Maya/terragen Working together

[Siera Mika]

So I'm a Simulation and Game Development student and I'm currently working on a pc game project.  We have a couple different game engines that we're looking at, one being the Torque game engine by Garage Games, but we're keeping an eye out for a different engine, but currently that's what we have. 

I love working with terragen to create landscapes, I haven't tried out Terrragen 2, but it sounds like it might be able to better do what I'd like to do with it, and that is use it to create the world for the game.  I keep thinking there has to be a way to either put it into maya to work on it and from there get it into the engine, or a way to plug it into the engine directly or something, but I have no idea how to go about it.  I am definately still a student at all of it and definatly have alot to learn, so I thought I'd start by asking you all if you have any thoughts on how to go about such a thing, or if it can even be done.

I'd really appreciate any help you can give!

Thanks,
Jenn C 

[rcallicotte]

Some people here have done something similar, but rather than think of importing into Maya from TG2, you might think about how to use the tools in TG2 to create cool landscapes first.  I would start in the basic tutorials offered by Planetside and then begin learning from the many clip files (TGCs) and generous offers of TGDs to begin learning how to create some cool landscapes.  Might take time, but I believe you'll find it's worth it.

[Harvey Birdman]

I began work last summer on a tool set that would take terrain chunks in .lwo format as exported from TG2 (along with an orthographically rendered texture of the same bit of terrain) and re-sample them into octree chunks. (I found the lwo output is not especially well-suited to real-time rendering. It isn't a nice orthogonal grid pattern suitable for the real-time downsampling.)

I wasn't working with a 3rd party engine, but was developing my own, particularly suited to my own applications. As such I have no idea what the requirements of Torque, etc, might be, but I suspect they will want terrain chunks in a similar format. If that is so, I may be able to help you put together a system similar to what I use, that will take the scenes you create in TG2 and give you at least the bare-bones version of the same scene in real time.

Or this may be way more primitive than what you're already working with.   

[Moose]

Hi Siera Mika

I haven't any game dev knowledge per se so may be shooting in the dark, but as you mention that you are considering the Torque engine and are also into simulations, have you considered the Houdini route. A Torque exporter for Houdini has recently been added and will (I suppose??) deal with your exporting requirements once you've got your Terragen assets into Houdini - http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1186&Itemid=66

As a student, the non-commercial Houdini Apprentice can be had for $99, or if your school wants to run it on a network they can do so for $325 - http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1036&Itemid=221

[Oshyan]

The vast majority of game engines work best with heightfields for terrains, *not* super-dense meshes. This is so they can generate their own LoD-optimized meshes from the base terrain.

As far as TG2 being used in this capacity, it's certainly possible and may be valuable, but for the most part TG2 is best at internal rendering, not data export for use in other applications. There are many other better terrain generating and editing programs at this point, for example World Machine, Leveller, Geocontrol, Wilbur, etc.

- Oshyan

[rcallicotte]

...and don't forget L3DT.   

[DeathTwister]

If it s Terran Software you are looking fr , for video games then try:
http://www.bundysoft.com/L3DT/
As Aaron's Large terrain generator program is totally awesome and is working with Garage Games now and may ways to get the terrain out in a better work flow, and I see no reason why it would not work in Maya, I know it goes to XSI, Max, LW, Blender and many other Apps, o  am sure you would love to try the free demo version, awesome fun. Think it will be another 2 years before TGD2 can export out to anything us Gamers builders can use, but TGv9 does a fair job, but try L3DT I think you will like it.
DT