Horde3D

I just found out about the terrain shader. the "Shading Technique - Terrain Shading" on the wiki looks great but I dont really see how to implement it? I was able to compile the sample terrain but I see nothing. Do I need to recompile the engine with the extension in order to use it in the engine? It compiled with no erros and I saw the horde logo..

Also Is this extension used in the editor some how. Can I use the "add terrain" and if so how is a terrain designed? I see the plugin folder has a TerrainToolPlugIn.dll files in it but I dont see that in the editor.

The editor brings a Horde3D DLL that has the terrain extension already build in, so you shouldn't need to recompile it. Before going into further details, try to check out the DominoSzene SVN folder in the Community SVN. It contains a scene file you can open directly in the editor. If that won't work we have to investigate the problem further, if it works, we can start going into details.

Keep also in mind that if you can't see anything, it may be helpful to take a look in the log files.

Volker, thx for he help.

The svn file ran fine. well I did get a sky box, domino's and a black and white terrain, if that is right.

When you said "The editor brings a Horde3D DLL that has the terrain extension already build in" Do you mean "add terrain" ? I would have though the extension or plug-ins would be in another menu. I tried to use that but it wanted to load a terrain and I dont know how to make one.

I see an error in the log.

going to look at the file and find what is missing.

Ok in the file I have:
<Terrain name="Terrain" sx="1024.0" sy="300.0" sz="1024.0"
heightmap="terrain/heightmap.tga"
material="terrain/terrain.material.xml" />

Both files exist but heightmap is in the texture folder under terrain and I dont see how it knows to look for it there. Investigating....

On a limb here but the ResourceTypes does not include heightmap yet the exml calls for it?

The terrain rendering is a separate extension library that can be statically linked into the Horde3D.dll. By default this is not the case when you download Horde3D from SourceForge. In the editor this static library is linked in, so you are able to have terrain nodes in your scene graph. The editor tries to detect if the Horde3D DLL that is used by the editor supports the terrain extension and offers the Add Terrain option in the menus if possible.

The terrain is created using a heightmap (search the forums, I think there were some explanations somewhere already ) and a terrain shader.

Concerning the error log, I'm currently not sure why this happens. Can you check the scene graph in the editor which of the nodes receives the handle 4?

Edit:

The heightmap is a texture and such is searched in the TextureResource directory. Since it is referenced as "terrain/heightmap.tga" it should be found in such a subfolder in the textures directory.

A bit confused if I dont have a scene file how can I load it. To entertain the idea I created one and was planning on loading the terrain data but the light already gets resource 4 and I need a light.

When adding the terrain in the editor I get the same error but I cant copy all of it as there are no text functions ;(

Something like

resource 'utilityLib/ vertcommon
resource 'utilityLib/ fragdeferredwrite
resource 'utilityLib/ fraglighting

all with type 5 no data loaded (file not found?)

I'm also a bit confused, about what the log refers to. Is it from the terrain example from the download page or from one of the SVN branches? Or is it from the GameEngine Domino scene?

Per the errors from the editor, it was missing .glsl files. I just dumped some in there and it showed up as a very messy ( noise) like purple mesh. Looks like a terrain that was interpreted wrong.



Well the log I posted was from the VS2005 (html log) build attempt from that download you linked me to.

The log from the editor I referred to above was from a scn file I put together from the same download. So I may have cause that error by not knowing about the .glsl files.

Downloading the extension should work out of the box, but for some reason it show nothing. All I have to go on is that HTML log output above.


A side note that may be the issue.

from the read me..


All I did was extract the zip file as instructed. Then I just compiled and ran.


but for example..


What Horde3D solution, the source code? My project? The samples? Horde3D solution as in the folder? I know what that "sample projects" are, but what is the "extension"?

HUH?? LOL that is like crazy talk. A project is a VS project, how do you add that to something? Then it says to add it to the Horde3D Engine.. Again what Horde3D Engine? The engine is nothing more then an SDK right? Then add this engine back to the terrain sample? Man I feel so dizzy..

I dont know what all this is to mean but if there is more to the Horde3D_ExtTerrain please direct me to a place that will help. I dont claim to be an expert with VS, but I have used it for 5 years. That above line to me is gibberish.

I think following this explains a lot. http://www.horde3d.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=237&p=1232&hilit=terrain+extension#p1232

I'm not sure as I was not around then but I'm guessing this talk above was in reference to how it used to be done. And now it works alone, which would clear up the confusion. If so I would remove all of that info if it is truly not relevant. If so I would guess I could just ad the bindings to my header folder? Or include the bindings in my header string.

I completely removed it and downloaded a fresh copy and now I get this log


My guess is that it does not know the attribute "heightmap" and if so I must be missing a step?

for the solution or further help see viewtopic.php?f=1&t=611