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General => Terragen Discussion => Topic started by: zepeu on May 15, 2017, 10:55:04 AM

Title: Light rays / sun beams with clouds and objects
Post by: zepeu on May 15, 2017, 10:55:04 AM
Hello world !

I'm having some fun with Terragen 4 (3 and 2 before that), but I have a problem creating sun beams...
I saw these awesome images with sun beams, and I tried to imitate them, but without success...
I obviously passed through Google, but didn't find a real answer

In the image, there are just trees put next to each other in a way to let some light pass through, down to the floor.

The "atmosphere cast shadow" is on for the general environment atmosphere that is already created at the beginning,
in the tab "main" the "haze density is at 0
in the tab "lighting", the "haze glow amount" and "bluesky glow amount" are at 0

In the lighting, the "sunlight strength" is at 2000

In the objects (trees), the "translucency" of leafs is at 0

Theoretically, I should see some light rays, but nothing appears...

I also tried with clouds before, and hardly had something visible... What is the trick?

By advance, thank you for your help :)

zepeu
Title: Re: Light rays / sun beams with clouds and objects
Post by: Dune on May 15, 2017, 12:12:09 PM
You should have some low cloud hanging between the trees to at least get some rays. In those thin clouds (localized v2 clouds will do nice), check receive shadows...
Title: Re: Light rays / sun beams with clouds and objects
Post by: cyphyr on May 15, 2017, 12:14:01 PM
Quote from: Dune on May 15, 2017, 12:12:09 PM
You should have some low cloud hanging between the trees to at least get some rays. In those thin clouds (localized v2 clouds will do nice), check receive shadows...

... or raise the haze density a little and probably drop the sunlight intensity down somewhat (2000 is more than extreme!!)
Title: Re: Light rays / sun beams with clouds and objects
Post by: Oshyan on May 15, 2017, 03:23:26 PM
I'm confused, you say all your hazes are at 0. You *need* haze to get light rays in the atmosphere. You can also use clouds instead of - or in addition to - atmosphere, but if you are trying for rays in just the atmosphere you would need haze to be above 0. In either case (clouds or atmosphere) you need the respective "receive shadows" option to be enabled to get shadows from objects into the atmosphere (shadows are actually what create the "rays" effect).

- Oshyan
Title: Re: Light rays / sun beams with clouds and objects
Post by: zepeu on May 15, 2017, 04:00:11 PM
Thnk you for your answers,

Well, in fact, I read somewhere ( http://www.planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,4128.0.html ) that it's better to have the haze off, but maybe it's just when we want the rays coming from behind a cloud...

I'm trying with the normal atmosphere, but it doesn't seem promising for the moment...

Any idea how to make the clouds look like a fog from near? they appear only like a bunch of small spots...
Title: Re: Light rays / sun beams with clouds and objects
Post by: archonforest on May 15, 2017, 04:15:59 PM
Quote from: zepeu on May 15, 2017, 04:00:11 PM
Thnk you for your answers,

Well, in fact, I read somewhere ( http://www.planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,4128.0.html ) that it's better to have the haze off, but maybe it's just when we want the rays coming from behind a cloud...

I'm trying with the normal atmosphere, but it doesn't seem promising for the moment...

Any idea how to make the clouds look like a fog from near? they appear only like a bunch of small spots...

Perhaps try the global thin one in TG4. That should work.

Title: Re: Light rays / sun beams with clouds and objects
Post by: Dune on May 16, 2017, 01:35:00 AM
If you get small spots, it's probably because your quality settings are not high enough. A localized layer of cloud 50m high at altitude 20-25m (depends on the field altitude of course) without fractal and no `tapering top and base', with a high quality (1) or defer atmo on will be a good start. Shadows on!
Title: Re: Light rays / sun beams with clouds and objects
Post by: zepeu on May 16, 2017, 12:05:02 PM
Ok ! Super, it starts to work :) I just have to spend a bunch of hours more to playing with clouds :)
The rendering time really increased, I advice other beginners to put off the atmosphere when placing populations :p

