Creating a planet with continents and atmosphere

[davidb45]

I have found tutorials for this in Terragen 0.9, but are there any
for Terragen 2?

Thanks in advance,
Dave

[note235]

I would also like to know this.

[dhavalmistry]

well you can try using planet surface shader....

Shaders -> Other surface Shaders -> Planet surface shader

[Will]

Or download the Terracell .tgd

[Volker Harun]

Or you read the tutorials.

[Oshyan]

Well, with TG2 you're already a lot further along in just the default scene than you were with TG2 - you have a full globe model and a complete planetary atmosphere. You can then add a Power Fractal terrain to that (from the Terrain layout accessed through the tabs at the top of the interface), increase the scales, and you end up with contintent-like shapes. Tune the Power Fractal settings to improve things and add multiple additional Power Fractals to create different scales and terrain types (mountains, hills, etc.). Use other Power Fractals for distribution control through the Blend Shader input of each shader. Then go to the Shaders tab and add some Surface Layers to create appropriate coloration. Most of this stuff is covered in the basic tutorials and other documentation here:
http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?board=12.0

That's the simple way to start, but it will take a lot of fine-tuning and experimentation to get really good results, as with anything.

- Oshyan

[davidb45]

Thanks for the respones....
Oshyan, I appreciate the technical assistance.
I am having trouble getting the cloud scale I would like.
Seems as if the Atmosphere settings for clouds works
great if you are rendering a scene that is within about
a 12x12x12 mile cube. But on a continental or global
scale I can only create small scale clouds repeating
over and over, not simulated weather systems.
Here is a picture from NASA I am trying to recreate.
http://chamorrobible.org/images/photos/gpw-200702-49-NASA-ISS007-E-10807-space-sunset-20030721-Pacific-Ocean-large.jpg
Very complex, I know, but I'm trying for the flavor.
Thanks again for all the help.

[nvseal]

Thanks for the respones....
Oshyan, I appreciate the technical assistance.
I am having trouble getting the cloud scale I would like.
Seems as if the Atmosphere settings for clouds works
great if you are rendering a scene that is within about
a 12x12x12 mile cube. But on a continental or global
scale I can only create small scale clouds repeating
over and over, not simulated weather systems.
Here is a picture from NASA I am trying to recreate.
http://chamorrobible.org/images/photos/gpw-200702-49-NASA-ISS007-E-10807-space-sunset-20030721-Pacific-Ocean-large.jpg
Very complex, I know, but I'm trying for the flavor.
Thanks again for all the help.

Welcome to my world.  I've been working on planetery cloud formations for months now and believe me, it is very difficult trying to get the right scale. Give it time though. The more you work on it the better sense you get.
Interestingly enough, I made an image based off the one you posted not to long ago. You can find it here (http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=2441.15) at the bottom of the page (posted by old_baggard who rendered it for me to get rid of some rendering issues). Mind you, this render was made for the specifc purpose of simulating the same type of scene as is in the picture so it is not a complete planetery cloud formation. Here are two renders of my most recent procedurally generated planetery cloud setup. http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=2423.0 - the whole planet
http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=2491.0 - closer up
http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=2204.0 - more renders here

I'm considering writing some kind of tutorial on this subject sometime soon (when I get time, being in college at the moment). But anyway, keep working on it. Practice playing with power fractals for a while (no displacement, just color); that will help you get a good understanding of what is happening before you work with the actual, cloud fractal.

[davidb45]

NVSEAL...
Yes, just what I'm looking for.
Congratulations on your diligence.

[trailgirl]

nvseal, your cloud studies are fantastic. Dave, here's a helpful post, Faking planetary-scale weather systems, http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=144.0

[davidb45]

After much trial and error and finally arriving at
Density fractals in cloud layers, I offer the attached
image for your review.

Thanks,
Dave

[nvseal]

I like how well you've recreated the atmospheric conditions; it definitely looks good. Clouds need more work to really get a good realism like is in the image (which you already now). I would work on one cloud layer at time. Choose some type of cloud in the image and try to recreate those clouds specifically(blending for distribution can be helpful here). Once you have one cloud type recreated, move on to the next one; but it helps to focus on one result only before trying to put the scene together with mutiple unfinished cloud layers. Test the cloud settings. For all I know you already do this, I can only tell you what I do. The best piece of advice ever is crop render, tweak, crop render, tweak, crop render, tweak, repeat.