Grome is a fantastic terrain editor I've been playing with for future enhancements and rolling out a larger terrain systems in the future. If you play flying games and RPGs on consoles chances are you've probably already seen a Grome edited terrain. It's used by nearly every major player in the simulation industry. Incorporating a plug-in system, OpenSceneGraph and now new improved Unity integration.
What's new in 3.1
I'm quite keen to see how it works in the up and coming Leadwerks 3(D) engine which is looking to sport threaded streaming of assets. If this could be incorporated alongside the vegetation system it would be perhaps the most powerful and complete 3D engine for less than 1,000 USD.
fantastic detail in the terrain! Is that a texture or actual polys we are looking at?
ReplyDeleteseems like it would take 3 Nvidia 580's to render that
I read the site a bit.... thats a very nice package. I wonder how it would perform in a complex ahooter like ARMA... love that game but up close action feels like Im underwater.
ReplyDeleteYou'd be VERY surprised Jeff. GROME produces however many LODs you need. Even something suitable for iPhones.
ReplyDeleteIt takes highmapts, applies procedural filters such as errosion if you need, lets you paint on them in layers and blend them, just like Photoshop.
Then you can slice them up into individual parts and multiple LODs using irregular triangle meshes. It's nothing you haven't seen in games already.
In Unity you have two options for terrain. Either their own 'Terrain Object' which gives you Unity splatting and paint tools, great for up close detail. And imported terrain meshes such as ones exported by GROME. The base texture layer can have trees and other procedural veg placed on it and streamed in. The trick is finding the right combo of techniques.
ReplyDeleteEither way GROME is needed as a tool to slice up large DEMs and produce all the needed LOD meshes.
Whatever technique is fastest wins. Id' rather have a less detailed sim that plays at 60fps than a 20 fps one. The difference between commanding the helicopter and reacting to it.
Ground detail is a requirement for helos. Either through displacement mapped terrain/bumpmaps or 3D entities.
ya the FPS vs. detail argumen t can go on for days... personally, Ill take less FPS (for a flight sim) and higher detail.
ReplyDeletevery cool how it can stream in trees! never heard of that.
the erosion thing reminds me of an app I used in the 90's called Bryce ( I was a space artist of sorts) and the way it eroded the ground. the screens remind me of it a lot.
Grome is very cool stuff. thanks for the info.