Terrain

Second Life terrain improvements, 2002

SL's Atoll region

Heh - an image from LW Beta, 2002.

Eidolon Prime

Eric Call was hired by Linden Lab as Environment Artist in 2002, and among his first efforts were improvements to Second Life's environmental appeal (it was called"Linden World" back then). Initial modifications to"Linden World" include heightmaps, terrain maps and foliage.

The terrain textures at left were generated as tests for the Atoll region of Second Life, a lot of which is nautical.

Although developed as a rideshow, Eidolon Prime ran in real-time, and introduced the Eidolon environment. It served as the jumping-off point for all of the simulation-based activities at the Xulu Adventurer's Club.

Second Life terrain textures

SL heightmaps

Opes Peto

Condor

Designing terrain maps for all of Linden Lab-provided terrains.

Eric Call designed and deployed most of Second Life's continental terrains, many of which were developed in groups of 1000-2000 simulators.

This terrain for Opes Peto is created fractally using a DEM file. Its texture is 2048x2048, broken into 64 pieces. The image on the left is a 1:1 pixel/texel ratio. The image at center is the elevation map used to create both the mesh and its textures. The image at right was created to simulate a night environment, punctuated by 3D fog, moon-lit sky and cloud textures.

The Condor terrain is another fractal terrain utilizing DEM files. We decided to use a USGS DEM to recreate a portion of the Grand Canyon for this glider simulation environment. By using two different detail maps in an "additive" fashion, we were able to bring the realistic element of slope-based uniqueness to the environement.