jMonkeyEngine 3.0 Beginner's Guide

Time for action – up hill and down dale

We have seen how to generate a terrain from a heightmap using ImageBasedHeightMap or the SDK. This type of terrain is the one that you have most control over, and you will probably use it most often. jMonkeyEngine can also generate a random heightmap if you need a quick and dirty solution.

Perform the following steps to generate a simple random heightmap for a hilly terrain:

1. Return to your copy of TerrainSimple.java.
2. Comment out the line that generates the ImageBasedHeightMap.
3. Add a line that generates a HillHeightMap.

   AbstractHeightMap heightmap = null;
   try {
     // heightmap = new ImageBasedHeightMap(//     heightMapImage.getImage(), .5f );
       heightmap = new HillHeightMap(1025,500,50,100,(byte)3); heightmap.load(); ...