pay his mortgage. Per capita, large companies have much lower worker efficiency.

[Road Kill Kenny]

It still just boils down to one guy who probably has only been there a few months and just works 9-5, and probably doesn't give a **** what his cliffs look like, he just wants to pay his mortgage. Per capita, large companies have much lower worker efficiency.

 

So true.

[Kronos]

One of the things that always amazes me in wow is the lack of visible lod'ing on anything. One wonders whether they use brute force for rendering the terrain.

 

The only thing I know about the terrains in wow is that they use a max of 4 textures per terrain square.