The way of creating vegetation to appear on an image using TG2 seems to defy logic. Whether selecting maximum or minimum altitude and/or slope by determining altitude and/or slope by mouse rollover does not deliver the results one is looking for. I've tried many combinations of one, and/or both altitude/slope with undesirable results. Planetside, is there a better way of doing this??
You should use a Distribution Shader or a Surface Layer, and it should not have any other input shaders. Any other colour data that feeds into a Distribution Shader or Surface Layer will show through wherever the layer is not applied, and that colour will affect the populator. I have not been able to verify that there are any bugs in the current distribution system that would cause the problems you are talking about. Can you show me an example project that you're having problems with?
Matt
I usually find checking "Use Y for altitude" helps my populations work more to my control. As then its easy to determine where the altitude is in the window.
Hello Matt.
Thanks for getting back to me. First of all I wanted to say that I am using alpha version 2. I never loaded alpha version 3 due to the leak. I have not loaded alpha version 4 as yet since I will have some major changes I'll be making to my system this coming Saturday. Once completed, I will load aplha version 4.
My issue with the vegetation is that it will not show up regardless of the settings to altitude and/or slope. I have attached the .tgd file as well as the original ,ter file I created some time ago in Terragen 0.09. As for the vegetation, you could use anything you have. I used 'lightning's' bush 1.
The .ter is about 8MB. I hope it will load for the purposes of your test. Thanks again for your response.
Bob
Sorry Matt, forgot to load the files. Here is the .tgd; however, the 8MB .ter file would not load (probably because of it's size). If you can't do anything with this, let me know and I can put the .ter up on 'Mediafire' for download. Thanks again.
Bob
I've got brain cramps today...
Matt, I've uploaded the .ter file (8MB) which is ready for download on MediaFire. Let me know when you have it.
Bob
@neuspadrin: Yes, I use the 'Y' for both altitude and slope; yet, the vegetation still does not show up. a and b are 9000 and 7000 respectfully. Logically, one would expect the vegetation to fall within the confines of the border - but, the preview of the populations' bounding boxes shows the vegetation appearing within and above the a/b confines - and yet, vegetation does not appear at all when rendered.
Try reducing your max altitude fuzzy zone in your "distribution shader v4" . With a max altitude of 475, the fuzzy zone set at 170 may be too high. You've had this problem before.
Thanks buzzzzz1, I will try this.
@buzzzzz1: I've reduced the fuzzy setting downward in various increments all the way down to 10. Also, reduced the vegetation spacing from 10 to 5; and, increased the plant scale figuring the plants were too small. Did several renders - still, NO VEGETATION SHOWS UP!
Quote from: Matt on July 07, 2008, 11:14:45 AM
You should use a Distribution Shader or a Surface Layer, and it should not have any other input shaders. Any other colour data that feeds into a Distribution Shader or Surface Layer will show through wherever the layer is not applied, and that colour will affect the populator. I have not been able to verify that there are any bugs in the current distribution system that would cause the problems you are talking about. Can you show me an example project that you're having problems with?
Matt
I did use a distribution shader. Please verify with the files I have sent ...thanks.
Quote from: choronr on July 07, 2008, 02:07:23 PM
Matt, I've uploaded the .ter file (8MB) which is ready for download on MediaFire. Let me know when you have it.
Bob
Hi Bob, can you give me a link to this file?
Matt
I haven't tested with your .ter yet, but I think I can see the problem. The Strata and Outcrops Shader usually makes large displacements, as it is in your scene. As a rule of thumb, anything that creates significant displacement should always be added to the Terrain section, not the surface shaders. In other words it should come before the Compute Terrain node. If it comes after the Compute Terrain node, it won't affect the other shaders in the way that you'd usually expect it to (surface normals and texture coordinates), and it won't be taken into consideration by the populator which is usually connected to the Compute Terrain node.
You can avoid the populator problem by changing its "terrain shader" connection to point to the very end of your shader chain. This might be a good idea for your scene because there are other shaders which are affecting the displacement too. But really the best advice to avoid various other complications is to add your Strata and Outcrops Shaders or any other shaders that add large displacements to the terrain section, before the Compute Terrain node.
Matt
I could change the populator so that it only needs to know what planet to use and then it would automatically use the last shader that is connected to that planet. However, it's useful to allow the user to change where in the displacement chain to connect the populator, so that "temporary" surfaces such as snow, grass or sand can raise higher than the base of the objects. Perhaps I can make it optional in future, by only using the user-specified shader if it is connected.
Matt
Thank you Matt for getting into this one. I'll get back to you after I make the changes you suggested. Initially, I will deactivate the strata/outcrops shader and place another in the terrain section. and test it. The next hurdle will be getting the vegetation to fall on the low slope areas.
Matt; I took and deactivated the strata/outcrops shader and ran a population test ...it worked! The vegetation showed up. Now, we'll add the strata/outcrops shader to the terrain section and see what happens and get back to you. I've probably missed it; but, this is one bit of advice that certainly must appear in your eventual 'user manual'.
Bob
Matt, adding the strata/outcrops shader to the terrain section worked! Now, I can get back to the refinements. I really appreciate your input on this. Question: Does this procedure also apply to the 'twist and shear shader' as well?
Thank you again.
Bob
Yes, definitely. Anything that displaces the terrain, really, although you can often get away with it if you know the displacement is small enough. If you still need to apply any large displacements after the Compute Terrain node for any reason then you can resort to connecting your populations to a point further down the chain to incorporate those displacements.
Matt
Thanks Matt; your information is saved for now and the future ...I really appreciate it.