vertical line in 360 HDRI

D.A. Bentley (SuddenPlanet) · March 17, 2021, 10:19:23 AM

I'm guessing that 2013 render flaw was fixed and then came back recently. I can confirm though this vertical line flaw occurs in both TG 4.5.56 and 4.4.67. The only difference is in 4.4.67 the vertical line extends the entire height of the image (you can see it over the terrain and in the sky). I'll do some further tests to see if it is something that can be resolved through render settings.

D.A. Bentley (SuddenPlanet) · March 17, 2021, 11:25:31 AM

Did some testing and figured out some things that might help shed some light on the problem. The "Ray trace everything (not recommended)" option fixed the vertical line problem.

Also the line extends up into the atmosphere if you use the Standard Renderer with Defer all shading off as well as Defer atmo/cloud off. With the Path tracer the line is only in the terrain.

I also tried a bunch of GI settings and nothing made any difference. Bucket size made no difference either.

WAS · March 17, 2021, 01:00:07 PM

Maybe its scene padding. So some nothing is rendered outside the camera (even tho its 360) so when you actually use the hdri there is a tilting problem. Maybe try 360 detail optimum or above in camera detail. Default setting is Detail in Camera.

Kadri · March 17, 2021, 02:55:59 PM

Quote from: SuddenPlanet on March 17, 2021, 11:25:31 AMDid some testing and figured out some things that might help shed some light on the problem. The "Ray trace everything (not recommended)" option fixed the vertical line problem.

Also the line extends up into the atmosphere if you use the Standard Renderer with Defer all shading off as well as Defer atmo/cloud off. With the Path tracer the line is only in the terrain.

I also tried a bunch of GI settings and nothing made any difference. Bucket size made no difference either.

I did some tests too. In one i used nearly everything i know that could have an effect on this and used very high settings.
The default scene took nearly 1 hour to render but the line was still there.
There could still be something i don't know and could help of course.
But this looks more like a flaw to me in Terragen how it renders the scene.
I don't remember if this was fixed sometime later and it just came up ones again.

D.A. Bentley (SuddenPlanet) · March 17, 2021, 03:37:02 PM

But do you guys have any idea why "Ray trace everything (not recommended)" option fixes the vertical line problem.

WAS · March 17, 2021, 03:48:02 PM

Probably cause terrain outside camera is ray traced and exists. Thats what I am trying to say, even though its 360 camera i think there is a padding issue. Like in that seam its forces to ray trace everything as a whole.

I have a test but I cant view it. What do you all use? Online ones wont take even my 0.5 quality jpeg ...

WAS · March 17, 2021, 04:01:04 PM

Found one that'll take my resolutions. Not the fix i was hoping for. Off to subdivision settings. If ray trace everything is the only fix, I call bug.

D.A. Bentley (SuddenPlanet) · March 17, 2021, 04:11:29 PM

Quote from: WAS on March 17, 2021, 03:48:02 PMI have a test but I cant view it. What do you all use? Online ones wont take even my 0.5 quality jpeg ...

What do we use to view a Spherical Panorama?

Kadri · March 17, 2021, 04:26:05 PM

Found this:

https://planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,17804.msg172479.html#msg172479

"I've fixed some rendering problems with spherical camera, particularly near the top and bottom of the image. Spherical renders now render faster too."

If this is the same problem looks like it came back some way later.

Kadri · March 17, 2021, 04:36:42 PM

Quote from: SuddenPlanet on March 17, 2021, 04:11:29 PM
Quote from: WAS on March 17, 2021, 03:48:02 PMI have a test but I cant view it. What do you all use? Online ones wont take even my 0.5 quality jpeg ...
What do we use to view a Spherical Panorama?

I just used offset in Affinity. But for VR viewing i use this free one:
http://www.fsoft.it/FSPViewer/download/
But there are not many image format options in it. There are certainly better ones around.

WAS · March 17, 2021, 04:43:44 PM

I don't think it's the same problem, as the poles seem to have a less exaggerated effect. It may be related.

Kadri · March 17, 2021, 04:48:36 PM

Quote from: WAS on March 17, 2021, 04:43:44 PMI don't think it's the same problem, as the poles seem to have a less exaggerated effect. It may be related.

Maybe. In my tests it had the same problems on the upper and lower parts. It depends on your settings.
In some tests they were very distinct and sometimes not so much.

WAS · March 17, 2021, 05:26:49 PM

Hmm. For me it seems to be less at the poles, down to a circular region at the pole. It is some sort of blending from either sides of the camera to create the spherical image. I wonder if you crop the image if that area effects the image quality if you stretch back to aspect ratio; if that region is just a dead region of padding

Kadri · March 17, 2021, 05:39:58 PM

Quote from: SuddenPlanet on March 17, 2021, 03:37:02 PMBut do you guys have any idea why "Ray trace everything (not recommended)" option fixes the vertical line problem.

I did some much higher resolution and what not tests to see if the low quality is kinda hiding the line but couldn't be sure.
The lighting-GI looked different so i tried without GI and standard rendering etc. but the problem was still there.

I just give up as this looks more a thing that is in Matt's hand.

D.A. Bentley (SuddenPlanet) · March 17, 2021, 05:53:15 PM

Same here. Spent hours trying things. I even went back and loaded up Skyboxes I made over a year ago and noticed the line was in them so this problem has been around awhile.

I installed a handful of different versions of Terragen 4 back to 4.1.18 and the issue was in all of them. So I guess this issue has always been there and I never noticed it.