Reality Factory

The tutorial

Not my tutorial, but I figured that it is useful enough that it should be said in case anyone is making any outdoor terrain. It has a simple concept, but not well-known.

Ah yeah, thats a new thing i think. I could like, copy paste it here, i dont know how illegal that is though. Ah well I can delete it from here if i get in trouble.

The Cool-Ass Terrain Tutorial
By Bobby Pavlock

Level Designer - Ion Storm

WHATS THE PROBLEM?
The idea of making natural-looking terrain was brought to the mainstream with Quake 2. Some of the outdoor areas in Quake 2 were awe-inspiring compared to what we were used to. Yet, even the revolutionary outdoor areas found in Quake 2 have quickly become sub-par when compared to some of the terrain found in many of the newer games. So how is it that level designers are able to make such convincing terrain without sacrificing gameplay? Well that's what I'm going to attempt to show you in this tutorial.

Before I started working at Ion Storm, I was like many of you reading this - an aspiring amateur level designer, looking to hopefully one day make my way into the industry. As an amateur, one of my biggest struggles was making cool-looking outdoor terrain, while keeping the r_speeds low enough to not affect gameplay. Regardless of how many approaches I tried to use, it just didn't seem to want to work. Then, when I arrived here at Ion Storm, I quickly discovered an extremely simple but effective method of constructing natural terrain - the "triangle method". I don't know if that's what it's really called, or if it even has a proper name, but that's what I call it.

Basically, all you do is make a grid of triangular-shaped brushes, and then raise/lower vertices. Sounds easy, huh? With the triangle method, a level designer of any skill level, can easily make convincing natural terrain, and keep the r_speeds down to a minimum. Interested? Read on…
WHAT'S THIS "TRIANGLE METHOD"?
The triangle method for making natural terrain is so simple, that you'll ask yourself why in the hell you never thought of it. For this tutorial, I will be constructing an example map. The example map will simply be a small section of a canyon area.

The first thing I am going to do is decide how I want my canyon to flow. When I have come up with the general idea of what I want the area to look like, I begin by drawing an outline of the canyon area using brushes with a sky texture. Don't overcomplicate this part of it. Some people, in an effort to be random, will draw the outline of the area with brushes going in all sorts of different angles. While being random is they key to making convincing natural terrain, we can hold off on the random part til later. Here's what the outline of my canyon area looks like…




Now that I have the outline of my area, the next step is to fill this area with a grid of triangle brushes, which will make up the ground for my canyon area. Here is where the random part comes in. Don't be afraid to make your triangles be all different shapes and sizes. You don't find too many outdoor areas that are all neat and orderly, so don't try to make your outdoor area neat and orderly. The only thing to remember when filling your area with this grid of triangle brushes is to make sure that all your triangle brushes meet at the vertices. Don't have the vertex of one triangle brush meeting the side of another triangle brush. This will cause problems in the next step. Here is what my map looks like after filling the canyon area with a grid of triangle brushes…




Ok, once you have your area filled with triangles, the next step is to go through and raise/lower vertices to give the ground an uneven, natural look. I usually prefer to start in a corner area. Simply select one of the triangle brushes, go into vertex manipulation mode, and raise or lower the vertices to your liking. In this example I have started off by raising 2 of the vertices of the triangle brush I selected by 32 units, and leaving the third in its original position. Here's what it looks like…




Once I have that brush adjusted how I want it, then I select the neighboring brush, and raise/lower any adjoining vertices between the 1st and 2nd brushes until the vertices of the 2nd brush match the position of the vertices of the 1st brush. Any vertices that are not shared between the 2 brushes you can manipulate however you like. Here is what it looks like after manipulating the vertices of the 2nd brush to match those of the 1st brush…




As you can see, by making sure all the triangles in the grid meet at the vertices, aligning the heights of 2 neighboring brushes is very easy. However, if you have a vertex of one triangle brush meeting the side of a neighboring triangle brush, then it becomes more difficult to get the heights of the 2 brushes, and any other brushes that meet at that point, to match. So to be safe and make it easier on yourself, make sure all your triangles meet at the vertices.

