This week I've been looking at fitting the engine around the desired game level size of 50x50km. That is a lot of data. So I said goodbye to the old Longbow 2 Azerbaijan terrain with it's demo forest and long grasses.
I put in the non-bump mapped SA9 to get an idea of scale and impression of how hard these things will be to find. They look first rate with moving shadows. The early bump map test models will look even better.
The new theatre of operations was hard to import at first. RAW height map files of 4096x4096 with the scale set to 10m per tile are now in place.
Now the terrain is set at 40x40km which is close enough to the desired size. The landscape has a barren feel, but real scale. The last two screen-shots show the same Longbow 2 terrain, but using layered bump mapping terrain textures. Vegetation is a problem to add on these large terrains, but I've been wanting to add a real-time editor mode so you can flip between sim and editing seamlessly, much like the award winning Playstation 3 title, Little Big Planet. The game as an editor you can play.
The resolution is not too good yet but it's a good region and an inspired choice.
The Apache model is looking a bit dated now, it really needs some love and care, and a paint job.
Very pleased with the overall feel of the terrain and scale. It serves the game well, short flight time to action, enough room for multi player missions to do their own thing and meet up for co-op play.
Physics and dynamics are looking promising. We may even get realistic Blackhawk sling-load operations from this.
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