Making objects for TG2 (part2) transparency and illumination (of).

[Dune]

The inside of your structure will be very VERY dark.

If you increase the decay distance it'll get lighter inside.

[TheBadger]

Thanks Dune and UI. Good help!

I was wondering if anyone could explain this:
[attach=1]
The light is from the outside sun. There is one light source; The sun.

I am getting great light on the inside my first try, but why is the glass completely black? From the outside I can see in just fine.


(Edit) Sorry Guys Im a little more off than normal. There is a second light source in the room. Cant believe I both forgot I put it there, and did not see the little cross thingy.

[Upon Infinity]

As I see it, you've got two problems, one of which I think I can help with, the other I can speculate on.  First off, I have no idea why you can only see through one side of the window.  I think it could be the strength of the light.  Because the light source you put in the house to see inside is comparatively lighter compared to the sun (perhaps, the window is really, really tinted).  Not sure, you might have to experiment.

Secondly, the reason light is coming through the wall, I believe, is you need to check receive shadows from surfaces in your atmosphere tab under Quality.  I had the same problem, but from the reverse when I was experimenting with some towers I modeled.  It's either that (most likely), or you have to take glow in atmosphere out of your light source (less likely).  I'm still learning a little bit from what you did to create your glass, so if I come across something, I'll let you know.

[Dune]

Maybe your glass isn't double sided?

[TheBadger]

Thanks guys thats good info again.

Dune,
How can I check that it is double sided? And, If you know about making things double sided in general, such as leafs and stuff, would you mind making a post or thread about it? The only reason I haven't made some real world plants is because I have no idea how to deal with leaves. Silly I know, but thats where I am on this.

Thanks again for the info UI and Dune.

[Dune]

When I build some object in Lightwave I can check whether it needs to be double sided, but in Tg there's also a tab for 2-sides. But I don't know if that's the problem here, just a guess. If you flip the normals of the object, and you can see through the window then, it may have to do with the doublesidedness. I think 

[TheBadger]

Thanks guys, I did both things and all is well.

[TheBadger]

Last thing from the glass part of this.
I think it works very well, and over all, is one of the simpler things that can be done in TG2.
Thanks everyone.

[masonspappy]

Well done. The process is transparent to me now.

[Kadri]

Cute 

[TheBadger]

Hi.

Been learning Maya and mudbox in order to move forward on my projects you guys have been helping me with. I needed better control for making objects for one. Anyway, I'm still on this. Just have to ask a question...

Does anyone know for sure if Terragen 2 will accept Sub D models or is it prudent to always output for .obj in Polly? I know that nurbs don't fly in TG2. But nurbs can be converted to Polygons. What about Sub D?!

Any thoughts on this? Don't need to be maya specific, My reason for asking is importing to TG2. But if you use maya I'll take the advice.

Thanks for thinking on it.

[chris_x422]

Hi Badger,

If you are using maya, you can convert the subdiv to polygons, (under the modify menu)
Terragen cannot import a subdivision surface model.
Another method for this kind of subdivision modelling in maya is to build the mesh in polygons, but use the smooth mesh preview (by pressing 3 on the keyboard) you can also convert the smooth mesh preview (subdiv) to polygons from the same modify menu.

Hope that helps

Chris

[jo]

Hi Badger,

I added a page about OBJ to the Import/Export reference (still very much a WIP) in the wiki a while back:

http://www.planetside.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Wavefront_OBJ_Import

As you can see TG imports a pretty limited subset of OBJ. More fundamental to your question though is that I don't believe OBJ supports subdiv surfaces anyway.

Regards,

Jo

[TheBadger]

Thanks Chris and jo,

I just thought that because Sub d was more like a polygon than a nurb, that it could some how fly without having to convert.  I see now though.

[bobbystahr]

Ok, here is the step by step for glass that I wanted to put here the forum archive. I am just posting the steps to save time for new users. All the steps are from the conversations in the links from the OP on page one. Thanks to everyone who posted on this subject in the past.

To make glass in TG2
Steps:

1) import an appropriate object/model into TG2.     

2) enter the internal node network of the object in the nod network window by clicking on the "+" sign of the node. Do this again on the resulting node.

3) Find the part shader that you want to appear as glass   

4) Right click and select "create shader--> other surface shader--->Surface layer    And again for water; "create shader--> other surface shader--->Water Shader   And one more time for The image map  "create shader--->color shader--->Image Map Shader 
Now you have the required nodes.  (NOTE!) You MUST choose an image at the time of selecting Image Map Shader. For this example make and select a pure white image.

5) Now, disconnect the Red part shader from the Grey  shader of the original parts node.   

6) Now connect all of the nodes we have just dealt with, in the following way:
[attach=1]

7) a.) Double click the "Water Shader" and in the waves tab set "roughness" to 0 (zero). b.) Now go to the "Reflections tab" and move the "Master Reflectivity" slider to some place between a value of 0 & 1. c.) Now go to the "Sub-Surface" tab and move the "transparency" slider to *about* .95

Double click the  Image Map Shader node. Inside, select "Object UV, if available" in the "Projection type" field.

9) Find a view in the preview render window that shows where your glass should be, get rather close.

10) Test render!

11) Adjust values listed in step "7)" ad test render again. (Note) you should leave "roughness" at 0 in the waves tab until you have gotten the other setting to a place you like. Then you can play with "roughness" to see what happens.

(Final Note)
In step "4)" I told you you need to make a WHITE image to use in the "Image Map Shader". This will allow you to have crystal clear glass. if you want scratches or other details on your glass you will need to make a grey scale image of those details. SEE HERE: http://www.planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=15018.0 and look for the post by "DandelO".

The inside of your structure will be very VERY dark. Therefore, you will not likely be able to see in regardless of how low you set reflectivity. If you want to see into the room behind the glass you will need to add a light in the room. Do this by adding a "light source" to the main node network window. However, angle of light does play a factor, and it is *possible* to see into the room. But most likely you will want to add a light source.

Remember that in the OP on Page 1, there are links to related conversations in other threads.

[attach=2]

Thats it!

Good luck.

Now back to "SSS" 

could we maybe have a .tgc of this or is that not doable...or is it posted elsewhere?