Just another aerial view (WIP)

[choronr]

Another inspiration. Just absolute fine creativity.

[Andrew March]

Dune, is there any chance of you sharing the basic scene for this?

I am having a hell of a time making something like this and deconstructing your scene would really help.

Thanks

[Dune]

I can't do that, sorry, but it's not too hard. I made a series of masks (trees, roads, fields, whatever you need) in white on black layers in PS with map as background, copied these to the different RGB channels of a same size RGB TIF. In TG import as image map, set size, projection Y, and output to blue nodes (red to scalar, blue to scalar, green to scalar). Attach these to a fractal or distribution shader for further finesse of veggie distribution, and use these as masks for either objects or colors (roads, fields, grass....). Simple actually.
Especially for roads you need big masks, for vegetation they may be reduced (but set same size again in TG).
Hope this helps a bit. Otherwise, ask.

[Andrew March]

Ah, see that's the problem I am having is the fields part. Never mind.

[efflux]

Very nice work.

[masonspappy]

  Simple actually.....   

[Andrew March]

  Simple actually.....   

My thoughts exactly. Nevermind, some share some don't. Nay bother to me.

[Kadri]

Ulco other then maybe memory usage, is there a reason you prefer to use the color channels instead of 3 different images?

[masonspappy]

  Simple actually.....   
 

My thoughts exactly. Nevermind, some share some don't. Nay bother to me.
[/quote]
Nah - Dune has always shared when he can and tries to explain things to us lesser folk. It's just that, if he ever declares that something is difficult and complicated, then I am going to run like hell. 

[Dune]

@ Kadri; no, it's less kB's, that's all. And I find it handy to have one file with 3 masks. But it's of no great importance how you get the masks into TG, either 3x grayscale file or one RGB channels file. For certain masks you might now even use 256color files, I think, haven't tried that yet. Or bitmap. The lowest in kB, the best. For some masks!

Thanks, masonspappy. I think indeed, I've shared some stuff on this forum.

[Andrew March]

I'm sure you have Dune but you might as well be talking goobledygook when it comes to how you created the fields. I have no idea where to start. Hence I asked if you could share a basic scene.

Even if it just had the basic node setup I might be able to figure out how to engineer it for my own purposes. Terragen isn't my main app, I am primarily a Lightwave user. Terragen fills my needs for distance landscapes and skies. Don't worry about it.

[Kadri]

Ulco , 2-3 years ago i tried 256 color image files but Terragen used them only as grey scale images.
Not sure if anything changed since then. I made a thread about it but got no answer from Planetside.
After Terragen got 64 bit there was no much need for this as in the old days.
Some guys with with crazy projects could use that method for much much lower ram usage with big and-or many 256 color files.
I think my files were 20 000 x 20 000 pixel or so...

Found the thread: http://www.planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,8750.msg94038.html#msg94038

[inkydigit]

'akkers' means fields in Dutch..., Google translate may help with some other nodes being understood... mais=maize, groen=green, riet=reeds, zand=sand etc etc
yeah Ulco, thanks for sharing the insight into your nodes ... these screen shots are always interesting to see how other people set up their nodes... (http://www.planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=15845.0;attach=42681;image)

cheers
Jason

[Dune]

I'm not a worrying kind of guy, luckily. The basic scene wouldn't show you anything, Andrew, because it's just as I told you; an imported mask. So I painted the fields white on a black background, imported as image map and fed into surface shader as mask. The fields themselves are just 2 colors.

Basically, it's like this:

[Dune]

@ Inky; This is a simple setup (and not cleaned up yet), but some of my setups include lots of internal nodes and 'hidden' connections, so a screenshot wouldn't help anyone. And now that I see it again, there's a lot of Dutch-English clutter indeed. Naming is important though!!

@Kadri; I will try, as I believe something has changed (might be alpha though).