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A ten minute job (February 2014)

16/2/2014

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While working on another project I had a epiphany regarding my graphics terrain.
The terrain model correctly maps out the diamond pattern to the specified density of quads (split into triangles). As I was rendering using an index buffer, I could actually render lower levels of detail. It would require having multiple index buffers and so come at a more considerable memory cost, but would require negligible additional computation at run time but instead would make the quadtree based LOD system run even more smoothly as I could simply set the level of detail to render a terrain patch much easier and still use static terrain vertices.
I had an idea in my head about how I could do it, it would be maybe a ten minute job to add in the functionality for multiple index buffers.
It actually ended up being about an 10 hour job.
It wasn't quite as simple as I had anticipated to implement it. I knew roughly the method but the implementation was a little more difficult to get my head around.
To simplify the problem, I changed the terrain so that the density of quads was now always set to a power of two (and adjusts the specified values if this is not the case). This meant that I did not have to worry about an odd number of columns needing to be split.
I eventually managed to implement the method and was relieved to see it performing as I had hoped. The method is a simple one, it simply quarters the amount of indices for each level. This means that I can keep the vertices static and the lower detail will simply be a result of this as opposed to any further calculation being required.
I could spend more time and delve into more complex terrain compression, by generating the height-mapped vertices and then from that, calculate what indices and triangles I need. However, it's not necessary for this project and will take up way too much time. In fact, once I've added in quadtrees, I'll already be well on my way to a similar level of difficulty that I encountered with my entire honours project.
I'm pleased that I managed to get the LOD in and should no focus on making sure the normals are generated correctly.
I uploaded a video that demonstrates my terrain in action, showing how the level of details render as well as how the mesh looks under different set ups.
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