jMonkeyEngine 3.0 : Beginner's Guide

Summary

In this chapter, we learned how to create natural-looking landscapes.

We can generate terrains with plains, hills, and valleys. The sky in our scenes is not just a blue background color any more, but a real horizon with a cloudy atmosphere. We can add realistic-looking water with waves, foam, reflections, and caustics. We know how to enhance the atmosphere of a scene by adding environmental effects such as sunbeams and fog.

As a side effect, we also learned what a heightmap, cube map, and texture splatting is. With what we now know, our scenes look nothing less than professional. But do they also sound professional? The next chapter demonstrates how we can enhance the immersion even more by adding audio.