In 2009 sinbad (founder of Ogre) started to create a new terrain system. It is a scene manager, which replaces the old Terrain Scene Manager and includes ideas of other terrain addons. 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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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