planets

Started by vice, September 09, 2007, 09:37:22 AM

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vice

okay im new to tg2 and not too bad with vanilla tg. i made some hieght maps using b/w images of the actual moon, they came out nicely. all i really did was convert the moon image to a hieghtmap using a 3rd party program then put it into tg. simple but neat then i was able to paste the origional colour image right over top of the generated heightmap for a very realistic scene. so it was cool but i couldnt go much further with it other than messing with the scenes effects. now that tg2 is available i want to take it a step further. now that i can have round planets and all. so heres my problem, im having a hard time just getting back to the level i was at with vanilla tg. all i want to do is input that b/w image of the moon into tg2 and get a heightfield i can work with then plop the origional image on top. just like i did with regular tg. then i can expand and play from there. also i see alot of tutorials for adding planets to your scene but none for if your scent IS the planet. perhaps somebody could make a tutorial on making cool looking planets in space etc.

oh ya i forgot to mention the reason im even asking for help here is for starters when i zoom out all the way in tg2 everything is blocky and jagged, even the planet has huge black chunks missing. im guessing its something to do with scale but i would have no idea how to fix this


(bottom image is from google moon and top image is vanilla tg

rcallicotte

Welcome to TG2.  I think you'll find it is much different that Terragen .9x.

While I'm not sure how to address this problem you're having, here's a link to some planet renders and work -

Similar problem? - http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=472.0

Planet surfacing - http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=1536.0

Nebula - http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=2017.0

If you use the search function and spend some time looking for some key words around your questions, you'll usually find more help than you'll know what to do with.
So this is Disney World.  Can we live here?

vice

okay thanks, im totally extatic about tg2 but its time to go to work now so i can pay for this big expensive computer :) ill try them out later tonight and let you know

efflux

If we had sparse convolution basis function then we could get these crater effects procedurally.

rcallicotte

I think there's a feature request thread around here somewhere...

Anything to make TG2 sparkle sounds good to me.


Quote from: efflux on September 09, 2007, 11:38:58 AM
If we had sparse convolution basis function then we could get these crater effects procedurally.
So this is Disney World.  Can we live here?

Will

That would be nice, my giant 600mb moon .obj that I've been using takes a lifetime to render.
The world is round... so you have to use spherical projection.

efflux

Sparse convolution can be slow as well but maybe not if it's just for craters.

I don't know the plans for extra basis functions but I'm sure these things have all been considered for the future. Different basis functions would need different controls for specific effects if they were included in the fractal shader.

This picture:



shows two types of voronio on the left. You will recognize this of course by now. On the right are two variants of sparse convolution so you can get the idea about how these could create craters.

glen5700

Hi all,
Here is the best lunar surface I could come up with our present shaders, minus the stars...


Here it is used in a scene-


Also included is the lunar scene file if you want to check it out. We certainly could use some fractal functions, hopefully they can be included in the first release.

Glen

rcallicotte

Glen, both pictures rock!   :-[   Anyway, seriously, these are very good and thank you so much for sharing!
So this is Disney World.  Can we live here?

vice

can anyone tell me why the hell when i zoom out all the way in tg2 my planet looks like this? is this a glitch? it doesnt come thru much at all in the full render and a bit in the quick render. do i have something setup wrong? i havnt ajusted any scale properties just loaded a new file and zoomed out.

efflux

This looks normal to me. It should clear up as it starts rendering in the preview again.

Will

I think its an OpenGL thing that has to do with your videocard, can't remember the fix if there is one though.
The world is round... so you have to use spherical projection.

efflux

As far as I'm aware TG2 doesn't use Open GL because the preview is actually a render. I sometimes see my planet like this if I zoom out but it simply clears up when it starts rendering detail again.

Oshyan

OpenGL is used for drawing some parts of the interface and the 3D preview output. It is essentially rendered with the normal rendering engine, but the actual display is OpenGL.

In any case the black holes are probably related to the low detail of the preview. They should not be present in a render of any normal detail (e.g. above 0.25).

- Oshyan

glen5700

Thanks Calico,
And your welcome!  :)

Glen