Overlaying .TER files

[bigben]

Hi All

I got a little more methodical with my preparation of TER files and images masks. Here's a test render from a combination of two 2049 .TER files. The first terrain is 300km wide and extends south to the sea. The second terrain is a 100km wide section of the centre of the terrain. I made a landsat reference image for both, which proved invaluable for aligning the terrains.

The render below shows the border between the two terrains using the landsat images as an overlay. (the high res image has a much hgher res than the terrain)
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This also shows how good the antialiasing is in TG2. Here is a screengrab showing the section of low res image. In TG0.9 this would have rendered as fuzzy squares, but here it's pretty smooth considering.
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This is probably a good way to pad out a high resoution terrains made from DEM files to help cut down on file sizes.

Ben

[Lucio]

I've opened a very similar thread some week ago, check this out

http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=473.msg3245#msg3245

Regards,

Lucio

[bigben]

That's a very nice image.  As you're using Google Earth, you might also want to look at Google Sketch Pro (free full-featured trial lasts 8 hours). It can export models, although I haven't checked what formats yet. I've used the free version to create some simple models of my building at work and it's *very* easy to use.

My use of image overlays here was purely to check the alignment of the terrains though. After that, I use the images to create a variety of masks to use for the distribution of surfaces/populations. TG2 has made using image masks a lot more flexible so there are many new possibilities for creating better masks without using up too much RAM. I'll be exploring these more after I finalise my terrains for this project.

[garcia]

very cool project....could you give some help on were to connect my my mask to control a surface layer of say snowcaps on a mountain  

[bigben]

Connect your image shader to the Breakup Shader on your surface (replaces the fractal breakup). Set the coverage to 0.5 and fractal breakup to 1. I guess this could be a topic for a tutorial as there are a couple of extra ways of providing some additional control when masking.

[garcia]

cool thanks  :)yeah a tut would be very helpful

[garcia]

Looks like i could still need some help with this

[bigben]

Delete the distribution shader. The image map goes straight into the fractal breakup, and the coverage of the surface shader is set to 0.5, fractal breakup = 1

[garcia]

ok thanks that worked somewhat,any tips on the alignment of the mask would be greatly appreciated :)seems it's a bit off....

[helentr]

If it is a World Machine mask, it has to be set in the size (in kilometers) of the World Machine World, because that information is already on the terrain. I think the default size is 7.68 km, so, if you have not changed it from within WM, the mask size should be 7680X7680.
It took me some time to figure this out 

Helen

[garcia]

ok,thanks Helen ....and if the terrain is modified in TG 0.9 would i have to use the the numbers from the "Landscape Area" in the Size Tab of the landscape editor window?

[helentr]

ok,thanks Helen ....and if the terrain is modified in TG 0.9 would i have to use the the numbers from the "Landscape Area" in the Size Tab of the landscape editor window?

Yes, in meters

Helen

[garcia]

I've got it working right now  Thanks Ben,Thanks again Helen

[bigben]

I open my .TERs in TG0.9 to get their dimensions. I've found some small discrepancies when loaded into TG2, probably due to curvature. Once loaded in TG2 I zoom in to the top right corner to check that the dimensions of the image map match the TER