Hole in the wall

Started by N-drju, August 13, 2018, 04:57:57 AM

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N-drju

I'm not sure whether it is possible in Terragen... but I would like to create a shallow cave in a hillside.

The regular negative displacement is out of the question of course because it points straight downwards. Take a look at the image to see what I mean. Also, note the dimensions of the said, planned cave:

[attachimg=1]

So far, I have found this method:

https://planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,23709.msg239806.html#msg239806

Is there any other way to do it? If any?
"This year - a factory of semiconductors. Next year - a factory of whole conductors!"

Dune

Redirect or vector displace by simple shape or painted shader and/or distribution shader for altitudes, something like that.

N-drju

I think this should do quite well. The only limitation is that the "insides" of the cave are almost flat and cannot be displaced in a traditional way. For the current project it is irrelevant but for the future, I would like to know how to improve it. :-\
"This year - a factory of semiconductors. Next year - a factory of whole conductors!"

WAS

Quote from: N-drju on August 13, 2018, 03:02:16 PM
I think this should do quite well. The only limitation is that the "insides" of the cave are almost flat and cannot be displaced in a traditional way. For the current project it is irrelevant but for the future, I would like to know how to improve it. :-\

Warp the shape making the caves. I'd imagine that'd "carve out" a relatively similar shape in the mountain.

Dune

If you push that cave in, add a compute terrain/compute normal+XYZ shader after it and you could probably displace extra. It all depends on how deep you need that cave to be.

René

Or use a lateral only displacement.

N-drju

Quote from: WASasquatch on August 13, 2018, 03:09:57 PM
Warp the shape making the caves. I'd imagine that'd "carve out" a relatively similar shape in the mountain.

This is just what I do. First, I make a decent, irregular shape for the hole, then "push" it in.

@ Dune, René, these are really good tips guys. I thought this is going to be far more difficult! Oh, and the cave dimensions are right there on the drawing.
"This year - a factory of semiconductors. Next year - a factory of whole conductors!"

N-drju

Okay, a follow-up question...

Can I populate objects inside the cave now, PLUS bend them relative to the cave's walls? :-\ Populator will only consider the area of the original terrain and not the newly carved cavern.
"This year - a factory of semiconductors. Next year - a factory of whole conductors!"

bobbystahr

#8
Quote from: N-drju on August 15, 2018, 10:09:16 AM
Okay, a follow-up question...

Can I populate objects inside the cave now, PLUS bend them relative to the cave's walls? :-\ Populator will only consider the area of the original terrain and not the newly carved cavern.


If you hang a Compute Terrain off the bottom(no out put connection to planet, just dangling there)of your Shader stack you should be able to pop inside the cave using that as your Anchor. Also use Lean to Terrain Normal should help with the walls.
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Bobby Stahr, Paracosmologist

N-drju

It won't work. :-[ The populator still puts all items on top and even on the "phantom" hillside. Two, maybe three objects out of 100 make it into the cave.

I tried reducing or expanding compute terrain's grid size and of course put the population center inside the cave rather than top of it, but it's not successful.
"This year - a factory of semiconductors. Next year - a factory of whole conductors!"

René

I tried it with the 'lateral only' displacement. Doesn't work either. No idea why not.

Dune

I encountered that problem too (once upon a time), and can't remember what I did. Maybe an altitude restriction helps. Did you try masking by painted shader (set to 3D!)?

N-drju

Quote from: Dune on August 16, 2018, 05:56:27 AM
I encountered that problem too (once upon a time), and can't remember what I did. Maybe an altitude restriction helps. Did you try masking by painted shader (set to 3D!)?

I think I did... But the setup was different, so I might try that once more. In a way I understand that the program considers "raw" terrain, without exotic modificators. But still... ::)

Alternatively, one can create an invisible cube that can serve as a basement for a given population. Then, shove this cube into a cave and place it so that it touches the cave's walls. This way, you can even force your population upside-down!

That may, sort of, solve the problem but unfortunately is veeery time-consuming. ::)


[attach=1]

"This year - a factory of semiconductors. Next year - a factory of whole conductors!"

Dune

That is indeed quite some work. If you want to have hanging plants, you have to rotate the pop 180º.

N-drju

Well, I just discovered that for some reason objects populated with this method clump together in several "pockets" across the population plane leaving the rest of the area completely empty! ??? I have no idea what's wrong, especially that the first pop turned out well. I am now using cyphyr's crystals but I can see no reason why these objects in particular would be "broken" while populating on object! I guess I'll just have to do the whole damn thing by hand! ???
"This year - a factory of semiconductors. Next year - a factory of whole conductors!"