Best way to show sharp elevation changes?

[Gridley 257]

Sorry for the cross post - the group here is a little faster though! I'm trying to get sharp elevation changes in terrain (ocean cliffs/rocks) by using LWM flattens, but even though the flattens are almost touching, I'm only getting a 45 degree slope which is deforming the land, water or both. Looking for suggestions - could you guys check my other thread in the mesh design forum if you get a chance?http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...=2449&mode=fullThanks!sg

[LuisFelizTirado 33]

Hello Scott,Unfortunately, the method that you have tried is the best way to achieve that effect. Not very precise, is it? As you noticed, this is also a variable effect depending on the Terrain Maximum Vertex Level. No way to get around it.I have noticed that it is possible to get some very sharp cliffs by simply cutting off a mesh with a water mask - this gives some very dramatic effects wherever the mesh and land masses do not coincide. On the other hand, that does not seem to be a very high bluff that you are trying to model. Is it really something that would be noticed when flying over it? The relief can barely be remarked in the picture.Best regards.Luis

[Guest artmartin]

I've been fighting a similar problem with trying to place freeways below the normal ground level. In real life there's a fairly sharp slope to the walls of the recess and flattens just don't seem to give you the right look. My solution is to create the flatten for the depression that the highway sits in and then create GMAX textured planes to define the actual slopes and the area above the edges of the flattens to give you a strong definition of the dropoff. I'm at work so I don't have a screenshot to illustrate this but I'll dump one on here when I get home. I'd think with sharp cliffs that maybe building the mesh in GMAX might give you the best results. Just create a plane with tons of horizontal and vertical divisions and randomly raise and lower some of the vertices to give it a rough rock-like look. Find a good rock texture and I'll bet you can create quite a cliff face. Art

[Gridley 257]

The bluff is about 20m - I've be trying to compromise and get the cliffs to show at 10m but maybe that's the wrong approach. I'm going to try to edit the mesh at that location - another person suggested that on the PTsim forums.Will report back!

[Gridley 257]

I've fiddled with GMAX terrain, but I'm not happy with the seam between the object and the textured terrain, and the whole thing seems to pop into view at some distance...maybe I'm missing something?Thanks for the tips!sg

[Guest artmartin]

The times I've added GMAX terrain planes I've always allowed the GMAX stuff to extend below the existing terrain and as long as I've matched the texture colors similarly, I really haven't been bothered by the seam. The GMAX object does seem to appear in detail much sooner than the existing scenery elements so it does appear a bit odd in the distance. I've wondered if changing the LOD settings on the GMAX objects might not address that. So far I've yet to experiment with that functionality. Heard I need Middleman to accomplish that level of tweaking.Art

[Gridley 257]

I revisted the GMax option, by creating a plane, and converting it to an editable mesh and HEAVILY modifying the grid to eliminate the edge look, but I'm happy: (The wynham is the hotel in the foreground)http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/123399.jpgI'm going to fiddle with the textures some more, and add some detached rocks off shore and along the edges to make it appear more ragged and irregular, but thanks for the suggestions - I think this is the way to go...Best,sg

[Guest artmartin]

Might want to be careful taking advice from a rookie scenery designer like me in the future though. May have just gotten lucky on this one. How many polys did your cliff face end up with?Art

[Gridley 257]

Couple of hundred! It's 0 hit on FPS though...I originally used a tri-patch, then switched to a 10 by 10 vertex (about one every 2 meters) plane which I converted to a mesh...seems fine.