Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Step 23:
Repeat for a few other trees or bushes. Add other trees to the tree
library (including bushes) and experiment with various Brush Sizes, Tree
Densities, Tree Height, and Color Variation. Place trees and bushes and
remove them in places where they would not make sense (
Figure 6.21
).
Figure 6.21
Several tree types and
bush types placed throughout the
scene.
Why?
Figure 6.21
seems to show a pretty sparse placement of trees and bushes. And it
is. The point of the trees is to help shake up the profile of the land a bit, but since
this game calls for a foggy outside, we only want to catch a hint of those trees.
No need to have trees in areas of the Terrain that will never be seen, so careful
placement will continue to keep the data set small and the game snappy.
Tips and Tricks
Remember that in this game, the scene will never be seen from way up in the
God-mode that the trees are painted in. When painting in God-mode, the trees
will be continually popping in and out of billboards and sometimes look really
strange on the Terrain. Be sure to get down close to see how the trees really lie
across the terrain. Further, be sure to Play the game and see which of the trees
you can see and which are just invisible. Get rid of the stuff not needed and be
sure to understand really how those trees look and feel in the game.
Step 24:
Add rocks as Detail Meshes. Still with the Terrain selected, click
the Paint Details button in the Inspector. Here, click the Edit Details…
button and Add Detail Mesh… from the drop-down menu. As before,
click the target, and then choose RockMesh. Change the options to match
Figure 6.22
. Click the Add button.
Why?
The Random Width and Height are settings that mean the painted rocks
can be up to five times the size of the original mesh. For some objects,
this should be very low (houses for instance), but for rocks, a wide
