Differences

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--- 1.0.0:terrain [2023/02/23 16:26] – [Creating a terrain at runtime from heightmap] admin
+++ 1.0.0:terrain [2023/02/23 16:47] (current) – [Configuration] admin
@@ Line 7: / Line 7: @@
 ===== DesignTime =====
+You can generate a terrain at design time by different ways.
+==== From Heightmap ====
+  - Drop a TGorillaTerrain component onto your GorillaViewport
+  - Select the TGorillaTerrain instance
+  - Go to "Heightmap" property in object inspector
+  - Open the editor dialog and load a 2D image from file
+  - The heightmap will be stored inside the IDE formular file (*.fmx)
+==== Autogenerate with Editor ====
+When you select your TGorillaTerrain component in structure view of the IDE, you can right click onto and a popup will show.
+Here you can select between the embedded procedural terrain generation algorithms.
+{{:1.0.0:g3d-ide-terrain.jpg?nolink|}}
+Choose one of the "Random Terrain <ALGORITHM>" options.
+After you have clicked, you need to click into the viewport in your form to refresh rendering.
+==== Planting ====
+The framework brings you a great feature called "Planting" to the terrain component.
+After you have loaded a terrain from heightmap or by procedural generation, you can use this functionality.
+{{:1.0.0:g3d-ide-planting-1.jpg?nolink|}}
+It will need another TGorillaModel component as template and will perform an instancing onto the selected terrain.
+This means all instances will automatically be adjusted to the shape of the terrain.
+When clicking the "Planting" option a new dialog will open where you can configure some settings for the planting algorithm.
+{{:1.0.0:g3d-ide-planting-2.jpg?nolink|}}
+=== Configuration ===
+The algorithm will create instances for all meshes inside the selected template / source model.
+Basically the algorithm splits the terrain into cells for more realistic placement.
+^Setting ^ Description ^
+|Clear Instances | Clears all previously available instances in the source. |
+|Minimum Scale | If "Random Scaling" is activated, this is the lowest limit for scaling.|
+|Instance Scale | A basis scaling of each instance (will be multiplied with source scale if "Apply Source Transformation" is activated.|
+|Space | Adjustment between cell-center and source size. |
+|Padding | Increasing this value will compress cells for planting. Objects will be placed closer together.|
+|Random Y-Rotation | This is not suitable for all kind of source models. Depending on the internal transformation of submeshes. |
+|Random Scaling |This will randomly scale instances with limitations given by "Minimum Scale".|
+|Apply Random Grid-Offset|Terrain is splitted into equal size grid cells. To produce a more realistic look, you can add some random offset to the cell-center.|
+|Apply Source Transformation|It will apply the transformation of the owner model. This is not suitable for all kind of models, depending on the internal transformation of submeshes.|
+|Count |The number of instances that should be created. This should be adjusted to the GPU you are using and the outcome you expect.|
+=== Source Models ===
+The planting algorithm is straight forward and treats all submeshes inside the source model equaly on creating instances.
+Therefore it can produce unexpected results.
+The source model should contain a flat hierarchy without or less transformation of sub-meshes.
+__NOTICE:__ The applied instance transformation is absolute and not relative to the source model!
 ===== Runtime =====
@@ Line 52: / Line 118: @@
-===== Creating a terrain at runtime by procedural method =====
+===== Procedural Generation =====
 <file pascal Form1.pas>
@@ Line 91: / Line 157: @@
 __NOTICE:__ Once you build a random terrain, you are able to store the heightmap bitmap and reload later.
-==== Implemented terrain algorithms ====
+==== Terrain-Algorithms ====
@@ Line 102: / Line 168: @@
 | Brownian | Brownian terrains or brownian surface is based on the diamond square based terrain algorithm: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brownian_surface The component computes peaks by a specific number of random particles. Afterwards the complete terrain will be smooth to create a realistic landscape. |
-===== Creating an individual procedural terrain algorithm =====
+==== Creating an individual procedural terrain algorithm ====
 You can also develop your own procedural algorithm by extending TRandomTerrainAlgorithm or any descendant. In the example below, we generate a random terrain: