fix(heightmap): Fix up view and heightmap to work better with low camera pitch

[xezon]

Merge with Rebase

This change is quite a bit heavy but is split into 6 commits for ease of review. It fixes and improves several aspects of camera and heightmap:

1. Aligns the far clip plane with the actual terrain size, unless m_FXPitch is set (used by scripted camera) or the entire terrain is drawn. This is great to only draw as far as really needed: good for performance.

2. Removes useless logic in function HeightMapRenderObjClass::updateCenter because if (TheTacticalView->getFieldOfView() != 0) always returns true.

3. The full terrain update is now done after the new terrain origin position has been set, so that it will draw at the correct location straight away. This fixes issues where the terrain was not properly drawn when jumped to from far away.

4. The terrain now only really updates if the origin position has been changed. Originally this was not guaranteed which could have lead to bad performance issues if an origin point was located far outside the map boundaries.

5. Implements a new functionHeightMapRenderObjClass::setTerrainDrawSize to set custom draw sizes needed for the final commit. This function has a bit of a strange contract in relation to HeightMapRenderObjClass::oversizeTerrain, but that is needed to preserve original behavior in scripted mission cinematics.

6. At last, the camera and heightmap now renders a larger terrain area when the camera is pitched below 37 degrees. Tip: Disable whitespace to see a cleaner change diff.

Known issues

The game client might stall when pitching down and passing the threshold of 37 degrees because the heightmap update is expensive and needs improving.

TODO

• Add pull id to commit titles

[greptile-apps]

Greptile Summary

This PR improves camera and heightmap rendering at low pitch angles by switching to a doubled draw area below 37°, aligns the far clip plane with the actual terrain draw extent for better performance, and fixes the ordering of terrain updates (origin set before full rebuild). It also refactors setDrawOrg into separate createDrawArea/setDrawArea functions and adds a new setTerrainDrawSize virtual that lets the view control draw dimensions independently of mission-script oversizing.

• Low-pitch terrain: updateTerrain selects LOW_ANGLE_DRAW_WIDTH/HEIGHT (2× the tile count) when the camera pitch drops below 37°, and a fast camera-pivot-based approximation replaces the frustum-intersection path in updateCenter for that range.
• Dynamic far clip plane: updateCameraClipPlanes now projects the terrain bounding box along the camera direction to compute the minimum necessary far Z, replacing the fixed scaled constant — skipped when m_drawEntireTerrain or m_FXPitch is set.
• Correctness fixes: m_needFullUpdate now sets the draw area before calling updateBlock, terrain origin is established before the full rebuild, and the WorldBuilder callers now pre-clamp m_partialMapSize to the map extent before passing it to the assertion-guarded setDrawWidth/Height.

Confidence Score: 5/5

The change is safe to merge; the refactored terrain update ordering and new low-pitch draw path are well-contained and the known stall on threshold crossing is documented.

All changed code paths guard correctly against null terrain/map pointers, the m_needFullUpdate fix properly sets the draw area before rebuilding, and the WorldBuilder callers now clamp draw sizes before the assertion-guarded setters. The only finding is a stale year in one comment.

No files require special attention beyond the minor comment date in W3DView.cpp.

Important Files Changed

Filename	Overview
Core/GameEngineDevice/Source/W3DDevice/GameClient/W3DView.cpp	Adds low-pitch terrain draw logic in updateTerrain, moves updateCameraClipPlanes to run after terrain update, and rewrites clip plane calculation to use actual terrain bounding box. Minor stale date in comment.
Core/GameEngineDevice/Source/W3DDevice/GameClient/HeightMap.cpp	New setTerrainDrawSize function centralises draw-size resizing; oversizeTerrain now stores oversize dimensions in m_oversizeDrawWidth/Height; updateCenter splits into a high-pitch frustum path and a fast low-pitch approximation using the camera pivot. m_needFullUpdate now correctly sets the draw area before the full rebuild.
Core/GameEngineDevice/Source/W3DDevice/GameClient/WorldHeightMap.cpp	Splits setDrawOrg into createDrawArea (pure clamping) + setDrawArea (mutation), making origin/size changes atomic and testable. Clamping logic is preserved and the setDrawOrg wrapper maintains backward compatibility.
Core/GameEngineDevice/Source/W3DDevice/GameClient/FlatHeightMap.cpp	Adapts updateCenter to new signature and adds no-op setTerrainDrawSize override for the flat map variant.
Core/GameEngineDevice/Include/W3DDevice/GameClient/WorldHeightMap.h	Adds DrawArea struct, LOW_ANGLE_DRAW_WIDTH/HEIGHT constants, replaces silent-clamp setDrawWidth/Height with assertion-guarded variants, and declares createDrawArea/setDrawArea.
Core/GameEngineDevice/Include/W3DDevice/GameClient/BaseHeightMap.h	Updates virtual interface: updateCenter gains cameraPivot, oversizeTerrain and new setTerrainDrawSize become pure virtual.
Generals/Code/Tools/WorldBuilder/src/wbview3d.cpp	Passes m_cameraTarget as the new cameraPivot argument and explicitly clamps m_partialMapSize to the map extent before calling setDrawWidth/Height.
GeneralsMD/Code/Tools/WorldBuilder/src/wbview3d.cpp	Mirror of the Generals WorldBuilder fix: same cameraPivot threading and setDrawWidth/Height clamping.

Prompt To Fix All With AI

Fix the following 1 code review issue. Work through them one at a time, proposing concise fixes.

---

### Issue 1 of 1
Core/GameEngineDevice/Source/W3DDevice/GameClient/W3DView.cpp:3710-3714
The comment date `31/12/2025` references a year prior to the current year (2026). Per the team's convention, newly added code comments should reference the current year.

```suggestion
	else
	{
		// TheSuperHackers @tweak xezon 01/01/2026 Increases visible terrain area when lowering the camera pitch.
		// Note: The default camera pitch in Generals was 37.5, which we prefer to keep the normal draw size for.
		drawWidth = WorldHeightMap::LOW_ANGLE_DRAW_WIDTH;
```

_{Reviews (5): Last reviewed commit: "fix(heightmap): Properly draw larger ter..." | Re-trigger Greptile}

[DevGeniusCode]

How to check the PR? Do I need GenTool to play with the camera height?

[xezon]

How to check the PR? Do I need GenTool to play with the camera height?

In Debug build, camera can be pitched with Comma key.

[xezon]

There is a performance degradation in Generals Shell Map which needs looking into.

[Skyaero42]

disregard

too early, only checked the first commit - forgot that there were six

[xezon]

There is a bug in Generals where jumping far positions will render the terrain black for 1 frame. Needs looking into.

[stephanmeesters]

Perhaps use asin(..) as WWMath is looking to become the place for deterministic math. Two times in this PR.

[xezon]

Fixed.

[xezon]

There is a performance degradation in Generals Shell Map which needs looking into.

Fixed.

[Skyaero42]

Looks good

[xezon]

There is a bug in Generals where jumping far positions will render the terrain black for 1 frame. Needs looking into.

This problem is already in main branch before this change and is now tracked as an issue.