how to create surface from height map???

OpenGL OpenGL: Advanced Coding
1

i have a task to create a very smoothened terrain surface from a height map.
bezier surfaces seems to make it possible but thers a limitation on order in glMap2f of 30…
how can i make a surface which have 1200 *1200 points

is it even possible with beziers or shall i work with connected triangle strips???

p.s. - performance is also an issue in the project

2

i’d say triangle strips.

with smoothed normals for vertices and enough triangles,
you can also get a smoothened terrain surface
( or applying normal map in advance ).

besides, beziers cost so much at calculating( at tessalating maybe ).
so in my opinion it’s not a good choice for rendering terrain when performance is considered.

3

Hello,

possibly you can create bezier surfaces with geometry shaders.

To improve performance, you can divide your terrain in let’s say 40x40 blocks and use techniques like frustum culling, view dependent render-ordering and LOD.

dj3hut1

4

@ephtracey

thnks a lot… m now usin triangles only…
now jus thinkin a code for makin triangle strips for 1200*1200 grid…
(rowwise)