Sure, there are terrain generators like SavageX's which I tried and is really good (it can make a grayscale image into a map with terrain) but such systems are not a solution anyone can use in making real and professional maps which could also look good and be easy to make. First problem is that having to draw an image or make a separate file or model somewhere else and generate your map off that is really not my idea of how terrain should be like. Second, the geometry of terrain made that way is of a very poor quality unless someone is ok with having the map weight +100mb and load in GTKadiant after 10 minutes. Third, bsp-based terrain is not editable after being generated. What if you change your mind and want to lower a hill, raise a mountain, etc. after you built more on the map? You then need to start your map all over again or re-generate the map with the terrain and copy-paste everything you made to it. And fourth, real terrain needs to support multi-texturing and painting of many texture layers on the same face. This can be simulated from the texture if you have Photoshop or something similar but that's once again improvising and can be hard to change if you want a texture to fit somewhere else.
There is another problem that comes here now... gtkradiant. The Radiant map editor doesn't have any kind of terraforming system implemented in it so the only way this could work is either if Darkplaces loads a plugin in Radiant at startup (if that is possible once it reaches the game path) and finds a way to implement a terraforming system in it that way, either if Nexuiz will have it's own version of Radiant which also supports terraforming (I seen there is something called NetRadiant around... not sure if that's Nexuiz's or not). Or in the worst case, Nexuiz can have a small tool with it which can open maps and handle the terraforming only, while Radiant would only display the terrain so you know where to place what (although that would be more like a terrain generator again but better then nothing if all else fails).
A perfect example of terraforming is the one seen in the Unreal 2 / 3 engine. The terrain starts off as a one-sided flat sheet then you choose a brush, it's strength and it's function and apply it anywhere you want to paint the geometry (lower, raise, smooth, noise, flatten, cut are most important). Then you choose a texture layer and paint it over the original one where you want (or if that's too difficult we can make it so layers are height-based and certain texture layers blend at certain heights like those you see in Second Life if anyone ever used it and played with the terrain there). Multitexturing isn't something that urgent actually as it can be simulated from the texture one way or another, what's important is a high quality terrain geometry which can also be modeled from the editor anytime.
I know this would probably be hard to implement in Darkplaces but I believe it is a very necessary part. There are already gametypes such as Onslaught and Assault which are being developed and without a correct terrain system we won't be able to make any good looking and correct maps for them at all. Think of the beautiful outdoor maps that Nexuiz never had alongside all the industrial-looking maps made only off cement wood and metal. I made a pool to see what people think and if anyone is interested in helping out with implementing this (just for the note I'm not a Darkplaces dev myself and little of a dev at all although I do make stuff but I'm not one who knows how everything in the code is like and how it all works). This is also a thread to discuss and encourage action over making this in the close future rather then dreaming about "how nice it would be like -if- someday such a thing might be in, etc". I'm sure we can do it for real and I would be willing to help with what I know too although this would require heavy code that's way beyond my knowledge so sadly I'm not sure how. But yeah, any ideas, suggestions or anything that helps please say here
