Escalating commitments with work and study mean the new release is still some weeks away (but before end of June). I still have to write the tutorial, tweak a few parameters / algorithms, and do the final test-and-debug-everything evaluation. Will it be worth the wait? I hope so.
The features new to L3DT 2.2 include:
Greatly improved high-resolution texture-blending.
Heightfield erosion (see pic below).
A batch-engine for making sets of maps (hands-off mode).
An 'export selected region' option.
DirectX '.x' terrain mesh export (text-only at the moment).
A 'flood-on-click' mouse tool for placing seas / lakes manually.
Water-table modelling for pretty lush / dry grass effects.
Horizontal and vertical rescaling of the heightfield, including histogram functions.
Support for jpeg textures, light maps & normals (finally!).
All new climate definitions including temperate, desert, etc. (also allows different climates in the same map).
A whole lotta polishing of the
GUI (inc. improved menu structure).
The .exe is MUCH faster and smaller thanks to my belated discovery of compiler optimisations, and no longer requires the chunky MFC DLL's.
There's a skybox in L3DTVi2.
Notes:
I've broken the mosaic heightfield functions good and proper, and I may not fix them in time for L3DT 2.2. That probably means a heightfield size limit of 4096 × 4096 pixels will apply in L3DT 2.2. Mosaic textures still work, however, so the limit there remains 32k × 32k pixels.