"2D foliage mapped to actual 3D geometry"

Started by TheBadger, October 04, 2011, 01:27:01 AM

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TheBadger

#15
Hello Dune, and thank you for your continued patience and support.

I will try to clarify the things I am seeing.

1) The jpeg I used, and have reposted below, is the image map from the image above. When I open it in photoshop I see that its size is: 513x513pixels, 71228.746x71228.746 inches, resolution 1. When I try to make a similar file I end up with a 1gig file. Can you explain this? I think I may be making something simple into something complex?

2)
Quote from: Dune on October 14, 2011, 03:01:27 AM
How do you mean, you didn't get what you expected? It should work with a much smaller image map size (0.01 or so perhaps) and much smaller displacement (x0.01).
Ok, I see. I Feel dumb, but I don't care. As long as in the end I make images with TG2 that kick ass it will be worth the pain.

3) Can you tell me if it is (in general) better to have lots of grey values or hard blacks and whites? And why? I read you in another thread telling someone why its better to slightly blur an image map. So for the blur reason, I'm thinking grey values are better?

It has been eaten.

Dune

Jpeg's often have compression artifacts, so better use non-destructive compressed image types, or just plain tiff, or whatever TG2 eats. It was mentioned somewhere lately, tga, bmp, I believe. Then the size of the file is not related to the size in TG2. You can blow a 10x10pixels file to 10x10 square miles. It all depends on the accuracy you need, the bigger the file, the bigger the accuracy. You might not need that if you add some internal displacements anyway.
I'd say, make a gray scale file of 1000x1000px and try to get your angled squares (or whatever you want) in there in strong black/white. That means a flat low area and a flat top area, once you displace this image map. Save as a basic texture, then blur a copy slightly and try that in TG2. If the now grayish sides are too steep, blur the copy a little more, etc. Hope this helps.

Kadri

Quote from: TheBadger on October 14, 2011, 07:44:28 PM
...
1) The jpeg I used, and have reposted below, is the image map from the image above. When I open it in photoshop I see that its size is: 513x513pixels, 71228.746x71228.746 inches, resolution 1. When I try to make a similar file I end up with a 1gig file. Can you explain this? I think I may be making something simple into something complex?
...

You might have forget something from here :

http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=10040.0

;)

The most basic approach would be to forget to use cm , inch etc and only use "pixels" for your images .
You can use cm etc. but it gets complicated and is not useful most of the time in the digital world.
Mostly you will not need other then pixel dimensions in standard 3D programs .
Where it gets harder is when you go to printing and so.
But is is easier then you think. The link above is very helpful .

TheBadger

Sorry for the long delay, I have been practicing The things covered in this thread.
Happily I can tell you that because of the information in this and other threads I now have a good understanding of the basics in image mapping.

Thank you!
Calico Dune Kadri and Schmeerlap for what everyone can see above. And thank you to Moodflow for talking with me about my OP questions.

Because I have more questions now of (Im very happy to say) a more advanced nature regarding image mapping, and now texture mapping. And because the OP question has been answered, I will start a new thread.

Thanks again guys :D
It has been eaten.

pixelpusher636

TheBadger it's good you have the image mapping figured out but did you ever get to the bottom of how Moodflow did what he did?
The more I use Terragen, the more I realize the world is not so small.

TheBadger

#20
Hi Pixel

Yes I had thought that I posted the solution but after checking I found that I only posted a test image of the result. Here: http://www.planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=13385.msg132061#msg132061

Here is the basics to do it:

For Terrain:

Select a suitable image, Ideally a photograph made on a bright overcast day. Make sure there are very few if any shadows in the photo. Something like this: http://www.henniker.org.uk/images/1920wallpaper/PoloField_MistyGrass1920.jpg

On a terrain of *similar* or flat (i think) features to the terrain in the source image, project the image through an image map shader. Project with the camera projection option, with the render camera as the reference.

Move your camera to a height and angle that will allow you to match the photos horizon with the horizon in TG2. It does not have to be perfect, but the closer the better.

For rocks, project the source image vertically.

The TG2 scene will take color info from the photos, this helps a lot to make the images work.

Do some tests with the above info.

After that you can use displacements and proximity masks to make things really tight.

Thanks to Moodflow for the above info.

Let me know if I can be of more help Pix.
It has been eaten.