History: Ogre Terrain System
Preview of version: 7
In 2009 sinbad (founder of Ogre) started to create a new terrain system. It replaces the old Terrain Scene Manager and includes ideas of other terrain addons, key of which is being a component system which can live within any SceneManager rather than being one itself. Since Ogre 1.7 the new Ogre Terrain Manager is part of the Ogre core.
Basic Tutorial 3 shows how you can use this terrain system.
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click to enlarge
Features
- SceneManager independent, separate optional component (OGRE_HOME/Components/Terrain)
- Integrates with (optional) Paging component
- Inherently editable - a lot like ETM
- Hierarchical geometry batching: batch count reduced at lower LODs as well as vertex count. At the lowest level of detail, the entire terrain page is a single batch which has obvious advantages for large paging terrains over the fixed tiles previously used. There is also the possibility to go to a lower overall resolution and to drop detail geometry in the far distance compared to non-hierarchical approaches.
- Skirts are used instead of stitching to avoid cracks in geometry. This means fewer indexing arrangements and lower overall index buffer usage
- In-built support for splatting layers, configurable sampler inputs and pluggable material generators
- Support for generating global normal maps and light maps in a background thread
- Saving & loading of terrain built in, including loading / processing in a background thread
- LOD now adapts in real-time to camera settings (viewport sizes & LOD bias) so you can use the same terrain with multiple views efficiently
See also
- Ogre::Terrain API
- Basic Tutorial 3 - How to use the terrain system
- New Terrain Early Shots - Forum topic for Development Talk
- Paging as a core feature - design notes - Forum topic
- Future plans for Ogre::Terrain? - Forum topic
- Mogre terrain and paging - Forum topic for usage with Mogre (.NET)
- Ogitor - A Scene Editor, which can create terrain based on the Ogre Terrain System
- SceneManagersFAQ - An overview for other scene managers