Terrain optimizations

[technomage]

I have just started looking into the SOAR Algorithm. from the information I have seen this is a nice fairly simple algorithm.

Marek Mauder did and Delphi Opengl demo you can get the source

http://galfar.vevb.net/cms/index.php...el=2&thiscat=2

I'm trying to turn this into an object based system ( this is procedural) but it's taking me a while.

Dean

[cragwolf]

For current generation systems I'd go with Octrees.

Yes, especially for first-person perspective games where the camera is close to the surface of the terrain. Then from the perspective of the camera, you could have terrain (chunks) above you and below you(*), and as such, octrees would be very useful. On the other hand, I wouldn't recommend octrees for strategy games where the camera is restricted to viewing mostly top-down, with only a little bit of tilting allowed, and never getting very close to the surface.

(*) not directly above or below you, since there is no degeneracy along the up-down axis in height-field based terrains.