Believe it or not, that's all there it to it. All you do now is simply go through the grid, raising/lowering the vertices of the rest of the triangle brushes. Obviously, the more you raise/lower the vertices the more uneven the ground is going to look. For example, if you want the ground to have a subtle, natural roll to it, then raise/lower the vertices less. In this example, I am adjusting the vertices by 32 units. Also, the more triangles you use in an area, the smoother, and more natural, the ground will look. Just be careful not to go crazy with it, or else you might begin to sacrifice those precious r_speeds.

After you have the ground looking the way you want, then add some rocks or walls or whatever you want, and you're done! Now wasn't that easy? Here are a couple pics of the canyon area I made, after all was said and done…









Notice how the ground has that natural, uneven look to it? And check out those r_speeds, with rocks and everything! Obviously there's a lot of room r_speed-wise for adding even more detail to this canyon area, but for the purposes of this little tutorial, I think this is good enough.

I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial on making natural terrain. And I hope you find the "triangle method" as easy and useful as I have. If you want to take a look at the example map I used for this tutorial you can download it here. Best of luck in making some cool-ass outdoor areas in your levels!

Dead Link

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Maybe it would help if I had an account...

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Same thing happened to me nearly a week ago. Created an account and it said I would get an e-mail with a password and details of how to log on etc. but no e-mail ever arrived. Tried again but it said that e-mail wa already on their data base so I asked for a new password it said one had been sent but no e-mail ever arrived.

mm, same to me, i've tryed a couple of times to get registred, but no mail is been sent.

What a shame dude!

Ah yeah, thats a new thing i think. I could like, copy paste it here, i dont know how illegal that is though. Ah well I can delete it from here if i get in trouble.

The Cool-Ass Terrain Tutorial
By Bobby Pavlock

Level Designer - Ion Storm

WHATS THE PROBLEM?
The idea of making natural-looking terrain was brought to the mainstream with Quake 2. Some of the outdoor areas in Quake 2 were awe-inspiring compared to what we were used to. Yet, even the revolutionary outdoor areas found in Quake 2 have quickly become sub-par when compared to some of the terrain found in many of the newer games. So how is it that level designers are able to make such convincing terrain without sacrificing gameplay? Well that's what I'm going to attempt to show you in this tutorial.

Before I started working at Ion Storm, I was like many of you reading this - an aspiring amateur level designer, looking to hopefully one day make my way into the industry. As an amateur, one of my biggest struggles was making cool-looking outdoor terrain, while keeping the r_speeds low enough to not affect gameplay. Regardless of how many approaches I tried to use, it just didn't seem to want to work. Then, when I arrived here at Ion Storm, I quickly discovered an extremely simple but effective method of constructing natural terrain - the "triangle method". I don't know if that's what it's really called, or if it even has a proper name, but that's what I call it.

Basically, all you do is make a grid of triangular-shaped brushes, and then raise/lower vertices. Sounds easy, huh? With the triangle method, a level designer of any skill level, can easily make convincing natural terrain, and keep the r_speeds down to a minimum. Interested? Read on…
WHAT'S THIS "TRIANGLE METHOD"?
The triangle method for making natural terrain is so simple, that you'll ask yourself why in the hell you never thought of it. For this tutorial, I will be constructing an example map. The example map will simply be a small section of a canyon area.

The first thing I am going to do is decide how I want my canyon to flow. When I have come up with the general idea of what I want the area to look like, I begin by drawing an outline of the canyon area using brushes with a sky texture. Don't overcomplicate this part of it. Some people, in an effort to be random, will draw the outline of the area with brushes going in all sorts of different angles. While being random is they key to making convincing natural terrain, we can hold off on the random part til later. Here's what the outline of my canyon area looks like…




Now that I have the outline of my area, the next step is to fill this area with a grid of triangle brushes, which will make up the ground for my canyon area. Here is where the random part comes in. Don't be afraid to make your triangles be all different shapes and sizes. You don't find too many outdoor areas that are all neat and orderly, so don't try to make your outdoor area neat and orderly. The only thing to remember when filling your area with this grid of triangle brushes is to make sure that all your triangle brushes meet at the vertices. Don't have the vertex of one triangle brush meeting the side of another triangle brush. This will cause problems in the next step. Here is what my map looks like after filling the canyon area with a grid of triangle brushes…




