An Alpine Heightfield?

[TheBadger]

Hello,

I have been trying for sometime now to generate an Alpine terrain within a heightfield, with no luck. That is to say I am trying to create a heightfield that has all the attributes of an Alpine Fractal.

Is this even possible, because I am getting no place on my own and searching the forums is not proving productive.
If anyone can tell me how to do it I would be very happy to hear it.

Or if it is not something that can be done... How do I (after selecting the area I like in a global alpine fractal) smooth down the rest of the planet? I have not gotten anyplace good on my own with blending either.

Im sure Im just not doing it right, but that it is possible, so please chime in.

Thanks in advance.

[Tangled-Universe]

I'm doing this roughly from my head so I hope it's correct in terms of names/labels, but here's how:

1) Start a new default project in TG2.
It will start with a default empty heightfield, don't touch it for now.

2) In the terrain tab create an alpine shader.
Choose the desired seed value and other settings of your alpine fractal.

3) Once the settings are fine with you disconnect the alpine fractal node from the network.
Then connect the alpine fractal to the shader input of the heightfield generate node (the green node of the heightfield, connection to the right)

4) Inside the heightfield generate you can see a "use shader" tab. In that tab make sure that the shader defined is the alpine shader.
You can set the coordinates/size of the heightfield there.

5) Press "generate" and the heightfield generate node will create a heightfield from your alpine fractal.

6a) Once finished, press right mouse button on the heightfield generate node and choose "Save as" to save it as a .ter file.
6b) You can also disconnect the alpine fractal and continue working with the generated heightfield. However, it will not be stored when you save your .tgd file and thus you'd need to create it again, as described in the previous steps, in order to continue working on it after re-opening the .tgd file.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Martin

[TheBadger]

Tangled-Universe,

Hell Yeah!! 

Thanks Martin

[TheBadger]

^{6b) You can also disconnect the alpine fractal and continue working with the generated heightfield. However, it will not be stored when you save your .tgd file and thus you'd need to create it again, as described in the previous steps, in order to continue working on it after re-opening the .tgd file.}


It will not be saved only if I disconnect, or it will not be saved period?

Can I do this multiple times or just one heightfield as you showed?

[Tangled-Universe]

It will not be saved, even if you keep it connected.
However, if you keep it connected, you will save the settings for generating the the heightfield so you can generate it again by pressing the generate button in the heightfield generate node.
Simply put, the heightfield data file itself is NOT stored.

I'm not sure what you mean with your second question?

[TheBadger]

Thanks much Martin!

I ment that I can add multiple heightfields. Can I also add multiple heightfields to a single terrain following your instructions. So that I will have multiple alpine heightfields. I assume I will have to regenerate each one after reopening.

And just one more question please.
When I go to color and detail the heightfields, can I use shaders just as (more or less) I would a power fractal - via shaders. for example adding dirt and strata. Or is working with heightfields more complex?

Sorry if these questions are real dull, but I need to know this stuff. The fact is if you (martin) had not told me in your response above, I would never have figured it out. So, Thank you very much for your time.

M.