Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Modifying heightmaps with Terrain Editor
In Terrain Editor, we find a number of functions that let us modify a heightmap-based ter-
rain, something which is used in many games.
A heightmap, in its simplest form, is a 2D array (the dimensions representing
x
and
y
co-
ordinates) usually storing floats that represent height values. These can be saved as gray-
scale images where brighter areas correspond to higher ground and, reversibly, darker areas
correspond to lower ground.
The terrain fields of jMonkeyEngine have much more information to help you create a
visually appealing terrain. Things like vertex normal data and color and texture data are
available for modification through the API, for daring programmers.
