Rolling Hills. Again?

[TheBadger]

Hello,

I am trying to make some soft rolling hills, with maybe a few large steep hills still "rounded".

I remember that someone in the forum asked about the same thing and used a popular image from Windows OS to show what he was after. Does any one remember that thread? Cant find it. "Rolling Hills" did not help in the search, and thats the only thing I remember about it.

But, cant I just use an image map for this? If so, wouldn't I just make circle(ish) shapes, where the shapes are black on the out most parts and white in the center? Grey scale.

I was thinking about this and can't belive this is the first time I will have tried such a simple and basic landscape Its funny how we try to do such complex things on these forums, but don't spend much time talking about more "typical" landscapes.

Thanks.

P.S.
Here is an example of the look I am after. A quintessential fantasy/fairy tail landscape:
[attach=1]

[attach=2]

[rcallicotte]

I bet there's more than one way to do this, but using a TIF with the shapes like you describe could help.  I'm not sure that would end it like you want it, though.

[cyphyr]

Take a look at the USGS data server, I'm sure you could find a little bit of the states that fits your requirements, maybe somewhere in New England ...
Once you add the extra fractal details any recognisable similarity to the original will be lost.
Alternately you could just use a low octave Perlin.
Cheers
Richard

[TheBadger]

@calico
Yes, it can be difficult to control scale. I would rather not spend all my time just getting the hills right since I have so much else to do after that. But why tiff and not jpg. Whats the difference on a non specific shot in TG2? Don't think I have read much about that in these terms.

@cyphyr

Can you recommend a specific area/place to look into. There is nothing like what I am looking for where I am from. And I have not visited such a place. Searching maps based on a state will be difficult I imagine. But if you know of a real place that has what I am after, than that would be best, I think. I was always lead to believe (by hollywood) that this is what England, Ireland, and scotland look like in person for the most part. Do you know of any specific places on your island that looks like what Im after?

Anyone?

I'll start with the "low octave Perlin" and a tiff and see what happens.

[cyphyr]

Well that's Hollywood  for ya!
I mentioned the USGS data server as I assumed you would be more familiar with US terrain but since you'll be using it out of context I doubt it matters much. Just look for something you like.

You can get the full spread of Ordinance survey UK data free from here, you'll need the "Land-Form PANORAMA" data set in ASCII grid [DTM] or NTF [DTM] format. Open in Global Mapper and export as GeoTiff.

I don't know the sort of place you mean by "Rolling Hills", in the States your geology is much more "spread out" than in the UK, your features are much wider and larger than ours. Nonetheless once your data is loaded into TG you could re-size appropriately.

I would avoid using JPG files, you never know what kind of compression artefacts your going to get.

Cheers and good luck

Richard

[billhd]

Yes, no reason to use image heightmaps with this procedural wonder that is TG2, at least in this case. Try using a power fractal with noise set to perlin billows, low (about .3) noise variation, lead in scale 400, min scale 300, feature scale 330, displacement about 50.  Set noise variation low maybe .3.  Make it green.  I tried this but can't get back to it or get a file out now.  This should provide a starting point for the biggest scale features in your tgd file.  Cheers  Bill

[TheBadger]

Hey Bill!

Those numbers you gave put me right in the ball park! Thanks a lot  I will play with this.


@cyphyr
Thanks for that link. I'm just starting to play with this stuff. Its very cool!

[TheBadger]

Hi

After playing with the numbers Bill gave,, I was able to get pretty much what I wanted in light of image 2 in the OP. But I am having almost no luck with the kind of hills that are in image 1 of the OP. That is, they are basically the same, but in image 1 the hills are smaller in scale and much closer together. I can get hills close together but they are not rounded. I can get hills that are rounded but not close together. I can get hills that I think are the right size but only one or two very spread out hills. The smaller I get the hills, the fewer hills there are.

Am I now to the place where a map makes sense or can someone again get me on the right path with procedurals?

[j meyer]

How about combining more than 1 Pf via merge shaders or offsetting
the PF your using via transform shaders?

[Kadri]

You can make these with fractals etc.
But i would paint them (basic dots that are blured) or -and use another program Like world machine,Geocontrol or similar for better control .

[TheBadger]

Hi Kadri,

I came to the same conclusion after playing for a while. The trouble is that making the map is super difficult too. I don't mean the how, just the doing of it.

I found a location to grab satellite data of, that is perfect. And I mean perfect! Google maps, and images of "Palouse, WA". Oh my, its pretty.

In the end I think that a highfield power frack mix will work the best. I just have to get the Sat Data working for me first.

[TheBadger]

Ok, I got pretty close to what I had in mind. Close enough anyway.

But if you will look at the image. In the area that is read, I would like to be filled with terrain. So that the area under the camera is level and raised to where the top of that first hill is.

[attach=1]

I do not want to sit around all day just playing with seed values trying to get thing "perfect". There must be a way to control this? What can I do here?

[freelancah]

You could try attaching a distance shader to your camera with the appropriate values and attach that into a displacement shader. You should get a pretty decent result with the right values
___

Nvm scratch that.. Simple Shape Shader would be the easiest solution

[billhd]

Badger, try masking a  displacement shader with a painted shader to raise the foreground.  A soft brush should ease the transition. Glad the settings were helpful.  Bill

[TheBadger]

Thanks guys Ill try these too.