Help for beginners (tree populations)

[NickTEve]

Can anyone suggest any online tutorials or help sites for beginners in T2? The main issue I am trying to get to grips with is the introduction of populations of trees, but there seems to be very little 'out there', and a lot of dead links. The 'official' tutorial documentation seems to stop short of the real benefit of Terragen 2.

I have used Terragen 0.9 in the past and have pretty much understood the basics of Surface Layers (although my colouring is a little vivid!), but I have problems when I try to introduce trees. I thought that they were linked or tied to surface shaders (to give them distribution rules for altitude slope etc), but that either doesn't work or works in reverse, in that trees go everywhere other than the shader.

The attached is a very basic image that was created just to test the settings (using a real landscape DEM of the Alps). I created the solid green shader to place the trees and they had other ideas!.

Many thanks for any help,

Nick

[Volker Harun]

Well, for that green shader you set some altitude constraints, keep them in mind, as you'll need them later.

For the population's distribution you have two important settings ... first of all you want to have the population to sit on the terrain, not on or over it. So on the terrain-tab of the population you best choose the shader which is last before the 'planet node'.

Second you'll need the distribution itself ...
In the distribution-tab, click on the 3-dotted button next to 'use density shader' ... choose create new shader - colour shader - distribution shader.
Once done that, click on that three-dotted button again and choose the top most 'go to distribution shader ...'
Now you can set this distribution shader to the same restrictions as your green layer.

Volker

[NickTEve]

Many thanks for that, but I still don't get it. I think that I was pretty much doing exactly as you say, and also trying via the method of assigning a pre made shader. My trees still just go everywhere!

I have attched a screen shot that just about covers everything. Can you see where I am going wrong?

Many thanks,

Nick

[Volker Harun]

Yep ... instead of plugging in the original gras-shader, you should use a single distribution shader for the population. (see attached images).

1. If you use the gras shader, the distibution gets its informations from the base-color node and any node before, too. So it gets the whole terrain information.

2. The gras shader has set its colour to mid-grey (aka green). This is not the optimal brightness for distribution. You rather want to start with a pure white and may want to decrease the brightness to your needs or break it up with a fractal.

3. In an other stage you might want to plug your surface shaders into the surface of an object (which will include the terrain displacements and destroy the objects' shape)

Volker

[Mohawk20]

Just copy paste your grass surface and you'll be fine!

[Volker Harun]

Just copy paste your grass surface and you'll be fine!

Well and change the color to white ... ,-)

[NickTEve]

Volker... You are a star! Many thanks, it works. It is amazing how a tiny detail can stop you in your tracks.

Nick

[JoeRoberts]

Hi,

I am newbie and seeking some planet information. After getting it, hopefully i will catch a lot of knowledge.

[Henry Blewer]

Hi Joe, welcome to the forum. There are many posts to search through. What is it you are looking for?

[kevnar]

Your problem seems to be in your fuzzy zone, from what I can see in your screen shot. You have it set to 200 meters in the "grass" layer. This means, it'll place the trees at the altitude you set, plus or minus 200 meters. Hence they're all over the valley. I did this to myself a lot when I first started. Set your fuzzy zone down to 10 or 20 meters. This should fix your problem.