Render CubeMap info

[keithlostracco]

Hi I've just recently realized that it would be great to use Terragen to render cubemaps for some 3d fractal work I've been doing. I'm wondering if the GI seam problem has been solved that I read about when doing a search on this forum. I've done one quick test using six cameras set with FOV of 90 degrees and it seemed to work perfect, but it was just of a very plain scene with a simple height map and some high altitude clouds.

I'm just wondering shouldI  use GI or should use the fill light procedure mentioned in the other threads. I'm going to do a cube animation so it would be good to know the best procedure before I get started.

thanks
Keith

[Oshyan]

The GI Caching option solves the seam problem if used correctly. See documentation here for details on use:
http://www.planetside.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Terragen_2_Global_Illumination#Rendering_with_GI_cache_files

- Oshyan

[keithlostracco]

Great thanks for the info. From the reading article I'm not totally clear on the procedure for blending the GI cache files between 6 different camera views. Should I just write 6 different cache files one for each camera and then render each camera with the respective file, probably using the interpolate feature?

thanks
Keith

[Oshyan]

Yes, that's correct. Write a GI cache file for each view prior to final rendering, using a numbering sequence, e.g. gi-cache_0001.gic, gi-cache_0002.gic. Then use Equal Blend Within Range with the number of frames to blend equal to the number of camera views (e.g. 6) and be sure to specify a wildcard numbering sequence to match your numbering (gicache_%04d.gic should match the numbering above). Alternatively, if you have set up your multiple camera views as frames in an animation, you can have TG number the cache files for you using the default gicache_%04d.gic by just setting it to GI Cache Generation mode and rendering out your sequence. If you're doing it this way be sure to set motion blur to 0 in the camera.

- Oshyan

[keithlostracco]

Awesome thanks, seems pretty straight forward. I'll try it out asap.

cheers
Keith

[keithlostracco]

So the method you suggested worked perfectly for a still image. I'm wondering if there is method to blend the GI cache files for an animation of 6 different cameras, lets say 600 frames long. By using wildcards could I blend between multiple sequences of the cache files. For instance lets say I had the 6 sequences Cube_PosX_%04d.gic Cube_PosZ_%04d.gic etc. Could I fill in the Read GI cache file field with Cube_PosX_%04d.gic Cube_PosZ_%04d.gic etc...  and replace the %04d wildcard with a variable that returned the current frame (I don't know if this exists in Terragen or not). If not I guess I might just have to skip on the GI and use the fill lights? bWhich might be a good idea anyways because the render times on 6 2048x2048 images are pretty long.

thanks
Keith

[paq]

Hello,

I'm also  I'm interested in this method.
The language barrier deosnt make the explanation very clear (my fault), and as I dont have lots of time for doing tries and error, so does my setup make sence ?

Sequence : 5 frames (I dont need the bottom part of the cube map)
Method : animated camera, motion blur off.  Camera horizontal fov : 90, square output resolution

See image attachement :

Step 1 : I write the cache for the 5 image sequence, using the gicache_%04d.gic nomenclature.
Step 2 : I render the final sequence, using gicache_%04d.gic nomenclature, Blend mode : equel blend within range, Number of files to blend : 5

Is that right ? or do I have to also use Gi prepass padding to blend the cache ?

Thank you very much !

[Dune]

I think you should take a look at your GI settings (1/8/1). Blur of 1 doesn't get you very far. Better do 1/1/8 or default 2/2/8.