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Adding some color and the Z-Buffer

You might already have a rotating terrain, but it definitely would be better looking filled with some colors instead of just plain white lines. One idea to do this, is to use natural colors, like the ones that we find in the mountains. At the bottom we have blue lakes, then the green trees, the brown mountain and finally snow topped peaks. This means we will have to extend our SetUpVertices method a bit, so it stores the correct colors in each vertex.

You can’t however expect every image to have a lake at height 0, and a mountain peak at height 255 (the maximum value for a .bmp pixel). Imagine an image with height values only between 50 and 200, this image would then probably produce a terrain without any lakes or snow topped peaks.

To remain as general as possible, we first have to detect the minimum and maximum heights in our image. We will store these in the minHeight and maxHeight variables, which we find by putting this code at the top of our SetUpVertices method:

 float minHeight = float.MaxValue;
 float maxHeight = float.MinValue;
 for (int x = 0; x < terrainWidth; x++)
 {
     for (int y = 0; y < terrainHeight; y++)
     {
         if (heightData[x, y] < minHeight)
             minHeight = heightData[x, y];
         if (heightData[x, y] > maxHeight)
             maxHeight = heightData[x, y];
     }
 }

You check for each point of our grid if the current point’s height is below the current minHeight or above the current maxHeight. If it is, store the current height in the corresponding variable.

With these variables filled, you can specify the 4 regions of your colors:



Now when you declare your vertices and their colors, you are going to define the desired colors to the correct height regions as follows:

 vertices[x + y * terrainWidth].Position = new Vector3(x, heightData[x, y], -y);
 
 if (heightData[x, y] < minHeight + (maxHeight - minHeight) / 4)
     vertices[x + y * terrainWidth].Color = Color.Blue;
 else if (heightData[x, y] < minHeight + (maxHeight - minHeight) * 2 / 4)
     vertices[x + y * terrainWidth].Color = Color.Green;
 else if (heightData[x, y] < minHeight + (maxHeight - minHeight) * 3 / 4)
     vertices[x + y * terrainWidth].Color = Color.Brown;
 else
     vertices[x + y * terrainWidth].Color = Color.White;

When your run this code, you will indeed see a nicely colored network of lines. When we want to see the whole colored terrain, we just have to remove this line (or set it to FillMode.Solid):

 rs.FillMode = FillMode.WireFrame;

When you execute this, take a few moments to rotate the terrain a couple of times. On some computers, you will see that sometimes the middle peaks get overdrawn by the ‘invisible’ lake behind it. This is because we have not yet defined a ‘Z-buffer’! This Z buffer is nothing more than an array where your video card keeps track of the depth coordinate of every pixel that should be drawn on your screen (so in our case, a 500x500 matrix!). Every time your card receives a triangle to draw, it checks whether the triangle’s pixels are closer to the screen than the pixels already present in the Z-buffer. If they are closer, the Z-buffer’s contents is updated with these pixels for that region.

Of course, this whole process if fully automated. All we have to do, is to initialize our Z buffer with the largest possible distance to start with. So in fact, we have to first fill our buffer with ones. To do this automatically every update of our screen, change this line in the Draw method:

 device.Clear(ClearOptions.Target|ClearOptions.DepthBuffer, Color.Black, 1.0f, 0);

(The | is a bitwise OR operator, in this case it means both the Target (the colors) as well as the DepthBuffer have to be cleared) Now everyone should see the terrain rotating as expected.




DirectX Tutorial 11 - Adding colors

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Although now we’ve got some colors in our terrain, it doesn’t really look any better than it did last chapter..

You can try these exercises to practice what you've learned:
  • Lighting is required to obtain a 3D effect. In the image above, you get a little 3D feeling because you're using multiple colors. Change the colors again back to one single color, and see that the 3D feeling is completely gone!
    The code for this chapter:

     using System;
     using System.Collections.Generic;
     using System.Linq;
     using Microsoft.Xna.Framework;
     using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Audio;
     using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content;
     using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.GamerServices;
     using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Graphics;
     using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Input;
     using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Media;
     
     namespace Series3D1
     {
         public class Game1 : Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Game
         {
             GraphicsDeviceManager graphics;
             SpriteBatch spriteBatch;
             GraphicsDevice device;
     
             Effect effect;
             VertexPositionColor[] vertices;
             Matrix viewMatrix;
             Matrix projectionMatrix;
             int[] indices;
     
             private float angle = 0f;
             private int terrainWidth = 4;
             private int terrainHeight = 3;
             private float[,] heightData;
     
             public Game1()
             {
                 graphics = new GraphicsDeviceManager(this);
                 Content.RootDirectory = "Content";
             }
     
             protected override void Initialize()
             {
                 graphics.PreferredBackBufferWidth = 500;
                 graphics.PreferredBackBufferHeight = 500;
                 graphics.IsFullScreen = false;
                 graphics.ApplyChanges();
                 Window.Title = "Riemer's XNA Tutorials -- 3D Series 1";
     
                 base.Initialize();
             }
     
             protected override void LoadContent()
             {
                 spriteBatch = new SpriteBatch(GraphicsDevice);
     
                 device = graphics.GraphicsDevice;

                effect = Content.Load<Effect> ("effects");            SetUpCamera();


