Extended heightmap

well if the terrain is going to be static the whole game you could actually model it. but if u want to do it with a height map you could have a vector every point on the height map rather then just a height.

Sorry, I didn't specify but the terrain will not be static so a model is out of the question. I am think of two possible solutions...

1) Each square tile will have 4 "heights" representing the height of each corner of the tile.

2)Like rollercoaster tycoon, the tiles will have a small finite set of states or slopes and angles they can have. For example... edge 1 raised, edge 2 raised, ..., corner 1 raised, flat, etc. I could then represent each square tile of the world with 2 values, an elevation and an enumeration representing one of the slope types. This option would use half the memory as it is 2 values instead of 4. I am not sure how big my maps might get so this might be a good time for me to think about it.

Here is an example of what I mean by enumerating the terrain slopes. There are pieces of flat land, some that slope to an edge (N,S,E,W), some that slope to a corner (NW,NE,SE,SW), some with a corner raised while the opposite corner is lowered, etc.


In either option if any modifications is made to the terrain I will have to rebuild the vertex array for level geometry that I will render.

I am just trying to figure out what kind of data structures might be best to replicate this behavior.

Any thoughts?