Making a simple terrain

What you'll need to know to do this tutorial
* Preferably some experience about the 3D Max User Interface

In this tutorial I will show you how to make a simple terrain for H&D Deluxe

Steps

1. As you begin making your own terrain for the H&D Deluxe mission, first step is to import your reference object (sas1.3ds) This way not only you get the scale right, but also get the editors center point (not necessary same as in 3d max).

2. Change Standard Primitives to Patch Grids and make either of the grids around the reference object. Then to make the scene a little bigger, copy that grid a few times. Make sure you leave no gaps between the grids.

3. In this point you can delete the reference object. Then select all the terrain grids.

4. Select Modify object and click more. In that list select “EDIT MESH”. Then click the “three-dots” –button shown in the picture.

5. A lot of dots appear in the grid objects. Now you can select dots, move them up or down and that way form your land. I don’t recommend moving them sideways because that causes failures in the texture. Also at this point leave the dot on the sides alone. In this example I have moved some dots down to create a river and some up to create hills.

6. Create another Grid object that covers the land and more. This is a water object so you can color it blue. As you can see there is too much water now.

7. Move the water grid a little bit down and the river comes out. Now you have a problem that there is a gap between the land sides and the water. Adjust them to the same level with edit mesh.

8. Then put the textures in place and you’re ready to export your scene.

9. Make a missions –folder to your H&D installation folder. Make up a name for your mission and create a folder with that name. Then from the file menu choose export. File type i3d, file name Scene.i3d and export it to the folder you just created.

10. Now you can open your scene in the editor and start adding things in there. If everything is black at first, hit F10 for helping light. If still nothing shows up, either you have not put any textures to your terrain or you are not above it. If it’s the latter, Hit N-key and select some object. Then press Ctrl+F (find selected object) and you should fly to your terrain.

Written by Bighouse