I have seen some discussion in the boards about what I think of as a
terrain stitcher" that is, the ability to work with a set of small tiles
which would then stitched together to make a larger terrain. This might
solve some of the issues with trying to get the detail into the game world
we are seeking. I am sure it creates a number of problems, not the least of
which is getting the tiles to come together so that the seams are reasonably
placed without giant tears. It would be a useful feature. I think it would
fit into the overall desire to be able to create really large terrain and
terrain textures. So it is one thing that gets my vote -- along with being
able to stitch together mosaic tiles and textures under export. I see no
reason that if you can create that vast array of smaller tiles you can't
bring them in together in say, a series of rows and then write them out as a
single giant RAW file... read in a row of tiles, then then read across each
row of pixels in each file writing them out to a single RAW file. In the
end, you would process through all the tiles row by row and end up with one
single file. Since RAW has not special embedded info anyway, you then just
need to close the file when you have finished the last row of mosaic tiles.
This could even be done as an external utility... Hmmm. Makes a note to look
at the SDK when it is ready...

<unsolicited plug to the guys who are looking at the project for recreating
Middle Earth terrain>
We are working with the new Atlas terrain engine in GarageGames' new Torque
Shader engine. It is the first terrain engine that I have seen than can
handle the size terrains that you are proposing to create at real world
framerates. It still has some issues with generating the terrain and the
import.conversion of the texture to lay on the terrain, but overall it is a
marvelous piece of work... You might want to check it out.



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