Trees won't Render...

[choronr]

Thanks BP; but no, the final layer was the trees. They should be falling on that surface.

[RedSquare]

OK Here we go.  There is nothing wrong with your .tdg I bet I named that file wrong. What was the problem as was mentioned, was that the scale setting of the trees was far too low, together with the fact that you had something in the hundreds set in the Y zone, when as was indicated it should have been 0.  

Please all the Gods that I get the accompanying shots in the right order.  Incidentally your trees are sitting on the ground.

OK first shot. Here I altered your Y setting to 0

Second shot. I just knew these would be in the wrong order, but this shows the cropped render, which I hope shows that the trees are sitting on the ground.

[RedSquare]

Contd.....

Shot three. Shows that I modified your scale settings to from 1 to 10

[RedSquare]

Contd....

Shot four.  Shows that I grossly enlarged the tree scales so that something could be seen as 0.85 x 3 was much too small.  Mind you my scales are much too large, but too prove a point.....

[RedSquare]

contd....

Lastly, if I can find it, a closer look at image two, showing that indeed the trunks are on the ground. The tree on the extreme right looks like it's below the ground because there is a ridge in front of it.  I have of course altered the viewing camera by tracking into the cropped area, so everything is a tad too large, but at least you can see the trees are not under the ground.  The roots are, but then they are supposed to be.  Yes, I know there aren't any tree shadows,  but I know not why. 

Cheers.  And so to bed!

[choronr]

RedSquare, many thanks to you for putting so much work into this. I will go back and increase the tree scale to 8 and see what happens. I have made many changes and saved them in the process of trying to get the trees to appear. I hope they won't hamper the results ...I'll get back to you after I run a small cropped render showing the change; if any.

[RedSquare]

Okeydokey, but for me it's bed.  I shall have a look tonight to see what you have managed. Oh! just one other thing don't just alter the scale to eight, don't forget to alter the scale RANGE I think it was in shot three, that I showed the range scale.  Other wise all your trees will be basically the same size, albeit distance from the camera will alter their size a bit, but insufficient to give adequate variations.

[choronr]

Thanks RedSquare. The trees are showing up; but, much too large. I originally set them at .85 so as to better mach the scale of the terrain. I have noted your comments and will make the necessary changes. Hopefully, the next try will work. I'll get back to you; and, thanks very much!

[choronr]

Ok RedSquare; I think we're onto something here. I set the Object spacing at 14. The Object scale at .75 min and 1 max. The Transform Scale at 1.75-1.75-1.75. While making a cropped quick render of the lower right corner of the image, I see that the render process shows that it would render the trees; however, only one small portion of a tree showed up in the distance at the top of the cropped area.

I will increase the Object scale; and, the Transform scale numbers somewhat and see what happens. If I can get the foreground trees to show up, I think we've won the battle. Thanks again.

[choronr]

RedSquare, things are looking good. A few more adjustments and I think a final render is in order. I'll post the file once the proof yields a 'go'!

[choronr]

Ok RedSquare and others; here is the file. The trees are up and alive. Their scale is a bit large for the terrain but still looking good. I'll tweak the terrain color a little; then, the final render coming up. Thanks to all for your input. This forum is a great learning vehicle ...thanks Planetside!

[3DGuy]

I looked at your tgd and when I zoomed in on a single tree instance I saw it was sitting below the ground. Then I looked at your shader list. I saw there were displacements there. I bypassed the shaders and lo-and-behold... the tree was on the terrain. So it's the displacements in your shaders actually mess things up here. Your polulation is based upon the terrain state calculated by the calculate terrain node. After that you're displacing the terrain again with the shaders and your trees end up under the terrain. Somehow you got to feed the final state into the population, but I haven't really found a way to do that yet in the short time I looked at it.

Hope this all makes sense 

[RedSquare]

Nice one 3DGuy, sounds like he may have removed one or more checks against colour only, on his shader fractual(s)? 

[3DGuy]

When you apply a colour shader, the fractal part can displace the fractal it's generating. That way you can create more detail.  The base rock also has some displacement and displacement offset. Disabling all the displacements should fix it, but then you may lose some detail if the displacements were intentional.

[RedSquare]

No the shaders are OK, but I did notice that on both his slope and altitude constraints where altered from the default, he hadn't select based on Y.  Would that influence the calculations?