Ok, once you have your area filled with triangles, the next step is to go through and raise/lower vertices to give the ground an uneven, natural look. I usually prefer to start in a corner area. Simply select one of the triangle brushes, go into vertex manipulation mode, and raise or lower the vertices to your liking. In this example I have started off by raising 2 of the vertices of the triangle brush I selected by 32 units, and leaving the third in its original position. Here's what it looks like…




Once I have that brush adjusted how I want it, then I select the neighboring brush, and raise/lower any adjoining vertices between the 1st and 2nd brushes until the vertices of the 2nd brush match the position of the vertices of the 1st brush. Any vertices that are not shared between the 2 brushes you can manipulate however you like. Here is what it looks like after manipulating the vertices of the 2nd brush to match those of the 1st brush…




As you can see, by making sure all the triangles in the grid meet at the vertices, aligning the heights of 2 neighboring brushes is very easy. However, if you have a vertex of one triangle brush meeting the side of a neighboring triangle brush, then it becomes more difficult to get the heights of the 2 brushes, and any other brushes that meet at that point, to match. So to be safe and make it easier on yourself, make sure all your triangles meet at the vertices.

Believe it or not, that's all there it to it. All you do now is simply go through the grid, raising/lowering the vertices of the rest of the triangle brushes. Obviously, the more you raise/lower the vertices the more uneven the ground is going to look. For example, if you want the ground to have a subtle, natural roll to it, then raise/lower the vertices less. In this example, I am adjusting the vertices by 32 units. Also, the more triangles you use in an area, the smoother, and more natural, the ground will look. Just be careful not to go crazy with it, or else you might begin to sacrifice those precious r_speeds.

After you have the ground looking the way you want, then add some rocks or walls or whatever you want, and you're done! Now wasn't that easy? Here are a couple pics of the canyon area I made, after all was said and done…









Notice how the ground has that natural, uneven look to it? And check out those r_speeds, with rocks and everything! Obviously there's a lot of room r_speed-wise for adding even more detail to this canyon area, but for the purposes of this little tutorial, I think this is good enough.

I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial on making natural terrain. And I hope you find the "triangle method" as easy and useful as I have. If you want to take a look at the example map I used for this tutorial you can download it here. Best of luck in making some cool-ass outdoor areas in your levels!

NICE! A really helpfull tutorial. Thanks for putting this up, zany. I'll look what i can come up with with RF. This technique seems to be very powerfull in comparison to what it needs in rendering speed.

Now, if only we had vertex manipulation in our precious level editor...

Great find, nevertheless. Really useful if you're creating your levels in some other editor.

Yeah I generally create my levels in blender as I get far greater speed and control.No offense to RFs editor of course.

The best thing on behalf of performance would be of course to use clip brushes for the collision of the ground surface and the walls, while using actors for rendering, and also put non-invisible walls as the outline of the terrain (In this case the canyon) as it is suggested by the tutorial. The actors had to be adjusted to be able to be clipped. In the example in the tutorial, the terrain would be split in 6 parts: One in the bottom-left corner, then one in the corner above, one in the middle of the 'corridor', one right of it, then one in the top-right corner, and finally the one left of it. The terrains would be aligned to the edges of walls, maybe the ones in which can be seen from two different sides (like the one in the top right corner, but not the one in the middle of the 'corridor') would be a bit bigger just to be sure.

The link on the title no longer works, found the tutorial with all images here http://www.gamedesign.net/index.php/Coo ... n_Tutorial

Can one in RF Edit manipulate individual vertices on brushes, or would a third-party ".map" editor be needed (like the gmax "Tempest" gamepack)?
-thanks

GMer wrote:Can one in RF Edit manipulate individual vertices on brushes, or would a third-party ".map" editor be needed (like the gmax "Tempest" gamepack)?
-thanks

You need an external application. I personally make all my level geometry in blender(a 3D modeling program) as it gives me far greater control and speed. So I don't actually use .map generators or whatever

As I said before I use Tempest, which is part of Gmax. Blender just confuses me , and I just can't find time to learn a brand-new interface. I learned the Gmax when I was about 12 or so, so I guess I'm just used to it.
Thanks, zany!