Various game map formats (indoor and outdoor)

Question

I'm in the process of designing an rpg and I have run into a small snag. I'm not sure what to use for my world maps. I've looked at different formats over the past week and have determined that there aren't any maps (that I can find...) that are good for an outdoor environment. I found that .bsp maps (quake 4 or doom 3) would be good for an indoor setting, but not very good for outdoor settings because of the way they are done.

I'm trying to find something that would allow me to make huge outdoor maps, much like oblivion or morrowind. Granted I may not use the maps to that extreme, its just nice to have the room for expansion if I need it.

Thanks, Robbie

Answer 1

Outdoor environments are typically done using terrain height maps. It's basically a giant grid with height info on each cell. Also each cell contains info about the texture(s) to be used.

You can create these maps using fractal and perlin noise based terrain generators

Answer 2

This article introduces the use of quadtrees for terrain storage, which I believe are commonly used. Basically, they're like the BSP trees used in Quake, but better suited for storing heightmaps.