Forest texture

[bebe onea]

Hello,
I'm new to Terragen 2 and I'm trying for two days to make a forest texture over a landscape I have rendered (see in atachment). I also tried to add some trees using object population but had no luck. Can you direct me to some tutorials doing this or can someone give me some directions?
Thank you very much

[Upon Infinity]

Looks like you have a decent start to a good scene so far.  I'm not sure what part of adding populations you're having trouble with.  I'll try to give you a few ideas.

1. Click on the Objects tab.
2. Click on Add Object => Population.
3. Go to .obj reader or .tgo reader (whatever format your object is in)
4. Locate the file on your hard drive and add that file to the population.
5. Use the cursor in the 3d preview to find the coordinates of where you want to place the population and
    plug those coordinates into the population object (you can right-click in the 3d preview and copy those   
    coordinates and then paste them into the population).
6. Scale the population accordingly.

[bebe onea]

Thank you Infinity,
It's been of great help. It didn't cross my mind that I have to input exact location.
I have another question.
I want to populate with trees only certain patches so that it depicts the exact location and their real form that I see on Google Earth.
Is there any posibility in Terragen 2 to "paint" population of trees or draw some masks of some kind?
I tried adding a new Surface shader so that my forest went only to some altitude extent and after that added population object as child layer but it did not what I had in mind.
Thanks.

[Henry Blewer]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSjFKgZIOuk&list=PLC4DFBAE46986FB06&index=5

This series by Neuspaudrin from a few years ago is good.

[bla bla 2]

Où, avec l'image-map. 

[Upon Infinity]

I want to populate with trees only certain patches so that it depicts the exact location and their real form that I see on Google Earth.

I don't know of any way you could simulate a population depicted on google earth.

Is there any posibility in Terragen 2 to "paint" population of trees or draw some masks of some kind?

You can use the painted shader to mask a certain area for a population.  You can access the painted shader in the 3D preview (it's in the little boxes menu above).  This will limit the population to only the area painted with this shader.  Just make sure you reference that painted shader in the Density Shader of the population.

[Oshyan]

If you can get real-world forest coverage data for the area you're trying to depict, you can use it in some form to mask a population. It may require a good deal of manual work, conversion, editing, refinement, but it's certainly possible. BigBen and I believe also Ryan Archer have experimented with this kind of thing in the past.

- Oshyan

[TheBadger]

If you can get real-world forest coverage data for the area you're trying to depict, you can use it in some form to mask a population

I would love to be able to do this... I still don't understand the lack of instructional materials for TG2. Really.

[bebe onea]

Thanks everyone for replies.

I have read Ryan Archer's tutorials about integrating GIS data into Terragen. He indeed uses some black & white images as masks and it worked using color. Still remains to try using object population the same way. I will try this in the next days and post my results.
Unfortunately I'm new to the software and I face lack of experience using it. If someone with more Terragen experience is willing to try this procedure with me he is more than welcome. I personally have a lot of experience working with and manipulating GIS data.

[TheBadger]

bebe onea,

The last time I checked, some of the info in Archers tut is out dated, so just be aware of that. He had intended to update it, but I think he is a very busy man. Which is good, especially in this economy!

So if you do go through the process and get good results, sharing your findings here would be well received. A lot of people are interested in this subject.

[bebe onea]

TheBadger,

Thanks for info. I tried the method proposed by UponInfinity using painted shaders. It worked but the process is tedious and I could not gain enough control upon it.
I will make some time in the next days and try with masks using land cover GIS data as forest masks.
I also tried overlaying image from Google Earth using Ryan Archer method but it did't fit at all with my terrain.
I hope I will have some results to share with you in the following days.

[Icegrip]

Im doing a work assignment right now with masks created from real forest stands. http://www.planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=15245.0
I had a lot of problem getting on track at first, but now I've got the hang of it.

I've done most of my editing, conversion in ArcGIS 10.1 and I also used FME to convert the DEM.

Let me know if I can help you out.

[bebe onea]

Thanks Icegrip. I appreciate your willing to help.
I will make some time to give it a try the following days.