How is the terrain generated in Commandos and Commandos game clones/look-alikes?

Posted by teodron on Game Development See other posts from Game Development or by teodron
Published on 2012-09-02T12:46:11Z Indexed on 2012/09/02 15:52 UTC
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Filed under:

terrain

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terrain-rendering

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map-editor

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content-generation

The Commandos series of games and its similar western counterpart, Desperados, use a mix of 2D and 3D elements to achieve a very pleasing and immersive atmosphere. Apart from the concept that alone made the series a best-seller, the graphics eye-candy was also a much appreciated asset of that game.

I was very curious on what was the technique used to model and adorn the realistic terrains in those titles? Below are some screenshots that could be relevant as a reference for whomever has a candidate answer:

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The tiny details and patternless distribution of ornamental textures make me think that these terrains were not generated using a standard heightmap-blendmap method.

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