Bunch of newbie questions

General Discussion
1

Hi!

So im not new to python and im using ogre3d for a few years now, but there is something that i would definitely want to try out in panda3d if its possible, because i havent been able to get all of the parts needed together in ogre yet. So here is what i want to do:

1 ) simple terrain. I have been checking forums a bit and found something called retro terrain engine, cant remember the exact name. I need something similiar, where there are flat and slope tiles.

2 ) how can i texture it? is it easy? is it possible to easily mix textures when painting tiles and having other layers too?

3 ) water shader. dont need anything special, simple flat, with simple shader. Is there anything unique about panda3d shaders or i can use a cg shader

4 ) mouse picking. simple AABB will do it i think, and on terrain i need mouse picking too is it possible. no physics at all, no collision detection either

5 ) how to import models. Are there mature exportes from 3d studio/blender

Thanks in advance

2
  1. It’s called snaptotheterrain.
  2. It’s not hard to multitexture terrain using combine modes, but that quickly takes up a lot of texture stages. Most people use a shader. You can find plenty of examples on the forums.
  3. Yes, there are water shaders available on the forums.
  4. Mouse picking on terrain isn’t possible without collision detection, I’m afraid. Not in any engine, I think.
  5. There are mature exporters for Maya, Max, Blender, and panda has a COLLADA importer and .X importer (plus several others but those aren’t used so much). This is all covered in the manual.