                Texture2D heightMap = Content.Load<Texture2D> ("heightmap");            LoadHeightData(heightMap);
                SetUpVertices();
                SetUpIndices();            
            }

            protected override void UnloadContent()
            {
            }

            private void SetUpVertices()
            {

                 float minHeight = float.MaxValue;
                 float maxHeight = float.MinValue;
                 for (int x = 0; x < terrainWidth; x++)
                 {
                     for (int y = 0; y < terrainHeight; y++)
                     {
                         if (heightData[x, y] < minHeight)
                             minHeight = heightData[x, y];
                         if (heightData[x, y] > maxHeight)
                             maxHeight = heightData[x, y];
                     }
                 }
     
                 vertices = new VertexPositionColor[terrainWidth * terrainHeight];
                 for (int x = 0; x < terrainWidth; x++)
                 {
                     for (int y = 0; y < terrainHeight; y++)
                     {
                         vertices[x + y * terrainWidth].Position = new Vector3(x, heightData[x, y], -y);
     
                         if (heightData[x, y] < minHeight + (maxHeight - minHeight) / 4)
                             vertices[x + y * terrainWidth].Color = Color.Blue;
                         else if (heightData[x, y] < minHeight + (maxHeight - minHeight) * 2 / 4)
                             vertices[x + y * terrainWidth].Color = Color.Green;
                         else if (heightData[x, y] < minHeight + (maxHeight - minHeight) * 3 / 4)
                             vertices[x + y * terrainWidth].Color = Color.Brown;
                         else
                             vertices[x + y * terrainWidth].Color = Color.White;
                     }
                 }
             }
     
             private void SetUpIndices()
             {
                 indices = new int[(terrainWidth - 1) * (terrainHeight - 1) * 6];
                 int counter = 0;
                 for (int y = 0; y < terrainHeight - 1; y++)
                 {
                     for (int x = 0; x < terrainWidth - 1; x++)
                     {
                         int lowerLeft = x + y * terrainWidth;
                         int lowerRight = (x + 1) + y * terrainWidth;
                         int topLeft = x + (y + 1) * terrainWidth;
                         int topRight = (x + 1) + (y + 1) * terrainWidth;
     
                         indices[counter++] = topLeft;
                         indices[counter++] = lowerRight;
                         indices[counter++] = lowerLeft;
     
                         indices[counter++] = topLeft;
                         indices[counter++] = topRight;
                         indices[counter++] = lowerRight;
                     }
                 }
             }
     
             private void LoadHeightData(Texture2D heightMap)
             {
                 terrainWidth = heightMap.Width;
                 terrainHeight = heightMap.Height;
     
                 Color[] heightMapColors = new Color[terrainWidth * terrainHeight];
                 heightMap.GetData(heightMapColors);
     
                 heightData = new float[terrainWidth, terrainHeight];
                 for (int x = 0; x < terrainWidth; x++)
                     for (int y = 0; y < terrainHeight; y++)
                         heightData[x, y] = heightMapColors[x + y * terrainWidth].R / 5.0f;
             }
     
             private void SetUpCamera()
             {
                 viewMatrix = Matrix.CreateLookAt(new Vector3(60, 80, -80), new Vector3(0, 0, 0), new Vector3(0, 1, 0));
                 projectionMatrix = Matrix.CreatePerspectiveFieldOfView(MathHelper.PiOver4, device.Viewport.AspectRatio, 1.0f, 300.0f);
             }
     
             protected override void Update(GameTime gameTime)
             {
                 if (GamePad.GetState(PlayerIndex.One).Buttons.Back == ButtonState.Pressed)
                     this.Exit();
     
                 KeyboardState keyState = Keyboard.GetState();
                 if (keyState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Delete))
                     angle += 0.05f;
                 if (keyState.IsKeyDown(Keys.PageDown))
                     angle -= 0.05f;
     
                 base.Update(gameTime);
             }
     
             protected override void Draw(GameTime gameTime)
             {
                 device.Clear(ClearOptions.Target | ClearOptions.DepthBuffer, Color.Black, 1.0f, 0);
     
                 RasterizerState rs = new RasterizerState();
                 rs.CullMode = CullMode.None;
                 device.RasterizerState = rs;
     
                 Matrix worldMatrix = Matrix.CreateTranslation(-terrainWidth / 2.0f, 0, terrainHeight / 2.0f) * Matrix.CreateRotationY(angle);
                 effect.CurrentTechnique = effect.Techniques["ColoredNoShading"];
                 effect.Parameters["xView"].SetValue(viewMatrix);
                 effect.Parameters["xProjection"].SetValue(projectionMatrix);
                 effect.Parameters["xWorld"].SetValue(worldMatrix);
     
                 foreach (EffectPass pass in effect.CurrentTechnique.Passes)
                 {
                     pass.Apply();
     
                     device.DrawUserIndexedPrimitives(PrimitiveType.TriangleList, vertices, 0, vertices.Length, indices, 0, indices.Length / 3, VertexPositionColor.VertexDeclaration);
                 }
     
                 base.Draw(gameTime);
             }
         }
     }
     
     


