More terrain. Resolution fights.

I've spent a lot of time in world machine lately. Tonight I did some sanity checks to see how much detail actually comes through in the end real time model between 2048x2048 and 4096x4096 in WM. In world machine, you can set the resolution of your mesh in the settings box (see image). There is a pretty big time difference so it was worth exploring.

I found that, generally speaking, I preferred the higher res one and it was worth my time investment. Keep in mind, a 4096x4096 res out of world machine will output a 16.7 million poly model. So have a plan for shrinking that down, or use the heightmaps and rebuild in mudbox.

 (NOTE: I actually just import the model straight into Mudbox and rebuild from 16 million down to a target resolution...)

(NOTE2: If you use Chocos method of using the height map, then you could probably just render at 8k in WM, since the polycount wont matter at all. Just render it over night, because it will take a while)

Here is a small sample of the extra detail added. 

Now there are a ton of ways to get more detail, I'm sure of it. This is just a test I figured I'd share with people. Along with some screenshots. Default night sky in UDK.

More later I'm sure.  I've been having too much fun with this stuff.