How can I get a water world?

[MortalSphere]

I would like to get water surrounding the whole globe.  But it seems to be only limited to the northern hemisphere.
Is there anybody that has gotten around this?

[RArcher]

Instead of using a lake object which has a defined size, create a surface layer and plug a water shader into its child layer.

[MortalSphere]

Thank you so much that worked perfectly.  I'll be posting my results soon.

[choronr]

This thread came up at a time when I've been trying to get water to appear in a scene using the conventional 'lake' method. I've tried many settings of limited depth; but, no water. I read your solution here; but now, regardless of max altitude, the water covers the entire scene ...any thoughts on this?

[Mahnmut]

Maybe I did not understand the problem correctly,
but can´t you use a sphere concentrical to your planet?
depending on its radius you would get a global waterlevel.
Don´t know about decay distance, would have to be huge I guess.

Best Regards,
Jan

[Mohawk20]

Maybe I did not understand the problem correctly,
but can´t you use a sphere concentrical to your planet?
depending on its radius you would get a global waterlevel.
Don´t know about decay distance, would have to be huge I guess.

Best Regards,
Jan

I was thinking the same... a planet just a fraction bigger than the main planet would cover it completely, except for protruding mountains.

[dandelO]

The decay distance would be just the same as a normal lake would be, you just set how far your transparency reaches down for and you won't see any more terrain beneath the level of decay in the water.

[Mr_Lamppost]

I have tried the second water planet with both a planet and a sphere object and it works fine. 

There is a problem when the scene is saved.  Not enough significant figures are saved for the radius of the water planet to allow fine adjustments to be made.

[rcallicotte]

What do you mean?

Not enough significant figures are saved for the radius of the water planet to allow fine adjustments to be made.

[Mr_Lamppost]

What do you mean?

Not enough significant figures are saved for the radius of the water planet to allow fine adjustments to be made.

Oh you had to ask.

Here is an example:  function based terrain with water from a sphere coincident with the planet but with a radius 1 metre bigger. 

The .tgd is the exact same one I used to render the scene: save it, render it; do you get the same result?

[rcallicotte]

Mr. L, I'd like to try it, but I'm in a render going on 48 hours and only about half completed. 

[Volker Harun]

Checked your file ... and confirmed, the sphere has the same size as the planet.
Your file:
<sphere
      name = "Sphere 01"
      gui_use_node_pos = "1"
      gui_node_pos = "0 0 0"
      gui_group = "Objects"
      enable = "1"
      show_b-box_in_preview = "1"
      visible_to_camera = "1"
      visible_to_other_rays = "1"
      cast_shadows = "0"
      centre = "0 -6.378e+006 0"
      radius = "6.378e+006"

... until I changed the radius myself, saved the file, restarted terragen, opened the file and everything is fine.
My XML has this to say:
<sphere
      name = "Sphere 01"
      gui_use_node_pos = "1"
      gui_node_pos = "0 0 0"
      gui_group = "Objects"
      enable = "1"
      show_b-box_in_preview = "1"
      visible_to_camera = "1"
      visible_to_other_rays = "1"
      cast_shadows = "0"
      centre = "0 -6378000 0"
      radius = "6378001"

So it might be an issue of the current Beta-Release. Somebody with the current version has to check it, too.

Volker

[Mr_Lamppost]

As soon as you save the file again the centre and radius will be reset to:

      centre = "0 -6.378e+006 0"
      radius = "6.378e+006"

So either the file will need to be hand edited after every save or the radius value changed in the editor after every load. 

I found this lack of significant digits when saving scenes a couple of months ago when I was playing with an animation idea and needed a curved water surface rather than the usual lake or plane. 

[Volker Harun]

Sorry, but I cannot confirm your observation ... might be because I am using an alpha version not the beta. Somebody else has to try.

[MortalSphere]

All of you guys are awesome. I didn't think I would get this much help with this.

As soon as you save the file again the centre and radius will be reset to:

      centre = "0 -6.378e+006 0"
      radius = "6.378e+006"

So either the file will need to be hand edited after every save or the radius value changed in the editor after every load. 

I found this lack of significant digits when saving scenes a couple of months ago when I was playing with an animation idea and needed a curved water surface rather than the usual lake or plane. 

My application doesn't need the numbers to be that precise (at least at the moment).  I downloaded Mr. L's tgd test file and replaced all his fancy function with a with a simple power fractal terrain.  The normal displacement of the power fractal will give the water enough depth since displacement is both positive and negative.

So here is a quick result below. The water on the bottom and the little water sphere are both sphere objects.  The little water sphere just doesn't have anything inside it.  I thought it would be cool to see what it looked like.

What do you guys think?