Book Image

Grome Terrain Modeling with Ogre3D, UDK, and Unity3D

By : Richard A. Hawley
Book Image

Grome Terrain Modeling with Ogre3D, UDK, and Unity3D

By: Richard A. Hawley

Overview of this book

Table of Contents (14 chapters)

GROME detail objects and billboards


GROME's vegetation layers have a set of properties controlling visibility range, fade-out distance, and create objects where one model is swapped for a lower detail one (Level of Detail "LOD" collections). It also supports billboards; a term used in computer graphics to describe a textured quad that always faces the camera. A billboard quad is aligned to the camera using a vertex shader on the 3D hardware and can process thousands of billboards very quickly. Most game engines support this kind of object.

GROME vegetation layers are named "Detail" layers since it can render any kind of object such as rocks or debris, not just vegetation.

GROME also divides detail layers into two very distinct types:

  • 3D Objects

  • Billboards

You specify the type of detail layer when assigning zones to a Detail layer. Again these types won't export directly to our game engines.

The Detail layer stack

To set the mode of the layer stack to Details we set it from the drop-down control...