Just a couple of small suggestions about the sorts of things I would like to see in WM2 in the future. Some are most certainly possible-others I don’t know. First, the program is great in its present form. The addition of the layout generator and the things that can be done with it (still exploring the possibilities) make the program a first rate application. I also find it to be incredibly stable which is a nice change of pace from many other apps. On to the features.
Would it be possible to have ‘layout’ created shape features manipulated by the sort of widget you find in modelling applications (silo modo etc)? The terrain feature could be contained in a bounding box and copied moved scaled and rotated via the widget. Ideally the terrain feature could be rotated in all three planes rather than just one. I do think that this is possible because most of this functionality already exists. Further it would be great if a bounding box could be created around any feature in the landscape (not just the specifically created ones)-again for the purpose of moving scaling and rotating. The final feature I would like to see in WM2 is based on the fact that the program uses heightfields to do a lot of what it does. Would it be possible to have direct access to the heightfield in the terrain creation process? Presently I often take a heightfield from WM2 into a 2D application and alter it to make alterations to the terrain. I smudge areas to stretch out the landscape in the regions where I want this done, brighten or darken areas to change the height of them etc. It would be great if this could be done right within WM2. The workspace would have the realtime terrain on the left with the heightfield in the main portion of the screen and a simple set of 2D draw tools off to the right. Watching changes made to the heightfield take shape in the terrain display window would be great (and a real time saver as well).
Cheers
I’m not sure it is the purpose of WM…
WM is supposed to be a program that let you the possibility to modify independently each step of the terrain creation process, which is the opposite of non-procedural terrain creation tools, where you model your terrain, but can’t modify a former step…
I do think I see what you are saying…but…the bounding box/widget suggestion doesn’t really represent new functionality. It just repackages something that is already there and would make it easier to use. The suggestion about incorporating essentially a small set of 2D brushes into a WM2 device is really born of the fact that it would save me moving a heightfield back and forth from a 2D package into WM2-it would just save time is all. And it really isn’t doing anything except making changes to that heightfield at a particular point in the flow chart of processes that WM2 represents (something that all the other devices do as well). All the changes that would take place upstream and downstream of the 2D ‘device’ would still be in place to have their effect. It does make some sense in a program so much about heightfields to have direct access to those heightfields somewhere in the process. I don’t think it breaks the ‘law’ of WM2 but if you’re saying that it goes against the philosophy or ‘spirit’ of it I can certainly see your point. From my perspective these changes would just speed up the terrain making process is all.
Cheers