Hi everyone,

as always I am working on my strategy game. The last few days I reworked the code for terrain transformation to fit the trenches into the terrain (as it is a game set during World War One trenches are a rather important art and gameplay asset)

So a lot of games (like Company of Heroes) adjust only the z-value of the terrain-mesh vertices so the trenches fit in. In order to make this technique look good you need a very dense terrain mesh (like Company of Heroes wink ). Since I did not want to make the terrain mesh super dense (for various reasons, mostly for an easier workflow) I used a different technique and modified not only the z-value but also the x- and y-value of terrain-mesh vertices that are close to the trench model.

[Linked Image]

I implemented this some time ago but the result was very unsatisfying. The texture is stretched close to trenches and gaps in the terrain mesh appear at various places (red circles):

[Linked Image]

I recently came back to this and reworked the code. It is still the full vector-field displacement technique but I added some code for borderline cases (the places where the gaps appeared) and additionaly recalculated the uv-mesh after the deformation. The code for recalculating the uv-mesh
Code
float level_extent = 2 * 11400;
ENTITY* terrain;
...

CONTACT* c;
int i = ent_status(terrain,0); // number of vertices 
double multiplier = 1 / (level_extent);

for (; i>0; i--)
{
	c = ent_getvertex(terrain,NULL,i);
	c.v.u1 = (c.v.x + level_extent * 0.5) * multiplier;
	c.v.v1 = 1 - (c.v.z + level_extent * 0.5) * multiplier;
	ent_setvertex(terrain,c,i);
}

It took me some time to figure this out because the documentation for ent_getvertex, ent_setvertex lacks some information. Especially on the various uv-mesh deformations.

But the reworked code makes the terrain look way more clean:

[Linked Image]

Still not perfect in every single aspect but I am really happy with the outcome. Next I want to improve the terrain shader. I still think the normal maps don't "stand out" enough and dynamic lights doesn't affect the terrain at all by now.

As always: Feedback is very welcomed, wether it is about the terrain or any other aspect of the game!

Best Regards

Last edited by Jerome8911; 06/22/20 15:11.
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