[MOD] Interesting Terrains [WIP]

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haloterm
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Re: [MOD] Interesting Terrains [WIP]

Post by haloterm »

monobelisk wrote: Wed Oct 07, 2020 2:28 pm Locations will get flattened much like they do now, but at an increased radius so that it looks more like the landscape naturally allowed the location to be built there, and less like a perfect location-sized square was carved into whatever the landscape is. So locations that are currently positioned at high altitudes will retain their altitude, but the border will be smoother and more organic. I think I'm gonna make it so that locations at high altitudes (mountain peaks) will have a more narrow smoothening radius than locations at ground level.
That makes sense, thanks :)
Also, btw, don't count on the landscape staying even remotely the same until it's finalized; slightly changing a decimal in one of the terrain generators can literally change the entire world beyond recognition, and I'll probably be changing quite a bit until I'm completely satisfied.
That's good advice... yesterday I worked on my guides and texts, to adjust them to your mod, and I had to change quite a lot. For example, the 0.2 version of the mod had the following description for Makilliweyn:
Buried deep within the Dragontail Mountains lies the city
of Makilliweyn. In itself, it is not a very special place,
but travelling to the city through the eastern valley is
marvellous. If you are on horse or foot, the eastern route is
the only one feasible, since high mountains rise in all other
directions. The mountain to the south is called "Guard stone"
by the locals and it is so high you'll need a levitation spell
or jump out of an airship to reach its top.
Before you enter the eastern gate, take a few minutes to
calm down from the trip. Breath in the fresh mountain air, as
you relax from the climb. Adore the beautiful panorama, which,
by the way, is especially breath-taking when you arrive in the
morning in clear weather. (Having the sun in your back also
helps with the climb through the valley.)
And yesterday I rewrote it for v0.3, to fit it better with Interesting terrains:
Deep within the Dragontail Mountains, on a mountain top,
lies the city of Makilliweyn. In itself, it is not a very
special place, but travelling to the city from the valley near
The Thirsty Rascal Pub is marvellous. From the village center,
head southwest, and after just a few minutes, you will see the
- still seemingly tiny - tower on top of a remarkable flat
top. Continue, and both mountain and tower will grow. You can't
head directly towards the city, though, since the mountain is
way too steep. You need to follow the slopes until you have the
mountain on your right side. Continue and notice how sparse
vegetation gets. Once you can't go on, turn right and you will
see the city walls in front of you. From here, the rest of the
tour is relatively easy. On a good day, without interruptions,
you can make the tour in about four to five hours.
<ce>
Before you enter the gate, take a few minutes to calm down
from the trip. Breath in the fresh mountain air, as you relax
from the climb. Adore the beautiful panorama, which, by the way,
is especially breath-taking when you arrive in the morning in
clear weather.
So from "buried" the city suddenly got elevated to "mountain top" -- who knows who was responsible for that. Probably nother dragon break :D

But I will wait with my guides for a further advanced version of your mod, like, maybe, a 0.9 RC or even 1.0, and focus on other parts of my mod.

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Nystul
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Re: [MOD] Interesting Terrains [WIP]

Post by Nystul »

monobelisk wrote: Wed Oct 07, 2020 10:58 am Roads compatibility will be my next project, now that Distant Terrain works.
cool! let me know, when there is the new version with distant terrain compability on nexus, so I can test it out ;)
really hyped :)
will also update distant terrain mod's description to tell ppl that both mods are compatible with each other

monobelisk
Posts: 75
Joined: Tue Aug 25, 2020 10:43 am

Re: [MOD] Interesting Terrains [WIP]

Post by monobelisk »

Nystul wrote: Fri Oct 09, 2020 8:27 am cool! let me know, when there is the new version with distant terrain compability on nexus, so I can test it out ;)
really hyped :)
will also update distant terrain mod's description to tell ppl that both mods are compatible with each other
Awesome! :)

As I mentioned in my previous post, it'll be a little while before the next Nexus release, as there are other aspects of the mod I need to get in order first. But I've built and attached a "demo" that you can check out (DFUnity 0.10.26, Windows).
Attachments
interesting_terrains-dt_compatibility_demo.zip
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Hazelnut
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Re: [MOD] Interesting Terrains [WIP]

Post by Hazelnut »

Do you have your code in github? I need to start thinking about how we make this compatible with Basic Roads.
See my mod code for examples of how to change various aspects of DFU: https://github.com/ajrb/dfunity-mods

monobelisk
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Re: [MOD] Interesting Terrains [WIP]

Post by monobelisk »

haloterm wrote: Wed Oct 07, 2020 2:46 pm That makes sense, thanks :)

(...)

