GENERATING A TERRAIN in Font

Maker PDF417 in Font GENERATING A TERRAIN

// Get the height of the four vertices of the grid block int vertexIndex = (int)blockPosition.X + (int)blockPosition.Y * vertexCountX; float height1 = heightmap[vertexIndex + 1]; float height2 = heightmap[vertexIndex]; float height3 = heightmap[vertexIndex + vertexCountX + 1]; float height4 = heightmap[vertexIndex + vertexCountX]; // Top triangle float heightIncX, heightIncY; if (blockOffset.X > blockOffset.Y) { heightIncX = height1 - height2; heightIncY = height3 - height1; } // Bottom triangle else { heightIncX = height3 - height4; heightIncY = height4 - height2; } // Linear interpolation to find the height inside the triangle float lerpHeight = height2 + heightIncX * blockOffset.X + heightIncY * blockOffset.Y; height = lerpHeight * heightScale; } return height; } Notice that you use this method only to ensure that all scene objects are positioned over the terrain. To produce a realistic interaction between the objects and the terrain (such as bouncing), you would need to implement a physics system.

To detect when an object in the scene intersects a part of the terrain, you need to create some collision test methods. One useful collision test is between a ray and the terrain. For example, if an object is moving in the scene, you can trace a ray in the direction in which this object is moving and get the distance between it and the terrain. To check the ray and terrain collision, you ll do a collision test between the ray and the terrain s height map, instead of testing the ray against the terrain s mesh (many triangles). The

collision test will be divided in two parts. In the first part, you ll do a linear search on the ray until you find a point outside (above) and another inside (below) the terrain. Then you ll perform a binary search between these two points to find the exact collision point with the terrain. Figure 11-13 illustrates the linear search processes, where the nearest points outside and inside the terrain are found.

Figure 11-13. Linear search used to find one point inside and another outside the terrain You can use the following code to perform the linear search on the terrain: // A good ray step is half of the blockScale Vector3 rayStep = ray.Direction * blockScale * 0.5f; Vector3 rayStartPosition = ray.Position; // Linear search - Loop until you find a point inside and outside the terrain Vector3 lastRayPosition = ray.Position; ray.Position += rayStep; float height = GetHeight(ray.Position); while (ray.Position.Y > height && height >= 0) { lastRayPosition = ray.Position; ray.Position += rayStep; height = GetHeight(ray.Position); } After the linear search, the lastRayPosition variable stores the position outside the terrain, and the ray variable stores the position inside the terrain. You then need to perform a binary search between these two points to find the closest point to the terrain. You make this search with a fixed number of steps; 32 steps are usually enough for a good level of precision. The code for the binary search follows:

Vector3 startPosition = lastRayPosition; Vector3 endPosition = ray.Position; // Binary search with 32 steps. Try to find the exact collision point for (int i = 0; i < 32; i++) { // Binary search pass Vector3 middlePoint = (startPosition + endPosition) * 0.5f; if (middlePoint.Y < height) endPosition = middlePoint; else startPosition = middlePoint; } Vector3 collisionPoint = (startPosition + endPosition) * 0.5f; You then create the Intersects method to check the intersection of a ray and the terrain. The Intersects method returns the distance between the ray s start point and the terrain s collision point, and if there is no collision with the terrain, the method will return null. Following is the code for the Intersects method of the Terrain class: public float Intersects(Ray ray) { float collisionDistance = null; Vector3 rayStep = ray.Direction * blockScale * 0.5f; Vector3 rayStartPosition = ray.Position; // Linear search - Loop until you find a point inside and outside the terrain Vector3 lastRayPosition = ray.Position; ray.Position += rayStep; float height = GetHeight(ray.Position); while (ray.Position.Y > height && height >= 0) { lastRayPosition = ray.Position; ray.Position += rayStep; height = GetHeight(ray.Position); } // If the ray collides with the terrain if (height >= 0) { Vector3 startPosition = lastRayPosition; Vector3 endPosition = ray.Position; // Binary search. Find the exact collision point for (int i = 0; i < 32; i++) { // Binary search pass Vector3 middlePoint = (startPosition + endPosition) * 0.5f; if (middlePoint.Y < height) endPosition = middlePoint;