Jungle waterfall

[miha2]

I still can't understand the Painted shader. How do I use it properly? I draw a kind of a line for the river, but all I get is just a kind of line. On the pre-rendering window, not the real rendering one. How do I apply it to the Heightfield so that I can have it "painted"?
My settings for the heightfield are:

3000
0.007
1

This is my (basic so far, will be asking for more advanced (like how to make stones out of it, so that water falls not from land, but from stones) later. For now, just the river, since I have the heightfield. I also don't know pretty much about how to use the Image map shader. Agree, I know too little of Terragen to create beautiful pictures. But I'm learning so far, and hope to know more and more every time I have a response to my questions. So, my question for, let's even say this week, is: How to make river? And fill it with water? Though it's pretty easy - I should make 2 lakes, one on top, one on the bottom ground. That sounds nice.  But I don't know what shoud I do to apply/pin/associate/connect/whatever to make a river, not the waterfall yet... Let's just go step by step...

[cyphyr]

Hi Miha

The painter Shader. Used this way the  shader will create a black and white greyscale image (its a vector map really) where the areas that are white can apply an effect and the areas that are black will not apply the effect. To use the Painter shader to make a river do the following.

Right click in the render preview window and select "Open in New window". In this new window select top view and move your preview view to a place where you can see the area where you want to draw your river.
Let the preview window finish rendering and press "Pause.".
Now click on the small paint brush icon at the top of the preview window. Select "Start Painter Sahder" and then "Create new Painter Shader".
Double click on the new Painter shader node to open it and dial in the brush size you want for the river, its in Meters. Depending on your river something between 3 and 30 seems cool for a small river but it depends on your scale and needs.
Now select the Transform Tab and check that its set to "Plan Y" and  "Final Position".
Open the displacement shader node and type in a depth for your river. (-3 to -30 for example)
Feed the output of the displacement shader into your terrain stack or directly into your "compute Terrain" node.
You should now see a negative displacement where the river is.
Of course you can achieve different kinds of effect depending where the displacement shader is in your node tree.
Try using a "merge shader" mixing the river displacement with terrain shader.

Hope this helps and good luck

Richard

[Dune]

I spent some time to fix you a nice waterfall (or fast flowing mountain river). Perhaps not perfect (I didn't even render it, so I don't know exactly what it looks like), but I think it has a lot of aspects for you to study. Dissect, look into the nodes what I did, study the connections and learn! Then make your own. Good luck (everyone).

---Dune

[Henry Blewer]

Thanks Ulco. I have been stuck trying different things. I have learned a little, but I am frustrated.

[miha2]

cyphyr - that is the problem, I can't use it. I select it, I draw it, I do a displacement to it, and nothing! Actually, there's a little problem: it says "BeginStroke() is not called. What that is I don't know. Maybe that's the all reason I can't draw? And how would I make it disappear? (This error, not the shader or program...)

Dune, thank you, I really appreciate your help. You know, it's pretty far away from my picture, but thanks. I'll study by it, since it's way much better to learn on somebody else's creations, since it's all written already. But don't think I'll have more questions on my specific project. (well, kind of specific... project..., it's just for me only, nobody else (except of you guys, of course) won't see.)

[cyphyr]

Some interesting parameters in your TGD file Dune
I wonder what "Calculate depth of field", "GI prepass_padding", "Soft_shadow_sample_jitter", "Anisotropic_enviro_light" and "stitchable_border" could possibly be about
Lookin' forward to the next release  
Richard

Ps ~ simple screen shot of basic river set up attached.
Also make sure the camera is close enough to see the effect your after.

[miha2]

Ok, from the picture above, I can see that I should have added the Displacement shader in Terrain field. I mean, I added Displacement shader, just adding a painted shader as a function, just like on a picture. Now it works! Next question: So, do I just create 2 lakes for the rivers to be filled? I will definitely do stones, trees, and grass, but I need the waterfall. Though it's a question for some other time...

[Henry Blewer]

Your lakes can be a rounded painted shader like the river. Go to the water tab. Add a lake. This is really just an object that sits over the terrain. Use the get coordinates in the preview window; this is for the center of one of the lakes (or both, depends on how they are set up). Now copy these coordinates to the Centre of the lake using the  box on the right. Last, adjust the height/altitude of the lake.

[Dune]

Try this for fun; add a lake, set your POV (camera) to a few meters above the water level, add a distance shader, set it to your camera, and set the near distance (black) to 100 the far distance (white) to 110. Now output this into a displacement shader, set its displacement to 10-20 (or whatever positive value), and output this into the water shader... waterfall.
All sorts of varieties possible, like using a second camera especially for this if you want to move your POV different from the angle of the waterfall, or a mix of distance shaders and extra Powerfractals, adding foam.....

[FrankB]

I admire your patience, Ulco! 

[miha2]

OK, so, that's what I got so far. After so long discussions and your help. I know it's not perfect, but that is the view I want. Of course, it needs lots more of details, so if you just could help me. It's about 2 meters (7 ft) tall, and it (I really hope) will have a waterfall, though it already has a river on top and on bottom. So, something needs to fall from top to bottom... And ground. I really need to choose a good color for ground... And! A big and: it needs stones. Couldn't do them on the bottom level, don't know why. Though they are needed mostly in river. And a grass. Also, what trees should be in these jungles? You've helped me a lot here, so let's finish it! Also, it would have been great if it could have  
P.S. Couldn't find why the water on the top is not visible.
P.P.S. Of course, it's just a broad idea on what I want to do, so just to give you a general idea. Advances will be made, with your help.

[Dune]

I know it's hard, but here you have a 'slight' adaptation of your tgd. Was interesting for me as well. I admit it's not perfect at all (not at all!!), but it's good study material.

The painted shader is not really my favorite, but it works. I prefer masks made in Photoshop, because they can be made more subtle.

Good luck.

[miha2]

Thank you, Dune. You really have what I want! From the picture, I can tell it's good. It really does look good, but the only problem here is that the fall is a little wider than I expected. So, I narrowed it, as you can see. Also, don't know why, I have 64 errors in your .tgd file.
After narrowing your fall, I made it a little "too low" for riverbed. But I kind of like it, so I guess I'll leave it like that. (I told you I'm not any good in Terragen, just hoping to create my dream pictures in this program.)
P.S. I saw you have two suns??? Why is that?

[Dune]

The 64 errors are because I have an alpha test version, with extra features. Just save it and reopen, they won't bother you anymore.
If you make another painted shader, you can paint any stream. Then replace it. You can alter the height of the stream in the section of the water. There's one surface shader, which can be displaced down or up. Use the offset.
I added another sun to try to get extra sparkles in the waterfall, although it's not perfect. It depends on the exact angle. You can also use it to give dark shadows a bit extra light.

[miha2]

This really does look very good. Now, I just have to plant some grass and trees on there, and I might be done. Good to hear someone is interested not only to help me, but to, actually, do all the work for me... I hope I'll learn a lot from this example. Thank you.
P.S. Don't forget that any additional help is welcome...