help with water

jdi_fi · March 09, 2016, 07:41:27 PM

Hi Everyone! I have a question on how to drop a lake or sea into the middle of an Alpine fractal landscape? I'm using simple shape shaders to displace sections for a pocketed effect in the landscape as a mask on the fractal layer. I have a water layer so that when the surface is displaced, the water pops through. The problem is the edge of my mountains become very steep where I drop the simple shape layer - i.e. a very harsh transition between water and mountain. When I play with the Edge Profile settings + edge width, I don't see any noticeable change in the transition area. This has worked for me in the past. Not sure why it isn't working now. I've attached some a screenshot as a reference if anyone is interested in giving some advice! Many thanks!

simple shape shader edge profile settings:
profile: bevel
width: 25
units: %
key: position in terrain/texture

Oshyan · March 09, 2016, 07:51:31 PM

There are separate edge profile settings for Displacement in the Simple Shape Shader. Is that where you are adjusting them? If so, is the SSS applying displacement directly, or are you using it as a mask or to drive displacement in some other shader? If the latter, then the edge profile settings in the Colour tab is what you have to adjust.

- Oshyan

bobbystahr · March 09, 2016, 11:53:55 PM

And if you get really stuck on this post a .tgd and we'll get 'er done with many minds.

jdi_fi · March 10, 2016, 08:35:58 AM

@Oshyan - thanks for the reply! I think it might be easier for me to add the .tgd as @bobbystahr suggested. But I'm running out right now so will have to do later tonight... but more of an explanation is below...

I have three SSS as masks on the Alpine Fractal layer (one as the mask, two others as inputs to the original SSS). I am trying to create multiple "bays" of what eventually will be water with floating ice chunks in and around an Antarctic-like landscape. I am trying to use the additional SSS to break up the landscape so that it is asymmetrical and looks random. that's my goal. I thought it would be a simple matter of just putting SSS where I needed them to cut into the landscape - then tweak from there for mountains.

My node hierarchy looks like this: Alpine Fractal layer <-- SSS01 (as mask) <-- SSS02 (as input to SSS01) <-- SSS03 (as input to SSS02). The SSS I am having trouble with are the 02 and 03.

I am new to Terragen, so if there's a better way, please let me know! Much of this is trial and error

.

bobbystahr · March 10, 2016, 09:01:18 AM

Quote from: jdi_fi on March 10, 2016, 08:35:58 AM
@Oshyan - thanks for the reply! I think it might be easier for me to add the .tgd as @bobbystahr suggested. But I'm running out right now so will have to do later tonight... but more of an explanation is below...

I have three SSS as masks on the Alpine Fractal layer (one as the mask, two others as inputs to the original SSS). I am trying to create multiple "bays" of what eventually will be water with floating ice chunks in and around an Antarctic-like landscape. I am trying to use the additional SSS to break up the landscape so that it is asymmetrical and looks random. that's my goal. I thought it would be a simple matter of just putting SSS where I needed them to cut into the landscape - then tweak from there for mountains.

My node hierarchy looks like this: Alpine Fractal layer <-- SSS01 (as mask) <-- SSS02 (as input to SSS01) <-- SSS03 (as input to SSS02). The SSS I am having trouble with are the 02 and 03.

I am new to Terragen, so if there's a better way, please let me know! Much of this is trial and error .

I look forward to exploring this and hopefully helping solve your problem/

Oshyan · March 10, 2016, 01:13:27 PM

It'll probably be easier to diagnose once we see the TGD.

- Oshyan

jdi_fi · March 11, 2016, 09:41:56 PM

Ok, here is the .tgd file. The two cameras I set up are "top" for birds-eye and "perspective" for ground level.

I figured out that the problem has something to do with having two SSS as inputs to the first SSS. Would it just make more sense to do this with Crater Shader?

Thanks for the help!

Dune · March 12, 2016, 01:49:09 AM

If stacking SSS you have to uncheck the (black) border, and you forgot to fill in a percentage in some of them. And perhaps it's also better to change the polygon to a sphere as well, as angled shapes often still have a sharp border in the corners.

jdi_fi · March 12, 2016, 06:39:08 PM

@Dune, many thanks! This is exactly what I was looking for. I've attached a render just finished with using stacked SSS and crater shaders for what I am going for. The mountain ranges are still too much, so still more tweaking... I think next time I will probably do crater shaders first, then use SSS to refine edges for asymmetry. I found that when trying to overlap the edges of the SSS, I ran into problems.

Dune · March 13, 2016, 03:05:50 AM

For your purpose a painted shader would also work, btw.

jdi_fi · March 13, 2016, 06:48:33 PM

I've used a paint shader to add color, but haven't tried it with displacement yet. So I'm guessing it would be a mask on some other displacement shader?

full disclosure: haven't yet finished all the geek@play tuts, so my answer might be in there!

really appreciate the help!

Dune · March 14, 2016, 03:19:32 AM

Yes, paint and link to a displacement input. Or if you want to flatten an area, link to the mask input of a surface shader and check smoothing, then use offset in displacement to raise/lower again until you have a flat area at the same level of the surroundings.

bobbystahr · March 15, 2016, 12:07:09 PM

Quote from: Dune on March 14, 2016, 03:19:32 AM
Yes, paint and link to a displacement input. Or if you want to flatten an area, link to the mask input of a surface shader and check smoothing, then use offset in displacement to raise/lower again until you have a flat area at the same level of the surroundings.

Ulco, I'd really like to see a .tgc / network screen grab of this working as I thought this should work but gave up some time ago as a non working idea. And now you say it does indeed work so it's my brain that ain't....it seems. When ever you have a moment...no rush.

j meyer · March 15, 2016, 01:16:24 PM

Did you put the masked surface layer before the compute terrain?
If not try that or take the compute terrain out altogether and it should work.

bobbystahr · March 15, 2016, 04:10:49 PM

Quote from: j meyer on March 15, 2016, 01:16:24 PM
Did you put the masked surface layer before the compute terrain?
If not try that or take the compute terrain out altogether and it should work.

At my wits end, can you fix this so maybe I can grok it finally...please. The PFrac Terrain's displacement seems to control the height of the Painted shader?...I'm obviously missing something...brain cell die off I suspect.