Sun glowing

Started by luvsmuzik, July 09, 2017, 11:33:02 AM

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WAS

Also, I'll convert that Prominence project over to V2 clouds. May not look the same due to lighting models though.

MakeurMARK

Thanks to everyone for your help and advice.

Attached are the results of playing with settings inside Terragen to produce a sun.
I have a couple of questions following my journey, before I pop over to the planetside website to upgrade to version 4.

How on earth does one reach the conclusion that two cloud layers need to be located inside an object node? Is it to avoid the two cloud layers being applied to all planets in the work space?

What does the e+ or e- in location and scale represent?

Noticed that adjusting settings also changed the structure of Planet 01. Is it through the node system that you would isolate setting for individual planets? Got a happy accident from it though, but as I need to create 5 planets and a sun I need to control settings for each planet.

I'm struggling to work out how the light system works. Surely if you create a sun you want the light source to come from the sun. I still have the following lights enabled - Enviro light and Sunlight, as well as the light source 01 which has been located in the same co-ordinates as the sun planet (object).

Would the procedure of creating this sun be made any easier by using Terragen version 4.0?

Finally - is there any way I can save my adjusted settings as personal presets, so i could perhaps load into Terragen 4.0?

Thanks again everyone...

luvsmuzik

Just a hobbyist answer  :)

In Terragen, as far as I know the only object you can assign an atmosphere to is a planet. The atmosphere, along with your isolated lighting gives you the glow effect surrounding your planet (sun object) If you want atmosphere for your planet, you must use the planet object.

The cloud layers try to replicate plasma burst or "hot spots" known to exist in Earth's sun. You can control cloud density, lighting, coverage as opposed to just a power fractal surface for planet terrain.

The e+ or e- represent great distance or scale. For example. if you place a sphere object in the sky above your terrain in the distance, you will see at a scale of 1, you probably will only see a small object bounding box and your object coordinates will probably contain e values. Therefore, you would increase the scale of your sphere object accordingly, probably on a e+ scale.

You should be able to save your planet sun object as a tgo, or make a tgc (clip) of your internal cloud and atmosphere nodes (saving accordingly, like planetsunglow.tgc. Clip saved, transfer to new TG4. I have mine saved in document folders so they are not lost when reinstalling new versions. I have named folders for clips, terrain, cloud, atmosphere, projects, objects all under a Terragen file in Documents. As long as I use the same computer, my directories are then valid in older projects on same unit if I transfer a project (tgd) from an older version.

This again is only my opinion.

You learn fast and these are great images!  :)

MakeurMARK

Thanks luv

You know more than me, thanks for the advice, much appreciated.

Oshyan

Quote from: MakeurMARK on September 20, 2018, 09:03:22 AM
<snip>
I have a couple of questions following my journey, before I pop over to the planetside website to upgrade to version 4.

How on earth does one reach the conclusion that two cloud layers need to be located inside an object node? Is it to avoid the two cloud layers being applied to all planets in the work space?

This was almost certainly a choice made by the creator simply for keeping the "sun" setup neat and tidy. Putting nodes inside other nodes mostly does not affect how the nodes work, it's just an organizational method. That being said, secondary planets do always start out with their atmosphere and shading nodes internal to the Planet Object. Again this is just an organizational difference, it doesn't fundamentally affect how the rendering or other settings for the planet actually work. The intention in making this the default for additional planets was just to keep the main planet's network as the focus, on the assumption that additional planets are secondary and will have less detail, fewer nodes, etc.

Quote
What does the e+ or e- in location and scale represent?

This is one way of representing very large (or very small) numbers in scientific notation. The more common approach you may be familiar with is 1 x 104, where the 4 indicates the number of decimal places, i.e. 0s, so that would be 10,000. Since we can't easily do superscript in a text entry field, we use the less common but still valid E notation. So in E notation 10,000 would be 1e+004.

Quote
Noticed that adjusting settings also changed the structure of Planet 01. Is it through the node system that you would isolate setting for individual planets? Got a happy accident from it though, but as I need to create 5 planets and a sun I need to control settings for each planet.

It really depends on what settings you're adjusting for the planet. I am guessing you changed the *position* though (or rotation), and got an unexpected change in the shape. This would be because the shape is being generated by a 3D noise function, and the displacement (i.e. mountains) on the planet show the shapes that are present at the intersection between the planet's surface and the noise generator *at that precise point in 3D space*. If you move the planet, the noise generator does not move with it by default, so what you are effectively doing is moving the surface of the planet relative to the noise generator, and thus you get different shapes as the planet surface now intersects the noise function in a different place where there are *different shapes*. If you want to avoid this, just enable Translate Textures With Planet and Rotate Textures With Planet in the Planet Object's settings.

