I need an advice to create some realistic terrains from data files with x,y and height
in world coordinates.I’m working with Open Gl version 1.1.Should I do it with GL_TRIANGLE_STRIP or GL_QUAD_STRIP?
Is there any difference between them in terrain aspect(excepting that quad strip will be twice faster)?
I didn’t know quad_strip was 2x as fast, I thought it was the other way around…
but to me quad strip looks a lot smoother and nicer, because with triangle strips you could have some wierd looking squares depending on the height of 2 of the vertices. But hey, if quad strips are faster for you, use those.
you can see what my terrain that i’m working on looks like here http://cs.selu.edu/~soconnell/3dengine.php
I’m using triangles, but with quads I think it might looks a little smoother.
Wow! Your terrains are really great!!
I thought that quads need less calculations,but
I will take your advice!
Do you use texture everywere?
Thanks, always good to get someone else’s opinion.
Yes I use textures everywhere. In some of the screenshots, I’m using 3 ground textures with an alphamap to determine which textures blend where.
In the last few screenshots, I just textured 1 huge texture across the entire terrain and blended in a detail map, then blended in another texture with an alphamap.
I experimented with heightmap terrains and quadstrips before.
If the terrain will just be used for “looking beautiful” there is no problem 
If however you want some character or so, to walk on it, then you have to keep in mind that quads are just 2 triangles for GL (depends on the driver I guess?) and if the 4 verts of a quad are not on the same plane, GL automaticly bends the quad (2 triangles), which can cause your character to suddenly walk underneath the terrain with his feet
K