How do I make the river flat in the X direction? I'm running into this problem all the time and haven't really found a solution. I've included a .tgd for your perusal and abuse! Any help gratefully received.
There is no solution, tried this many times.
Ta! thanks for that. I'll stop driving myself nuts over it. :(
mhaze, it's not really a matter that making a flat riverbed is impossible but rather a method that you use for making that river in the first place.
Point in case - you can make a river-like cut into a terrain and keep it flat, but some solutions may be harder to operate than others. A warped SSS layer that masks surface layer will be enough I think... But again - it really depends on what you want...
That's correct. If you start out with a flat SSS as river and displace either sides by softer SSS, then warp, you may get what you want. Or use Daniil's shader.
Hey, I guess I do not fully understand...
and since you know your way around TG much better than I do, I also guess this (see attachments) is not what you really mean, or is it?
The river bed here is a separated block of nodes, not directly connected to the terrain.
I looked at your setup but I have to look at it a little bit more ;)
CHeers, Klaus
The river bed has to be displaced by the terrain to make it follow the terrain - the problem is to flatten the terrain where the river bed is.
ok, I have to try that to understand it...
Quote from: KlausK on December 21, 2018, 12:24:24 PM
Hey, I guess I do not fully understand...
and since you know your way around TG much better than I do, I also guess this (see attachments) is not what you really mean, or is it?
The river bed here is a separated block of nodes, not directly connected to the terrain.
I looked at your setup but I have to look at it a little bit more ;)
CHeers, Klaus
Yes, this is generally what I mean when saying you can easily flatten terrain in some kind of depression if you want to. :) But in more complicated instances like the one mhaze describes, it is indeed not enough.
But rest assured, if you don't have much transparency in your water, plus it is a bird's view shot you don't really need to have the riverbed flattened because... nobody would even tell a difference. If that is your motivation of course...
Following is a WIP that me and my friend approach as an entertainment. This shot is made from about 2000 meters above surface and you can see a clear stream of water flowing through a canyon. The terrain displacement underneath water surface is a complete clusterfuck but seriously... do you even notice?[attach=1]
I made this this morning in 15mins on a slow 32bit machine, so it's very crude, but the only way (I can think of atm) to get this working.
The compute terrain has to be very low in line, or the river would go awry. If no laterals or snow layer is needed compute terrain is not necessary at all.
Have fun ;)
Cheers Dune :D I've actually come up with a similar solution but yours is more flexible. I must now try to get a more V shaped valley using your solution of raising the rather than lowering the landscape.
That's quite a cool scene, Ulco! Thanks!!!
Btw, if you switch between bevel and smooth step in the river SSS, there's a huge difference. Nice overhangs are possible, but it takes some fiddling (but that's what TG is all about anyway).
It's rather a brilliant solution to the problem, Typical Dune lateral thinking!
I just realized there's a thing to take care of; the camera for the distance shader. If you put your cam elsewhere the whole thing will change. So make a loose cam of it and let it sit where it is.
This is just great. I love the way this forum solves things. Well done Ulco.
I've used this method before, so it was easy to put together again. You can also make cascades with local strata shaders, btw. Or just unmask one of the existing strata shaders, the perpendicular one. May also be interesting to see what Daniil's shader does to this...
Here's one from 2011, without the valley, but using distance shader to raise ground.
brr, that looks a chilly as it is here..cool foam on the rapids for sure.
Daniil's shader flattens the valley floor too much and the latest version seems to create lakes whether I want them or not!
Too bad. Maybe only the outputs can be used for something, like rubble/flows texture change or so.
Good idea.
Have you tried my river maps function? It uses the logic we all use but is intended to mask to base planet terrain, creating a initially flat river bed.
http://www.store.nwdastore.com/miscellaneous/procedural-river-maps