Hello all, Sorry if this had been posted before...but I wanna have a clearer view about a few things.. I need to create a game using OpenGL. With using maya to model the objects. I know that OpenGL can create heightmaps for terrain. But with Maya in hand.. is it easier to create the terrain in Maya OR in OpenGL? If easy in Maya, do I model EVERY OBJECTS (eg. houses,crates) on the terrain and then import to opengl and create bounding region around them for collision detection? or do I just create the terrain in opengl... and just do objects in Maya and import them onto the terrain in opengl? cuz even though the main objective of my project is coding of the game... I still want my game to look nice as well :)) Is this too much to ask? Im very sorry if its so troublesome but I'm just a beginner in creating games. I need to have a better understanding. Thank you.

Quote:Original post by kbfc00
I know that OpenGL can create heightmaps for terrain.

OpenGL cannot 'create heightmaps for terrain'. In fact, it doesn't know anything about heightmaps. It's a rendering API, and as such deals exclusively in simple primitives such as points, lines, and polygons. (The GLUT library does however offer support for a few more complex shapes such as spheres, cylinders, and parametric curved surfaces.)

There are many ways to create a heightmap in code though. There are procedural algorithms you can use, or you can load the terrain from a gray-scale image representation. I suppose you could also create it in a modelling program as you described.

Also, keep in mind that OpenGL doesn't offer any direct support for loading of models from Maya or what have you; you'll have to write this code yourself (or use someone else's pre-existing code).