Low poly terrain modell with Z-Brush

Hi again,
I just want to create a great, detailled 3D terrain. So I just searched for a good tool, named Z Brush. But how can I create good low Poly terrains? There are many tutorials for high poly stuff around. But I cant find something for low poly.

Would be great, if someone can help me.

And Im not dead.

mfG TheShooter

Hey, I'm facing exactly the same challenge! Found Vue 8.5 today which has a free edition but it is, as well, high poly!

I wrote a tutorial for low poly terrains using BohHavocs Shade-C but it is based on an old version and I want to avoid shaders.

http://www.jofre.de/?p=584

If you find another good solution please post

maybe the free version of L3DT ?

dont used it myself

http://www.bundysoft.com/L3DT/

It may sound like a dumb question, but why not just generate your high-poly
terrains in the third-party program of your choice, and then import to MED
and reduce its poly-count there? (using the Object/Change_Terrain_Vertices tool)

Or am I missing something important there? Im not practiced with pre-defined terrains.

I tried it severel times. But the quality especially of curved surfaces get lost, when I reduce the polygons.

Same problem for me, it could be a solution to cut the map into pieces and load each one separately.

If you don't mind using a model based terrain, sculptris works nice then you can chose organically were to put the most polys

Zbrush , if you consider the price : 600 Euros and not some illegal version , is a great deal : But not for terrain !
It's tool for mainly 3D characters , now hard surface geometry things.
So if you buy it just for terrain , it's a bad choice !
If you plan making lot of other stuff not only terrain, the go for it.

But yes Sculptris, is awesome like it has been said , i use it instead of Zbrush even if i have baught it in the past !
Sculptris is fast powerfull and allow i find lot more fine control for my taste
And you have great tools like Reduce polygons brush if you need to optimize your work !
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.... When ... when ... will A8 make like other indie 3D engines : Unity, C4D, Esenthel, LeadWerks, Torque 3D , Ogre 3D and free terrain editors etc ... and have a complete terrain/vegetation editor in the world editor : It's standard feature ... really !!!
Thats' really sad , really for people using A8 only.
I actually love A8 and it's scripts , the more easy to use engine (workflow could be better) !
But i use some other enegine due to lacking terrain when i plan a project using terrain ! That's like that , no choice !

A couple more suggestions on the MED post-processing...

Firstly, dont try to reduce to your target low-poly-count in a SINGLE step.
Reduce it in 'clean round' stages. Like 50% or 10% steps until you get close
to your target, then start using the odd percentages.

When all is done, if it still looks 'iffy', try using the MED tool "Object/Recalculate Normals".
But try it in the engine first... it may make things look worse...

If you're using Z-Brush, Z-Brush's decimator plugin is fantastic.

I just got the testversion. Normally I use Blender for modelling, so its not worth to buy Z Brush.

Sculptris seems to be good.

Thank you, I will give Sculptris a try.

Hiya.

You can use ZBrush just fine. Create your 'simple' terrain using the Plane tool in ZB. Then save that as your base mesh. Then divide it a few times to get a few million poly's. Paint and sculpt (but not TOO drastic sculpting...your detail sculpting is going to be a displacement map). Once you have it the way you want, create a displacement map of it; it will be 'greyscale', and save out your texture map. Now, in Med, import a landscape texture, using your displacement map, at whatever triangle count you want, then apply your texture map as a base texture. Use a multishader for your ground details and wham bam thank you Ed McMahon...you have a texturized terrain.

...well, that's the theory anyway. I've never tried it yet...don't use A7/8 anymore...but it should work.

^_^

Paul L. Ming