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What is Terrain?


BLaBZ
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Sorry for asking this ignorant question, but how does terrain exist differently from other meshes?

 

I know terrains are usually generated based on a height map and contain the expected vertex and triangle information but how are they rendered in Leadwerks and most game engines vs Meshes?

 

Is the primary difference in how the Camera culls unnecessary triangles?

 

Why are terrains more efficient for landscapes than meshes?

 

Thanks for answering my silly questions wacko.png

5c8e5100fc6df22c8938ce77ed686a42.png = OpenGL
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Terrains render a series of repeating patches (for LOD levels) and render the area around the camera dynamically. The height date is stored in a 16-bit luminosity texture so a 4096x4096 terrain can be fit in just 33 mb of memory. If this were a model, the memory usage would be hundreds of megabytes.

 

So the advantages are:

  • They render faster.
  • They use less memory.

My job is to make tools you love, with the features you want, and performance you can't live without.

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