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General => Terragen Discussion => Topic started by: N-drju on February 13, 2018, 02:12:41 PM

Title: Clouds following terrain indeed
Post by: N-drju on February 13, 2018, 02:12:41 PM
I finally gathered up my courage and tried out the old "clouds following terrain" trick by Martin Huisman. And the result is quite decent if I may say so myself. At least in the very rudimentary "test environment":

[attach=1]

I thought it's gonna be much more time consuming and hard on the mind, but it took me no more than 20 mins to get it down which is pretty nice.

Several things to remember... First of all, you wanna read Martin's guide very carefully to get the results you are hoping for. There are many items to keep in mind and some space for mistakes. Secondly, you need to take care of all the numbers from the position to depth modulators and so on. If you like tweaking your images, you'd be happy as a kid in a candy shop. ;)

I wonder though how it will play out on a complex terrain with several layers and modifiers. We'll see what develops.
Title: Re: Clouds following terrain indeed
Post by: agent unawares on February 14, 2018, 12:25:48 AM
Here's a link to the tutorial and resources files for anyone who wanders in and gets lost.

https://planetside.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Clouds_Following_Terrain_Tutorial
Title: Re: Clouds following terrain indeed
Post by: bobbystahr on February 15, 2018, 11:37:36 AM
Quote from: N-drju on February 13, 2018, 02:12:41 PM
I finally gathered up my courage and tried out the old "clouds following terrain" trick by Martin Huisman. And the result is quite decent if I may say so myself. At least in the very rudimentary "test environment":

[attach=1]

I thought it's gonna be much more time consuming and hard on the mind, but it took me no more than 20 mins to get it down which is pretty nice.

Several things to remember... First of all, you wanna read Martin's guide very carefully to get the results you are hoping for. There are many items to keep in mind and some space for mistakes. Secondly, you need to take care of all the numbers from the position to depth modulators and so on. If you like tweaking your images, you'd be happy as a kid in a candy shop. ;)

I wonder though how it will play out on a complex terrain with several layers and modifiers. We'll see what develops.


Any cool results to share yet?
Title: Re: Clouds following terrain indeed
Post by: N-drju on February 15, 2018, 04:36:39 PM
Well, I've got some rather modest ones. Nothing special as all I need is just a touch of fog over my slopes. Maybe I'll post it to the "loch" topic. :)

One thing that I do not understand though is the altitude offset values... It almost seems as if it was living its own life!

I used image map with about 1500 offset value for a pretty steep slope area (55 - 60 degree) and the clouds were spread nicely over the terrain. Now, I am adjusting an area of clouds where maximum slope is that of 45 degree and I need to use a value as big as 3800 to get the job done!

I don't understand it at all. :-\ But the important thing is that it works.
Title: Re: Clouds following terrain indeed
Post by: René on February 16, 2018, 02:15:16 AM
I tried it back then, but it took too long and I found it too difficult. I will dive into it again when I really, really need it.
Title: Re: Clouds following terrain indeed
Post by: N-drju on February 16, 2018, 03:08:53 AM
Allow me to disagree René. ;) It is not that hard, though I was also vastly skeptical about this method.

The difficulty lies within the offset values and a need to keep in mind to align the coordinates. I usually don't have time to get involved into various options in TG but that thing, I learned quickly. It just needs a lot of tweaking, what I said.
Title: Re: Clouds following terrain indeed
Post by: ajcgi on February 16, 2018, 05:16:06 AM
Martin's explanation is wonderfully concise. I'm gonna save that to my references folder.  8)