If it was some other setting you changed that caused an unexpected effect, you'll need to provide more detail (what setting(s) you changed).

Quote
I'm struggling to work out how the light system works. Surely if you create a sun you want the light source to come from the sun. I still have the following lights enabled - Enviro light and Sunlight, as well as the light source 01 which has been located in the same co-ordinates as the sun planet (object).

The"sun" that was created *using a planet* is not actually a "sun" as far as Terragen is concerned. It's just named "sun". The names of nodes have no functional effect, they're just names. What you are doing is using a planet to make a visible and customizable sun, because the *actual* Terragen sun doesn't have those capabilities. Since you're not actually using the sun (light source) that is built-in to Terragen, you need to create and modify a separate light source along with any movement of the "sun" (planet) object. Basically it's a workaround.

The actual sun light source provides a specific type of "distance" (parallel) light source, but it does not have a specific position in 3D space, only a rotation and and altitude. You can still use this to line up with your "sun" planet, simply by eye, and it's the most appropriate light source to use for a sun anyway.

Quote
Would the procedure of creating this sun be made any easier by using Terragen version 4.0?

Not that I can think of. Except that there are new post process effects like glow and "starburst" that might make it look more realistic.

Quote
Finally - is there any way I can save my adjusted settings as personal presets, so i could perhaps load into Terragen 4.0?

luvsmusic covers this pretty well, except how to actually create clip files. ;) From the main page of the Wiki documentation:
http://planetside.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Working_with_Clip_Files
And:
http://planetside.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Create_Clip_File_Dialog

I hope that helps. :)

- Oshyan


WAS

Quote from: luvsmuzik on October 01, 2018, 10:37:51 AM
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/best-space-photos-of-2018/ss-BBNN0Xy?ocid=spartandhp#image=22

Another look

Why on EARTH would they deceive you a few clicks in to go look at "The News in Cartoons" (literally changed the Next button into a link to another page). I was viewing a space gallery. Holy crap. Literally just put MSN on my block list so I don't have to deal with them again. Deceptive web development to steer clicks. Hoooman.

Cool first two pictures though....

luvsmuzik

Quote from: WASasquatch on October 01, 2018, 02:32:21 PM
Quote from: luvsmuzik on October 01, 2018, 10:37:51 AM
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/best-space-photos-of-2018/ss-BBNN0Xy?ocid=spartandhp#image=22

Another look

Why on EARTH would they deceive you a few clicks in to go look at "The News in Cartoons" (literally changed the Next button into a link to another page). I was viewing a space gallery. Holy crap. Literally just put MSN on my block list so I don't have to deal with them again. Deceptive web development to steer clicks. Hoooman.

Cool first two pictures though....
I do not know what browser you use. I was viewing with Edge atm. It was a series of 25 images (2018 best space images) I was viewing a slide show and the sun glow as 22 or 23. This was near the end.  When I am on image 25, mouse over gives me the next link and perhaps the "News in Cartoons" was up next in rotation. Come on, really....it was not my intention to lead you into some sort of trap. I was guided there from a link in my email, because of my NASA browsing history probably, not sure. These little machines try to think for us, finding what they think we will like. LOL do you browse political cartoons? Maybe it was today's hot topic.  So SORRY!

WAS

Quote from: luvsmuzik on October 01, 2018, 04:18:37 PM
Quote from: WASasquatch on October 01, 2018, 02:32:21 PM
Quote from: luvsmuzik on October 01, 2018, 10:37:51 AM
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/best-space-photos-of-2018/ss-BBNN0Xy?ocid=spartandhp#image=22

Another look

Why on EARTH would they deceive you a few clicks in to go look at "The News in Cartoons" (literally changed the Next button into a link to another page). I was viewing a space gallery. Holy crap. Literally just put MSN on my block list so I don't have to deal with them again. Deceptive web development to steer clicks. Hoooman.

Cool first two pictures though....
I do not know what browser you use. I was viewing with Edge atm. It was a series of 25 images (2018 best space images) I was viewing a slide show and the sun glow as 22 or 23. This was near the end.  When I am on image 25, mouse over gives me the next link and perhaps the "News in Cartoons" was up next in rotation. Come on, really....it was not my intention to lead you into some sort of trap. I was guided there from a link in my email, because of my NASA browsing history probably, not sure. These little machines try to think for us, finding what they think we will like. LOL do you browse political cartoons? Maybe it was today's hot topic.  So SORRY!

No ill-intent towards you at all, all meant towards MSN.  As a web developer when I see intrusive designs like that I get annoyed. Though I do see the link was linked to the 22 image.