How to export from 3DCoat to Terragen?

[kalwalt]

i start this topic because i have this issue in this picture:http://www.planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,18410.msg179135.html#msg179135 I had wierd artifacts (strange sparkling) i will post all the infos of my setting and what i did to export from 3Dcoat to terragen. My model rendered look like in the picture (tower-scifi.png)
[attach=1]
i have modeled it with a color map, specular map and a bump map ( you can export Normal maps from 3Dcoat but Terragen accept only bump maps). I imported my model in Terragen and see the picture of my settings,
[attach=2]
also attached is the picture of the specular tab,
[attach=3]
i'm not sure that is the right settings maybe here is the root of the issue? i don't apply  the bump map because Terragen crashed when i applyed it and tryed to rendering; Maybe because was in 32bit float format?

back to 3dCoat: when i exported the mesh and the maps at the end i had:

1 obj mesh: tower-scifi-paint.final.obj
1 material file: tower-scifi-paint.final.mtl
1 diffuse map: tower-scifi-paint_VoxMtl.002_color.tga
1 specular map: tower-scifi-paint_VoxMtl.002_specular.tga
1 scpecular color map: tower-scifi-paint_VoxMtl.002_specular_color.tga
1 bump map: tower-scifi-paint_VoxMtl.002_disp.tiff

when you export from 3dcoat you get this window:
[attach=4]
you can export bump as 8, 16 or 32 bits
other settings: Zero level is grey, Zero level is black not normalized, Zero level is black normalized
displacement file setting: Tiff or Exr
Which is one of these are right for Terragen?

Thank you for your help!

[Tangled-Universe]

First of all, I'm not sure.

When I'm not sure I try to figure out what's happening and I always try to do that by exclusion.

So to get started I'd export without displacement, to rule out if that's of any importance.

At first sight it looks to me that a reflectivity of 1 (meaning 100% reflective) is very high.
Some of those specs in your image is because of the anti-aliasing bloom. Depending on the filter you use it can give some artefacts.

There's a slight however here...with a reflectivity setting of 1 + a reflectivity image specified, then the reflectivity value acts as a multiplier.
In this case it means that it will apply reflectivity 1:1 with how your reflectivity map looks like.
So if this map is mostly white pixels then in turn you will get a very reflective surface.

So you can either investigate on darkening your map or simply reduce the number 1 to 0.5 or 0.25, making it 2x or 4x less reflective as a result.
That's the easiest way of doing it.

Cheers,
Martin

[bobbystahr]

Try gettin rid of the specularity image and the reflection one as well and using the attribute sliders to adjust those items. The artifacts I see I often get from using an alpha map for  transparency that is badly made, but I don't see one of those so maybe you could .zip up the model itself with all it's maps and post that here. It would be much easier to diagnose if we could see the patient.

[kalwalt]

At first sight it looks to me that a reflectivity of 1 (meaning 100% reflective) is very high.
Some of those specs in your image is because of the anti-aliasing bloom. Depending on the filter you use it can give some artefacts.

thank's for the tips @Tangled-Universe this was also my think.
but tried to reduce it and to set to zero but the effect is the same, even changing the specular map with Gimp didn't help... also i noticed that i have to reimport the model if i want to be sure of the changes. As another option, i can redo the specular map maybe  the source it is the map itself see it here:
[attach=1]

[kalwalt]

to @bobbystahr i will post a link, my model is huge the forum not allow me to post due its size. i will post soon, thank's for the help!

[kalwalt]

Here the link to google drive: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bzp04s9O9oqOUXprQ1daNF9udXc/edit

[bobbystahr]

Here's what I found, it's in the .tga colour map I think. Hope this helps some

[kalwalt]

Thank you @bobbystahr but i tried also without the specular map and all reflectivity settings to zero and i get again these artifacts, i leave here the terragen project in case someone can show me what i did wrong. And as you say probably i have exaggerated while colouring with the brush with the speculr settings. Im going to retouch the map, to reduce the contrast and the intensity.

p.s. ahh you say that the issue is in the colour map...

[j meyer]

Looks like a 16 bit tga problem and converting is the only way I know of
to fix it.

[bobbystahr]

Thank you @bobbystahr but i tried also without the specular map and all reflectivity settings to zero and i get again these artifacts, i leave here the terragen project in case someone can show me what i did wrong. And as you say probably i have exaggerated while colouring with the brush with the speculr settings. Im going to retouch the map, to reduce the contrast and the intensity.

I have always had problems with .tga maps which is why I tend to stay with .tif or .png if I need Alpha channels and .jpg as they are more economical even huge resolution than any of the others if it's just colour I'm after. I will sometimes even make an alpha map from .jpg if I have a lot of textures and need transparency.

[kalwalt]

I will  try to export to another format .png, .dds, or .tiff or .jpeg... or to convert it!

[bobbystahr]

I will  try to export to another format .png, .dds, or .tiff or .jpeg... or to convert it!

I'd stick with tif png and jpg...more transportable

[kalwalt]

I get it!! c with png same result converting to .jpeg solve that issue! I want to try also with .dds format..
[attach=1]

[bobbystahr]

I get it!! c with png same result converting to .jpeg solve that issue! I want to try also with .dds format..
[attach=1]

are you using a mac or an intel pc? maybe if you're using a mac it makes weird .png as I've not had a problem with them. If you're not on a mac I'd recommend getting the free Irfan view image converter...it does everything I've ever asked it...as long as you dl and install all the plugins(also free)

http://www.irfanview.com/

a mac pal recommend this

http://www7a.biglobe.ne.jp/~ogihara/software/OSX/toyv-eng.html

from the irfan faq

Q: Can I use IrfanView on Mac?
A: Yes, probably. There is no native-Mac version of IrfanView. However, you can use IrfanView in conjunction with Mac program like WineBottler/DARWINE. Take the ZIP version of IrfanView and unzip it or copy your existing Windows IrfanView folder to Mac. This is easier because the installer may need additional Windows DLLs to run.

[kalwalt]

i usually works in linux OS (ubuntu 14.04) and windows7,. I used gimp to convert the maps, i know of Irfanfiew, and i will go a chance if you reccomend to me. Now i'm struggling with the bump map of the mesh, i get erorrs or Terragen crashing, not still understood why, FOr now i will test all the options and i will inform of my progress in this topic.