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    - Website design & XNA + DirectX code : Riemer Grootjans -
    ©2003 - 2011 Riemer Grootjans
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    Microsoft MVP Award



    2007 - 2011 MVP Award
    DirectX - XNA

    Contents

    News
    Home
    Forum
    XNA 2.0 Recipes Book (8)
    Chapter 1
    Chapter 2
    Chapter 3
    Chapter 4
    Chapter 5
    Chapter 6
    Chapter 7
    Chapter 8
    XNA 3.0 Recipes Book (8)
    Chapter 1
    Chapter 2
    Chapter 3
    Chapter 4
    Chapter 5
    Chapter 6
    Chapter 7
    Chapter 8
    Downloads
    Extra Reading (3)
    Matrices: geometrical
    Matrix Mathematics
    Homogenous matrices
    Community Projects (1)
    Team Project (1)
    News
    Tutorials (160)
    XNA 4.0 using C# (89)
    2D Series: Shooters (22)
    Starting a project
    Drawing fullscreen images
    Positioning images
    SpriteBatch.Draw()
    Rotation
    Keyboard input
    Writing text
    Angle to Direction
    Direction to Angle
    Smoke trail
    Manual texture creation
    Random terrain
    Texture to Colors
    Coll Detection Overview
    Coll Detection Matrices
    Putting CD into practice
    Particles
    Additive alpha blending
    Particle engine
    Adding craters
    Sound in XNA
    Resolution independency
    3D Series 1: Terrain (13)
    Starting a project
    The effect file
    The first triangle
    World space
    Rotation - translation
    Indices
    Terrain basics
    Terrain from file
    Keyboard
    Adding colors
    Lighting basics
    Terrain lighting
    VertexBuffer & IndexBuffer
    3D Series 2: Flightsim (14)
    Starting point
    Textures
    Loading the floorplan
    Creating the 3D city
    Loading a Model
    Ambient and diffuse
    Quaternion camera
    Flight kinematics
    Collision detection
    Adding targets
    Point sprites
    Alpha blending
    Skybox
    Camera delay
    3D Series 3: HLSL (18)
    Starting point
    HLSL introduction
    Vertex format
    Vertex shader
    Pixel shader
    Per-pixel colors
    Textured triangle
    Triangle strip
    World transform
    World normals
    Per-pixel lighting
    Shadow map
    Render to texture
    Projective texturing
    Real shadow
    Shaping the light
    Preshaders
    3D Series 4: Adv. terrain (19)
    Starting code
    Mouse camera
    Textured terrain
    Multitexturing
    Adding detail
    Skydome
    The water technique
    Refraction map
    Reflection map
    Perfect mirror
    Ripples
    The Fresnel term
    Moving water
    Specular highlights
    Billboarding
    Region growing
    Billboarding renderstates
    Perlin noise
    Gradient skybox
    Short Tuts (3)
    Run XNA on older pcs
    MessageBox in XNA
    Normal generation
    DirectX using C# (54)
    Series 1:Terrain (14)
    Opening a window
    Linking to the Device
    Drawing a triangle
    Camera
    Rotation - Translation
    Indices
    Terrain creation
    Terrain from file
    DirectInput
    Importing bmp files
    Colored vertices
    DirectX Light basics
    Mesh creation
    Mesh lighting
    Series 2: Flightsim (19)
    Starting code
    Textures
    The floorplan
    Creating the 3D City
    Meshloading from file
    Ambient light
    Action
    Flight kinematics
    Collision detection
    Skybox
    Texture filtering
    Adding targets
    Point sprites
    Alpha blending
    DirectSound
    Sounds in 3D
    Playing MP3 files
    Displaying text
    Going fullscreen
    Series 3: HLSL (19)
    Starting point
    HLSL Introduction
    Vertex Shader
    Shaded triangle
    Pixel Shader
    Textured Triangle
    Triangle Strip
    World transform
    Adding normals
    The first light
    Shadow mapping
    Render To Texture
    Projective texturing
    The first shadow
    Shaping the light
    Preshaders
    Multiple lights
    Adjusting Z values
    Finishing touch
    Short Tuts (2)
    Resizing problem
    Checking Device caps
    DirectX using C++ (15)
    Series 1: Terrain (15)
    Opening a window
    Ending the game loop
    Linking to the Device
    Clearing your window
    Drawing a triangle
    Culling
    Camera
    Rotation - Translation
    Indices
    Terrain creation
    Terrain from file
    DirectInput
    Importing .bmp files
    Adding colors
    DirectX Light basics
    DirectX using VB (2)
    Series 1: Intro (2)
    The first triangle
    Rotation - translation
    -- Tree view --


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