Marshland

[zaxxon]

TU, I'd appreciate that, thank you!

[Tangled-Universe]

Here you go, just copy/paste the code below in your TG project and it should show up.
I have left the other water shader settings like wave size and transparency untouched.
As a matter of fact it's most easy to just connect your water shader to it instead and to set master reflectivity to 0.

Code Select Expand


<terragen_clip>
<water_shader
name = "Water shader 01"
gui_use_node_pos = "1"
gui_node_pos = "0 660 0"
gui_group = "Water"
enable = "1"
input_node = ""
gui_use_preview_patch_size = "0"
gui_preview_patch_size = "1000 1000"
roughness = "0.02"
wave_scale = "10"
smallest_scale = "0.1"
wind_patch_effect = "1"
wind_patch_size = "100"
wind_patch_sharpness = "5"
master_reflectivity = "0"
index_of_refraction = "1.33"
horizon_shift = "0.5"
highlight_intensity = "0.5"
min_highlight_spread = "0.01"
transparency = "0.75"
decay_distance = "10"
decay_tint = "0.75 1 0.5"
volume_1_density = "0"
volume_1_colour = "0.5 0.5 0.5"
volume_1_density_function = ""
volume_1_colour_function = ""
seed = "36702"
>
</water_shader>
<reflective_shader
name = "Reflective shader 01"
gui_use_node_pos = "1"
gui_node_pos = "0 600 0"
gui_group = ""
enable = "1"
input_node = "Water shader 01"
gui_use_preview_patch_size = "0"
gui_preview_patch_size = "1000 1000"
reflectivity = "1 1 1"
reflection_tint = "1 1 1"
transparency = "0 0 0"
index_of_refraction = "1.33"
specular_highlights = "1"
highlight_model = "1"
highlight_intensity = "0.5"
specular_roughness = "0.01"
specular_tweak = "0.5"
ray_traced_reflections = "1"
reflection_softness = "0.001"
number_of_samples = "4"
>
</reflective_shader>
<lake
name = "Lake 01"
gui_use_node_pos = "1"
gui_node_pos = "0 540 0"
gui_group = "Water"
enable = "1"
handle_in_preview = "1"
visible_to_camera = "1"
visibility = "2"
visible_to_other_rays = "1"
cast_shadows = "0"
sorting_bias = "0"
water_level = "1"
centre = "0 1 0"
max_radius = "100000"
rotate = "0 0 0"
planet = "Planet 01"
surface_shader = "Reflective shader 01"
displacement_tolerance = "0.5"
import_offset = "0 0 0"
import_scale = "1"
import_motion_filename = ""
>
</lake>
</terragen_clip>


[DannyG]

Excellent image !

[Tangled-Universe]

How is it coming along?

[zaxxon]

Thanks for the setup TU. I rendered the scene inserting the reflective shader as suggested and I think that there is a noticeable difference in how the light is spread as well as the contrast being a bit 'deeper'.  I did however after rendering at detail .8/ AA12 feel that a little extra AA made a difference, so there is a crop at two settings, probably a matter of individual taste, because both work imo.
Also, while not a large image, I did follow your idea of a cropped vertical  re-render, and used detail 1.0/ AA 18 with the sample at 1/16th. I think it's probably a better composition overall, thanks for the idea!  I was going to test this, but perhaps you could address the 'transparency' aspect of adding the reflective shader: are the water shader 'sub-surface' settings affected by the intervening reflective shader to any degree,? It seems to me that some elements of the underwater textures were diminished, but maybe that is the 'reflective' percentage of the reflective shader at work? At any rate this has been very good learning study, thanks again for your interest and help.

[zaxxon]

Bizarre... I just tried viewing the images posted minutes ago on two separate machines and both .png's displayed as very washed out, but if downloaded display just fine. What? I converted both from png to jpeg and am re-posting. Curious.

[Tangled-Universe]

I think either way these are already an improvement, isn't it

The water reflections are still a bit too sharp and reflective to my personal taste.
Perhaps a reflection softness of 0.002 may look a bit better.
On top of that you can add some colour to the water by using a surface layer.
If so, connect the surface layer before the reflective shader and give it a coverage of ~0.2 with a deep green colour like ~130, 40, 30
Then set the reflectivity of the reflective shader to 0.7-0.8
The water should now look a bit more murky and I think the softer reflections will aid in that murky swamp feel.

You can also make the water murky by using the volume density shading in the transparency tab of the water shader, but unfortunately that doesn't go well when shadows from surfaces are being casted into that volume.

As usual, if you're going to try some tests, then do it in little crop renders as rendering the water this way takes pretty long.
How did they compare by the way?

Cheers,
Martin

[mhaze]

Clever stuff Martin - needs to go on your website as a tut!

[Dune]

And if you want to fake seeing underwater, give that murky surface shader's color some spunk by PF, or just load mainland surface colors into it.

[kalwalt]

very nice picture and inspiring work! Also thank's to TU  for priceless suggestions!

[ra]

Really like this render. The swamp scenery is very special and you made it very realistic.

[Cocateho]

Very nice, the dead trees in the water add a lot of realism I think. Being from the southern US though all I can think about looking at this image is all the mosquitoes there would be