Xtreme3d V2's detailmapping is literally the best thing I have ever seen for terrains. It allows you to take a small texture file (say, 2048x2048 pixels, 950kb) and a detailmapping file (for instance, 2400x2400 pixels, 1040kb) and turn it into a fast terrain texture that's so detailed that, at a scale of 16x and zoomed in extremely close, you can still see every bit of detail.
Here's a before/after comparison image. On the left is the image I used in all of my previous screenshots. On the right is an image generated with the new detailmap.
Also in the visual news, DoC now has a "professional" prerunning program. (the stuff that games like X3 and GalCivs run when you start them, that allows you to configure them and see the manual and whatnot.) It looks like this:
PROGRESS REPORT:Up to 26 Mar '07: Implemented new "leafier" tree texture. Implemented Barley Farm, Grain Farm. Implemented market (no model). Implemented palisade walls. Added testing catapult w/ Greek Fire. Added testing soldier w/ walking animation. Converted all 15 skies to proper format. Created loadingbase program. Began work on folder structure. Partly fixed directive cursor. Fixed g3d->obj converter. Implemented 32x-detail detmap.
That is so nice looking. O_O
Looks nice.
Yeah…I'm needing help wih terrains myself. Sounds good. Maybe you can help me, though. :)
->OL: It is a small texture file for rendering an entire 256x256 map which is stretched across a 4096x4096 room. In contrast, a game like AoE3 may have 100 256x256 (or more) terrain samples, which are then splatted across the terrain. (total size = more than mine)
Man, looks like a nice, huge world. That's the kind of thing I've always wanted to create. Looks fun to explore. Maybe I should actually start working on my 3D game…you're an inspiration.