Hi I'm in the process of creating a somewhat FPS/SImulation of desert combat and MOUT combat in an Iraq type setting. The only problem i'm having so far is getting the right tools to create a desert enviroment. All these heightfield generators do is make a bunchn of mountains. I need ROlling hills and I need a program capable of placing objects on this map, such as buildings destroyed cars trees, things you would see in iraq that dont move and are static objects. Currently I wa slooking at freeworld 3d, and it didn't seem bad except for the fact that I can't buy it anymore until 2.0 comes out. Does anyone know of any good terrain programs that are not going to cost me an arm and a leg, and preferabbly would be free. I'm a U.S. Army ranger so I really don't make good many but I know all about the army and MOUT so I decided to start making a game since I've done a lot of prgramming and 3d in the past. O and please don't tell me to google it I've googled terrain program s a million times on google and nothing comes up. ANy Ideas. Sprance

I dont't know what to use for your hills, but if you are writing the engine yourself you should have an interface that allows you to drop objects into the level while you are walking around in it. That way you can place things and see the results immediately, thats how Torque works BTW and its very nice.

Anyone Know any more game Engines, like torque, i was planning on writing it myself but the idea of a game engine is much better what some good ones.

While I'm not one of those Torque fanatics that swears TGE is the best thing to happen on the planet since the knife (so we can slice the bread), I do think its a great option for a game engine considering you get a AAA engine for only $100. Go to Garage Games for screenshots, specs, etc.

well why don't you just make the heightmap yourself? i do it all the time in photoshop, this way you also get more control over your terrain. as for you adding objects to your scene if you're making your own engine you'll have to add that in as a feature,or you can add it as a ext model reference (you layout a reference object on your map/terrain that refers to a model in your model folder).

"I do think its a great option for a game engine considering you get a AAA engine for only $100" correction, it used to be a AAA engine, however it is starting to get outdated nowadays. however because of its age and use it's very stable and well developed.

This program lets you design the heightmap yourself AND place objects, and even place water and skyboxes, skydomes, skyplanes. It lets you place entities for things like waypoints, ect... Its pretty cool.
The new 2.0 version is coming out very soon and has a lot of new features, I think there's a download for it in the forums.


http://www.freeworld3d.org