Thanks Planetside!

[El Kabong]

Having a great time with, hmmm,  what program have I been using most since finding Terragen, oh yeah! Lightwave3D. heh.

Sorted out a display issue with my HP Pavilion Athlon 64 x2 Dual Core 3800+ w/3gig ram that kept crashing LW. Looking to get a compliant display card to "upgrade" existing desktop system. Still seems to be at the bottom of the list for being able to utilize Terragen, but a bit better than the laptop I use.

Guess this would be aimed at the modelers. What would the process entail to remap objects?

I am trying to initially recreate an approximation of a photograph and then latter flesh out the scene to capture different viewpoints and times of day of the area.

I've built several objects with LW3d to be used in a scene based upon an actual location. And of course, all the nice textures on the objects are mostly procedural. I have somewhat figured out how to use PoseRay to help with the conversion of .lwo to .obj formats. Can get simple UV mapped flags on poles to render in TG, but am kinda stumped on the method of replicating the procedural textures.
Initially, the texture displacements used in LW are not the most important part of the scene. The overall representation of the object in the scene is. I imagine the surface names on the .lwo would need to be redone in modeling stage to simplify the conversion to .obj.

Would rendering out the different parts of the object and creating image maps be the way to go?
Thanks for any direction.
Later... Ron

Here's a LW rendering of the main complicated object to be used.

[Dune]

I don't quite understand what you need to know (English is not my first language), but this object to be rendered in TG would need mapping for the square tiled area only, IMO. So, you'd need to map that and give the rest other areas surfaces according to how you want to differentiate them procedurally. Then in Poseray map those anyway, no matter how (though I think TG handles unmapped parts also recently), and apply procedural texturing (through transform shader set to final position) to those surfaces in TG.
I hope this is what you mean.

[TheBadger]

^^ Yes, I think he is confused about how to color and texture in TG.

IF I understand the post, map the object, but do not import images as textures with the object (except perhaps bump). Once you have it in TG, then use PFs to color it. go to this page, download the .tgc and put it the object node http://www.planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,18195.0.html?PHPSESSID=fdcc073f924ae32981fa0b1f088ebecd

If you study that file then you will see clearly how to color and texture a object in TG.

If I understand the OP issue right. But I am not sure that I do.

[El Kabong]

Thank you Dune and Badger for the direction.   ...thought my explanation/request was clear. Terragenise isn't my main language. ;P

Dled and tinkered with the suggested clip file on an TG3 created sphere and cube. Looked simple enough, but now I have even more questions than answers.

First one:
How in the tarnations do ya'll manage to achieve such amazing results setting up scenes when the shaders are not displaying on some of the objects? Seems like a lot of "hurry up and wait".

See attached image:
The sphere and large cube are TG generated objects textured with Inkys Marblesque clip. The texture on the objects show in the 3d preview.
The small block in the forground is an imported .obj with Inkys clip not displaying.
The two blocks above the forground block are image mapped .objs with the image map displaying. The small block on the left has a tanish base color while the block on the right has the default base color. Base color altering the image map color?
The flag is a .obj with a UV image map. The image map is not displaying.
The stone blocks on the hottub .obj are assigned to the same unmodified Inkys clip and the texture is not displaying.

All objects, except for the large cube and sphere were built in LightWave then run through PoseRay. All the "Display Textures" in the object information panels are set to "Display Texture" in the 3D view port.

Is this just how Terragen works? or is it a result of a system with "integrated" display? Does an ample system with a display card show all textures in the 3D view port? 

Second question: er... ok five or six...
What is going on with the texture on the hottub object in the rendered image? The dark shaded triangle areas?

As far as the red/white tile on the hottub,the process for appling the image to the object went way easier than anticipated. Very happy with the result there.

...also, the image on the flag isn't "white" or "bright" enough. The image used for the flag is brighter and not grayish. I even rotated the flag around and rendered it several times from different angles thinking it was the lighting, but got the same results. The base color of the flag is white.

Not understanding Terragenise...
Quote Dune ~ "and apply procedural texturing (through transform shader set to final position) to those surfaces in TG."
This took me a while to figure out how to do, but I think I'm on the right track.

Thanks again. Ron

[Oshyan]

Admittedly the display of textures in the 3D preview can be a bit confusing if you don't understand some of the nuances of Terragen's functioning and the difference between built-in objects of different types vs. imported objects.

There are two types of built-in objects - displaceable and non-displaceable - and they are handled differently in the 3D preview. Additionally, imported objects are handled more like non-displaceable objects.

Basically, displaceable objects work like the terrain. They are able to show procedural textures because they are rendered by the main rendering engine and not by OpenGL. Notice for example that if you make a change in the scene or move the camera, certain objects (displaceable ones) do not update instantly, rather they are refined progressively just like the terrain and other non-object elements. You'll also notice that when you "Hide Objects" in the 3D preview, these objects are not hidden.

