DynamicTerrain

[Spooner]

The aim of DynamicTerrain is twofold:
    * Allow in-game deformation of terrain, such as creating impact craters and allowing players to dig real foxholes, or other earthworks, as part of the terrain itself, rather than models just dropped on the surface.
    * Allow terrain and objects to be created using data from the mission, rather than from a static map.

This is a joint project between Deanosbeano and Spooner, with i0n0s working on terrain editing within the RTEditor. The system is currently in early alpha testing.

Movies (YouTube)
    * Rahmadi
    * Loading a heightmap
    * DynamicTerrain in RTEditor
        * Island
        * Smiley

Get all the details, including more movies and screenshots, from our project site.

[Worldeater]

      .oO( Populous mod?! )
 

[Gnat]

Wow Impressive guys.  I'd thought it impossible to change terrain realtime !

(Thinks about Excavator mod, or Mining mod or a CTI mod where loosing your conquered land is very literal !! )

[Spooner]

It isn't "terrain" as you understand it. The map in all those movies is actually just endless empty sea. We made our own "terrain" from objects, since you are quite right that it is impossible to affect the static terrain you get from an ArmA map.

[JamesF1]

Phenomenal work, guys - can't wait to see the finished product.

[dmakatra]

That is just unbelievably clever. Does the game take any significant FPS drops?

EDIT: As I understand it (been out of the loop for a while so don't hit me) the entire landscape is made out of objects, right? So how does the AI tackle it?

[DeanosBeano]

i can answer from my prospective , although i am not as heaviuly involved in the gameplay side of things as i would like to be at the moment due to RL commitments.
 
The AI have no problem with terrain so far there is however some differences that some may find either beneficial or non beneficial.
 The main one being that because the "terrain" has a roadway lod , vehicles now travel at a nice speed .
 waypoints are as normal and ai respond accordingly , the ai recognize the change in terrain and if you have shaped a hill or berm they will treat it as such , thus climb the slope again because it has a roadway lod they wil climb it a little faster , although at a certain angle they will default to a slower pace as per the norm.
 there are many many aspects of this which would enhance game play at the moment there are also many finite details which are not so apparent when playing on "normal terrain" that need to be replicated byt our terrain, this will take many hours of testing i am sure.
 again this is my experience from the little time i have to test ,using RTE and spon_terrain and dbo_tiles.
 for me in its current state it is the ultimate single player create a war and surroundings and go that i have ever had the pleasure to spend time with.

DB

[Spooner]

The FPS with DynamicTerrain is currently is significantly lower than you'd get with BIS static terrain. e.g. When Rahmadi is replicated (10m cells on a 5x5km map with all static objects added) the FPS is just under 50% of what I'd get on the real Rahmadi. However, this is pretty unoptimised WIP, so I'd hope we could increase this significantly, even if we'll never replicate the efficiency of a dedicated system.

[JamesF1]

Only a 50% hit?  That's significantly better than I'd have expected from using this method.  If you can optimise it to within, say, 25% of normal frame-rates, I'd say you're onto a winner in terms of actual, practical, usefulness 

[Spooner]

New video showing a dynamic replica of Rahmadi (on an empty sea map).

* Rahmadi (YouTube)