Way to Go

[Oshyan]

The ground texturing work, rocks, etc. from foreground to background is excellent. Reminds me of the Scottish Highlands (or pics I've seen, at least). I think if you want that brown track to look like a trail of some kind, you should try to figure out how to flatten it a bit relative to the terrain, because to my eye it doesn't really read as "path" right now. Other suggestions for the abbey may be on target, but I really like the scene overall already.

- Oshyan

[Dune]

...figure out how to flatten it a bit relative to the terrain...

Not wanting to selfpromote, but the NWDA is open again and there's a nice 'road preset' that does just this. Mind you, it needs building up from the bottom, with the road or path at 0/0/0, can't be applied just to any 'ready terrain', though you can later shift the terrain to its perfect position. And it will only work on procedural terrains.

[mhaze]

I Have it already - I'll study it and see if I can make it work here.  I've extracted the mesh and started to model a castle that grows out of the rocks in a more natural way.

Update, path now flatter looks better.

Thanks all for the sugestions - and challenges!

[TheBadger]

I Have it already - I'll study it and see if I can make it work here.  I've extracted the mesh and started to model a castle that grows out of the rocks in a more natural way.

Update, path now flatter looks better.

I think your going to have a fantastic fantasy scene here with the realism TG really helps with.
Dont just dump the abby right off though. See if you can fit parts of it in in the near fore. If the quality is good enough, and your position can fit, a destroyed building below a castle will tell a nice little story, potentially. Also the presence of the abby will help define the culture of the city state the castle represents... Some one mentioned the culture, and I thought that was a great thing to add to the process!

And yeah, I know back seat driving it lots easier than winning a race. But its a lot of fun too! 

[mhaze]

Sadly, the abbey is not suitable for close up - but I was planning to redo it anyway - so a good idea I'll play with it.

[mhaze]

The flattened path.  I gave up on Dunes method.  I don't really understand what he is doing with the road - so simple lateral displacement seems to do the trick.

[mhaze]

castle test - just a marker at the moment.  I'll remodel everything when I'm happy.

[TheBadger]

Thats pretty cool!

Are you going to stay relatively reality based, or push it into the realm of something like LOTR or Game of Thrones? The good part about where you have the castle is that its far enough away, that you can get away with more trickery.

[otakar]

Let me make a suggestion: that path needs to be fortified if it is to be the primary access to such a massive structure. Something like this: http://worldhistoryforusall.sdsu.edu/images/bigeras/era4/roman_road.jpg

Your setup is great and the rocks are very believable. Good stuff, anxious to see this progress.

[TheBadger]

Let me make a suggestion: that path needs to be fortified if it is to be the primary access to such a massive structure. Something like this: http://worldhistoryforusall.sdsu.edu/images/bigeras/era4/roman_road.jpg

Your setup is great and the rocks are very believable. Good stuff, anxious to see this progress.

Thats cool! I was thinking about it too. But I did not come up with an idea. The image in your link is a pretty great starting place. I think Dune did a bunch of work making walls like that for some road or path a while ago. May be useful here even if his road cant be used.


By the way, this new path look and works a lot better.

[Dune]

That shouldn't be too hard.

[mhaze]

Great idea otakar.  Not sure I can make it work.  Path is a painted shader and broken up to look old and overgrown.  I may be able to add a few sections of wall but given the difficulty of working with painted shaders I'm not sure how.  The castle will be ruined and very old - hence the over grown track.  Maybe I can add the remains of fortifications.  This was never meant to be the main access it's far too steep just a backdoor!  Dune your methods of making roads may not work here due to the switchback nature of the path that has to find a natural and precise way through the terrain and anyway I don't really understand how to make roads your way. Some help would be appreciated.  Badger I want the castle to be a generic ruin an archetypal castle

[Dune]

Mick, you can quite easily get something you want with my road pack. I've thrown something together yesterday, just to see whether I could get the mountain the way I wanted it to fit to the path/road. Added another transform shader under the main terrain fractal and did some moving and rotation. Don't mind the grass, that's just one object.

[mhaze]

Cheers Dune - starting from scratch I'm sure I could make it work but with 20 odd SSSs shaping the terrain, moving anything would become a time consuming and mind bending nightmare! at least for me it would.  Next time maybe!  It's certainly worth the effort to make use of your path ideas as the add a much greater sense of realism. BTW your rocks are looking better, still brown but better just need some cracking now!

[mhaze]

I've just had a thought I wonder if it is possible to warp an SSS with a painted shader?