"Wet" shores - a tutorial for beginners

Oshyan · May 23, 2009, 08:25:26 PM

I'd like to see this kind of tutorial ultimately added to the Wiki in full, rather than just being linked to the forum thread. Great, simple technique btw.

- Oshyan

digitalis99 · December 09, 2011, 02:58:39 PM

I know this thread is archaic, but it's what I found in searching to get me going on getting realistic water effects.

The reason for my reply is to add one tidbit of information that will drastically reduce render times. In addition to defining a maximum altitude for the "wetness" layer, you should definitely set a minimum altitude to be at or slightly below the level of your body of water with a fuzzyness of 0. This will prevent the rendering engine from computing reflectivity for the surfaces under the water, which aren't actually reflective. I found this out by mistake when my 20 minute render turned into an hour and a half render when I added the wetness shader. Restricting the wetness to a minimum altitude as well dropped the render all the way back down to 21.5 minutes, but I get the proper effect where I need it.

kevnar · December 10, 2011, 01:14:17 AM

Yup. Adding a minimum reduces the render times greatly.

squirreltape · May 20, 2012, 07:52:50 AM

Very nice technique

... I regret not seeing your post until just recently as I stumbled around for what could be considered 'longer than necessary' back in 2010 twiddling with my own very similar method (see attatched).

[attachimg=1]

Sorry for poking this thread but I'm excited that different people stumble across very similar techniques.

Mark

Lady of the Lake · May 20, 2012, 12:14:46 PM

Thanks about the settings......I gave up when the render times were so great. Will try again.

fleetwood · May 20, 2012, 12:36:59 PM

Another way to darken the wet surface layer is by using a negative value in the shader's Luminosity setting.

David · October 21, 2020, 08:14:35 AM

Fallen down here at the first hurdle trying to use this technique on an object. Please would someone take a look at this testscene which is designed to study the effects of changing the 'wetness' parameters. In the scene I was trying to show create wetness and fuzziness on the lower part of the cone but have somehow managed to confine a gloss only to the upper part. I think I must have connected the nodes incorrectly but can't see where. Thank you in anticipation!

Dune · October 21, 2020, 09:22:46 AM

For objects it's best to use Y and final position, but I'll have a look....

EDIT: maybe this works for you....

David · October 21, 2020, 01:35:21 PM

Thanks Ulco,
I should have said that I was able to replicate the wet stones like the tutorial but couldn't then get OBJ's to shade in the same manner. In the past I've found that TG native objects don't behave like OBJ's when texturing them - at least on my system. And now my computer is suffering from the after effects of an update - every simple change I make such as connecting and un-connecting nodes, crashes the program so I'm not able to duplicate your setup. - Depressed!

WAS · October 21, 2020, 01:54:15 PM

Try to keep the 3D preview paused when you are working with shaders, and be sure no other 3D Preview windows or renders aren't running. It may help with crashes.

Though I am still suffering default scene crash, even with 3D preview finished rendering and paused. 90% of the time I can't delete the starting nodes without TG crashing.

David · October 21, 2020, 05:02:06 PM

Thanks WAS! That is an incredibly useful tip - it worked first time. If even you are experiencing these frequent crashes, surely there must be a bug that needs fixing? Terragen is the only program I use that requires me to hire in 7 gossamer-clad virgins to slowly process sun-wise around my garden every third Tuesday, and muttering arcane incantations!

WAS · October 21, 2020, 05:18:50 PM

Quote from: David on October 21, 2020, 05:02:06 PMit worked first time. If even you are experiencing these frequent crashes, surely there must be a bug that needs fixing? Terragen is the only program I use that requires me to hire in 7 gossamer-clad virgins to slowly process sun-wise around my garden every third Tuesday, and muttering arcane incantations!

Lol

Yeah I suspect is a node network issue with it being the main drivers in all other planet shaders. While the preview rendering and deleting shaders is a cause of some crashes, and it seems we narrowed it down to that, it has been persisting, especially in latest versions, even with paused preview and doing nothing other than deleting the node shaders. Even if I go one by one, like starting by disconnecting the simple shape shader and deleting the fractal terrain first, poof goes TG.

Dune · October 22, 2020, 01:27:50 AM

Does that have to do with win 10?

Strange that obj's work differently from tgo's. I don't think they should.

David · October 22, 2020, 08:00:52 AM

Thanks to both your inputs I can report some progress! Putting the 'pause' button on full time makes a huge difference. Yes, I'm using Win 10 - I'm awaiting a features update so that my backup drive can work again. Currently I'm having to rollback an update just so that I can just backup. Not ideal.
The attached pics show that both native and imported OBJ's do seem to work the same. For the benefit of other beginners like me I thought it useful to show Ulco's node setup. I've raised the 'wetness' line for clarity.

bobbystahr · October 22, 2020, 08:48:08 AM

Quote from: David on October 21, 2020, 05:02:06 PMTerragen is the only program I use that requires me to hire in 7 gossamer-clad virgins to slowly process sun-wise around my garden every third Tuesday, and muttering arcane incantations!

Ha ha ha ha ha