Imported and non-displaceable objects are instead rendered using OpenGL. The advantage to this is they update in realtime, there's no process of progressive refinement. And they can display simple image-based textures in the 3D preview when that option is enabled. However it also means that it's more difficult to display procedural textures on them, and this capability is not yet implemented due to that fact. So when you are using procedural textures on an imported or internal non-displaceable object (for example a Card), then you will not see the texturing in the 3D preview. Hopefully this can be made more consistent and generally improved in the future.

- Oshyan

[Dune]

Terragen is just not finished, but it's progressed hugely from the time I had to put a city of separate buildings together while only bounding box view was available! Just stick with us 

The triangular blacks might be caused by a non-welded polygons. Just a vague guess.

[TheBadger]

^^ if they are tris and not quad I would say that is a pretty good guess too. I can see that the texture is under the black, but if you are right and there is missing geometry, than I think I am seeing through to the back of the other side? interesting! I have not run into that, but if it is un welded, and TG just dose not show the geometry in that case, then knowing now would be good, since it will eventually happen to everyone. Also a way to test your models then. It can be hard to find one or just two unjoined verts in a large complex model, this shows where they are really clearly... Another tool then maybe

[bigben]

You can preview the textured model with the "Change object display mode" button at the top of the preview window.  As TG isn't an object editor most people are usually just using this for placement.

[bobbystahr]

^^ if they are tris and not quad I would say that is a pretty good guess too. I can see that the texture is under the black, but if you are right and there is missing geometry, than I think I am seeing through to the back of the other side? interesting! I have not run into that, but if it is un welded, and TG just dose not show the geometry in that case, then knowing now would be good, since it will eventually happen to everyone. Also a way to test your models then. It can be hard to find one or just two unjoined verts in a large complex model, this shows where they are really clearly... Another tool then maybe

I weld anything I run thru PoseRay any larger than very simple as you often get every 2nd poly not showing

[PabloMack]

Having a great time with, hmmm,  what program have I been using most since finding Terragen, oh yeah! Lightwave3D. heh. I've built several objects with LW3d to be used in a scene based upon an actual location. And of course, all the nice textures on the objects are mostly procedural.

I'm a LW3D user myself. Yes, LW is a very fun program to work with. Navigating is far more satisfying than TG as you can get a much better picture of what your final is going to look like in the preview. I have been wanting to do the same sorts of things you are trying to do but you have to keep in mind that TG is very limited on animation. Since LW is much more powerful in that department you might consider compositing the two renders together at some point. There are a number of ways to do this. Easiest is to first render in TG then use its output as a backdrop and then render in LW. You won't get proper shadows this way, though.

I inquired in the LW forum as to how to bake procedural textures into UV maps so that they can be exported as obj's for use in TG. I got my question answered and I am going to do it myself. I think that the UV mapping tools in Modo are better than in LW so that is what I have been using for creating and editing UV maps. Once you have the UV map done, preserving the procedural textures involves what is called the "Surface Baking Camera" in LW. Once you have this done you can export to OBJ. But LW doesn't put the preceding slashes on the absolute paths leading to the image files so I have edit the mtl file manually. It is a plain ASCII file. You can read the LW forum thread here:

http://forums.newtek.com/showthread.php?146050-Baking-Procedural-Textures-into-UV-texture-maps

[PabloMack]

^^ if they are tris and not quad I would say that is a pretty good guess too. I can see that the texture is under the black, but if you are right and there is missing geometry, than I think I am seeing through to the back of the other side? interesting! I have not run into that, but if it is un welded, and TG just dose not show the geometry in that case, then knowing now would be good, since it will eventually happen to everyone. Also a way to test your models then. It can be hard to find one or just two unjoined verts in a large complex model, this shows where they are really clearly... Another tool then maybe

LW has operations you can use to fix all of this. First you should Merge points ('m' command). Next you can Unify Polys ('I' command). If LW and TG don't agree on the presentation of polys with more vertices than three then you can convert everything to triangles with the Triple command 'T'. Once you have done these things you can then unambiguously see which triangles are pointing in the wrong direction. Select and then Flip them with the 'f' command and you are done. 

[El Kabong]

Thanks for the explanation Oshyan. So, that's just the way TG works, for now. 

Yes, funky polygons. Cleaning up/remodeling object. Will follow PMacks procedure and spark up the welding torch...  Will be looking more into the LW baking camera thing. Thanks for the link.

No plan to animate, just stills. Getting enough headway on the main object to look into desert shrubbery, ground cover and such.

Attached is what I've got so far...

[Dune]

If that water is a plane and not a masked lake, turn off the shadows!