That's good advice... yesterday I worked on my guides and texts, to adjust them to your mod, and I had to change quite a lot. For example, the 0.2 version of the mod had the following description for Makilliweyn:

(...)

And yesterday I rewrote it for v0.3, to fit it better with Interesting terrains:

(...)

So from "buried" the city suddenly got elevated to "mountain top" -- who knows who was responsible for that. Probably nother dragon break :D

But I will wait with my guides for a further advanced version of your mod, like, maybe, a 0.9 RC or even 1.0, and focus on other parts of my mod.
Love it! :D It's gonna make the whole world feel so much more alive, and in a very Daggerfall'esque manner; the lore texts are what really makes the low-poly models and lo-res flats spring to life in this game.

I'm hopeful that my thirst for terrain generation experiments will soon be quenched, and I will be able to generate enough variation to be satisfied.

monobelisk
Posts: 75
Joined: Tue Aug 25, 2020 10:43 am

Re: [MOD] Interesting Terrains [WIP]

Post by monobelisk »

Hazelnut wrote: Fri Oct 09, 2020 10:38 am Do you have your code in github? I need to start thinking about how we make this compatible with Basic Roads.
Not yet - it's been going a bit slow, lately. But you're right, we need to get this ball rolling. Here is the latest source code for the mod. Please forgive the mess.

I haven't implemented a TerrainTexturer yet, but currently the tilemap samples (the raw designations, where 0 == water, 1 == dirt, etc) are generated during terrain sampling (as I need the heightmap compute buffer to generate it) and stored. Then, in a post-process call, the tilemap data is converted to proper byte data (like it happens in the default terrain texturer) and assigned to the terrain in place of whatever was assigned before by the texturer. My plan for the TerrainTexturer is simply that it should overtake the role of the post-process call and convert the pre-generated tilemap samples.

In order to properly smoothen the roads, I would need (for each terrain object) a list of positions for every single point in the 129x129 heightmap grid that is a road, and I would most likely need the road points of every surrounding terrain as well. I could probably recreate the road network generation algorithm in Interesting Terrains.

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haloterm
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Re: [MOD] Interesting Terrains [WIP]

Post by haloterm »

monobelisk wrote: Fri Oct 09, 2020 10:20 am But I've built and attached a "demo" that you can check out (DFUnity 0.10.26, Windows).
Hmm... this demo gives me water everywhere :D Started with a new character. There are cities etc. visible, but all in the ocean.

I tried different load orders with Distant Terrain, and even switched Distant Terrain of, but it's still water :)
Love it! :D It's gonna make the whole world feel so much more alive, and in a very Daggerfall'esque manner; the lore texts are what really makes the low-poly models and lo-res flats spring to life in this game.
Yes, that's my goal with my quests. Especially for regions we do not know so much about. I start with Tulune and want slowly cover more regions over time. The travel guides are mentioning other places beyond my current "focus region" though.

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Nystul
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Re: [MOD] Interesting Terrains [WIP]

Post by Nystul »

monobelisk wrote: Fri Oct 09, 2020 10:20 am
Nystul wrote: Fri Oct 09, 2020 8:27 am cool! let me know, when there is the new version with distant terrain compability on nexus, so I can test it out ;)
really hyped :)
will also update distant terrain mod's description to tell ppl that both mods are compatible with each other
Awesome! :)

As I mentioned in my previous post, it'll be a little while before the next Nexus release, as there are other aspects of the mod I need to get in order first. But I've built and attached a "demo" that you can check out (DFUnity 0.10.26, Windows).
Great, thank you so much!

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Midknightprince
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Re: [MOD] Interesting Terrains [WIP]

Post by Midknightprince »

Hazelnut wrote: Fri Oct 09, 2020 10:38 am Do you have your code in github? I need to start thinking about how we make this compatible with Basic Roads.
This is what I've been waiting to hear my good man
Check out my YouTube Channel!

monobelisk
Posts: 75
Joined: Tue Aug 25, 2020 10:43 am

Re: [MOD] Interesting Terrains [WIP]

Post by monobelisk »

haloterm wrote: Fri Oct 09, 2020 12:08 pm Hmm... this demo gives me water everywhere :D Started with a new character. There are cities etc. visible, but all in the ocean.

I tried different load orders with Distant Terrain, and even switched Distant Terrain of, but it's still water :)
Ah, my bad - I forgot to apply the locale fix in this version :D I've attached a fixed version.
Nystul wrote: Sat Oct 10, 2020 7:51 am Great, thank you so much!
Same as above - I forgot to apply the locale fix. So if you've had troubles with the version I previously posted, try this one instead :)
Attachments
InterestingTerrains_0.4.2_win_localefix.zip
(845.34 KiB) Downloaded 126 times

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