Surface Map Distribution Textures

[NuttyMonk]

Hi all,

i am trying to get to grips with the distribution textures for controlling surface maps.

I've made some very high quality BMP images of noise, black and white obviously, and i'm tryig to get them working properly.

I've used the SO Image Overlay on the distribution with a bright pink layer and underneath is a bright green layer.  No matter what i do, i get a lot of pink, and white with only some green showing through.

Can anyone point me to a tute for this or explain how the image overlays work with surface map distribution.

I'm assuming that black parts of an image overlay will let the colour of that layer show, while white parts won't, but i wonder why i'm getting white showing up on the surface when the only white in my test project is in the image overlay for the distribution.

Does the overlay completely override the fractal noise for that layer and also the height and slope distribution as well?

Any help that people have would be appreciated.

Cheers

[NuttyMonk]

p.s. the reason i'm trying to sus this out, is because i want to be able to control the noise that is used on individual layers myself rather than using the built in fractal noise.  I want to get the kind of fractal noise control for distribution that you get in TG2 only using TG1.

by increasing the number of tiles on an overlay image that a surface maps distribution has i was hoping to bring the scale of the noise down to very small levels and therefore create more realism without having to render images at massive sizes to get the same effect.

I recently had to render and image at 9000 x 6000 and bring it down to 1125 x 750 to get the kind of quality i am looking for.  Maybe with noise on image overlays i wouldn't have to render so high.

But only if i can get it working like i want though.

Cheers

[Volker Harun]

It depends on the Overay Type in the Overlay Options (where you loaded the image map).
Use Additive or subtractive when you want to keep some of your slope settings etc.

Best approach would be, to make the TG-distribution with one surface layer - add a child layer which has your imagemap set to total overlay.

Volker

[Oshyan]

Masks are black = no texture, white = full texture. This is pretty standard as far as I know. The mode you are using ("Additive", "Total Overlay", etc.) may have something to do with your problem. Volker's explanation should help. If not it would help if you provided an image example.

Rendering of SOPack overlay texture quality is directly dependent on resolution. Even with max detail and EBD turned on you are not likely to get the level of quality you desire without oversampling (rendering at high resolution and resizing). That's really just the curse of working with TG 0.9 though.

- Oshyan

[NuttyMonk]

OK guys,

thanks for both of your answers.  I'll have a look at the different types of overlays and how they differ.

i realise that oversampling is necessary with TG0.9 but hoped to bring it down a bit from the levels i'm currently working at and i also hoped to maybe alter the way i create random noise with it.  Some renders i see using tg 0.9 are crap but some ar amazing and i'm sure that some odd techniques must have been used to achieve the idea of realty that they portray.

Cheers

[bigben]

I mainly used subtractive masks for most of my work. That way, you keep all of your slope/altitude/fractal distributions. Needless to say that for this you use white where you want no texture and black for full texture.

[littlewing1977]

I was also wondering about the image quality.  The images that are rendered are all pixelated.  I have seen some awesome pictures created with TG.  I seen that you could register to be able to get better image quality.  I registered and changed the render settings.  Now it takes longer to render but the image is still pixelated.  Do you have to use a plugin or something to smooth out the image?

[Oshyan]

I was also wondering about the image quality.  The images that are rendered are all pixelated.  I have seen some awesome pictures created with TG.  I seen that you could register to be able to get better image quality.  I registered and changed the render settings.  Now it takes longer to render but the image is still pixelated.  Do you have to use a plugin or something to smooth out the image?

I suspect that you are running into a common misunderstanding of the user interface. The Detail slider underneath the small Render Preview in the Render window actually controls detail for both the preview *and* the final render. Slide it all the way to the right to increase detail to maximum and it should get rid of the pixellation.

- Oshyan

[littlewing1977]

I did not even notice that slider until you mentioned it.  I was using the render settings button.  I used "Ultra" and "Extra Blended" antialiasing.  I also tried maxing out the accuracy of the atmosphere and cloud shading.  I increased the pixel resolution.  I don't see anything else for render quality.

[Oshyan]

Ultra and Extra Blended Detail are antialiasing methods only. They increase the "smoothness" of parts of the image, essentially, but not the actual detail (although "Extra Blended Detail" does have some detail increasing effects). Increasing cloud and atmosphere will only affect clouds and atmosphere, and with an overall low scene detail the effect will not be significant. The main detail slider controls the overall detail level and for final renders it should always be set all the way to the right. This will give you the best possible results. Turning on Ultra Antialising is advisable because it increases image smoothness and realism without a large render time increase. Extra Blended Detail is a more questionable necessity and is really most useful with animations. I would leave cloud and atmosphere detail at the default, in the middle, unless you have a particularly complex sky (highly detailed clouds with fine structures, lots of rays, etc.).

- Oshyan

[littlewing1977]

After reading your first reply, I thought that was only for the preview.  I changed the slider and it looks great now.  Thanks for the help.