So, I've put the tree's leafs "translucency" down to 0, the sun strength is at 2000 (yeah, barbarian I am... two thousand...), the planet atmosphere ceiling down to 10 and floor up to 0. The haze glow amount is up to 2 :)

What level of detail do you recommend for the rendering?
And, btw, I don't really understand the different cursors... Witch are the most important and what do they do?
Title: Re: Light rays / sun beams with clouds and objects
Post by: Dune on May 16, 2017, 12:30:07 PM
You need a cloud, not atmo.
Title: Re: Light rays / sun beams with clouds and objects
Post by: zepeu on May 18, 2017, 12:26:56 PM
Hello world, here we go, I got a localized cloud, the light is down to 100 ;p

But the quality of the clouds is up to 10 and renderer quality up to 2 on the picture I join, and the light rays still look more like popcorn than light rays...
I've switched on the "sof shadows" on this picture, it don't help :(

How to make the rays look more soft? I'm searching, but... I maybe don't understand fully terragen, and I didn't find nice tutorials answering my questions yet :(
Can someone light my candle?

Thanks by advance :)

zepeu
Title: Re: Light rays / sun beams with clouds and objects
Post by: Hannes on May 18, 2017, 12:46:13 PM
Hi Zepeu, first of all welcome to the forum!
You use very extreme settings in your scene, and you don't need that. It may happen, that an increased sun multiplier may help, but not that much. Just take your scene, use the default settings for now and add a local cloud a little larger than your camera FOV. and a little higher. You won't need a density shader unless you want some patterns in your haze. Check "receive shadows from surfaces" and do some low res test renders. Move the sun, change the density of your cloud.
That's what I did here:
http://www.planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,22081.msg222588.html#msg222588

Title: Re: Light rays / sun beams with clouds and objects
Post by: zepeu on May 19, 2017, 03:15:53 PM
Ok, thank you, I'll try this way

Know that I was trying different things recently, playing with objects, terrain etc, now, light and clouds :p
I'll start to do something with that all now ;)

Title: Re: Light rays / sun beams with clouds and objects
Post by: luvsmuzik on May 22, 2017, 11:59:37 AM
You must crawl before walk turns to run. Grab a few beginner tutorials and file shares, try examining a file share, note the settings in the examples. You have wonderful ideas but your settings seem very extreme. A general search of most scene types will yield good examples, many with file shares. (tgd)
Title: Re: Light rays / sun beams with clouds and objects
Post by: Ethrieltd on May 22, 2017, 06:02:12 PM
Quote from: luvsmuzik on May 22, 2017, 11:59:37 AM
You must crawl before walk turns to run. Grab a few beginner tutorials and file shares, try examining a file share, note the settings in the examples. You have wonderful ideas but your settings seem very extreme. A general search of most scene types will yield good examples, many with file shares. (tgd)

I've "played" with Terragen for a few years but nothing serious, but recently I have gotten more into it. I would therefore consider myself a beginner. As a beginner I've also played around with multiple different things and have come to one conclusion more than anything else.


If you're settings are EXTREME and you're not getting what you want at all then you're doing it wrong. Cranking the settings often has counter intuitive effects. It's far better to pare it down and tweak things from there than go balls deep...
Title: Re: Light rays / sun beams with clouds and objects
Post by: Oshyan on May 22, 2017, 06:21:12 PM
Hah! Very good advice from Ethrieltd. :D

- Oshyan
Title: Re: Light rays / sun beams with clouds and objects
Post by: zepeu on May 23, 2017, 12:54:24 PM
Quote from: Ethrieltd on May 22, 2017, 06:02:12 PM
Quote from: luvsmuzik on May 22, 2017, 11:59:37 AM
You must crawl before walk turns to run. Grab a few beginner tutorials and file shares, try examining a file share, note the settings in the examples. You have wonderful ideas but your settings seem very extreme. A general search of most scene types will yield good examples, many with file shares. (tgd)

I've "played" with Terragen for a few years but nothing serious, but recently I have gotten more into it. I would therefore consider myself a beginner. As a beginner I've also played around with multiple different things and have come to one conclusion more than anything else.


If you're settings are EXTREME and you're not getting what you want at all then you're doing it wrong. Cranking the settings often has counter intuitive effects. It's far better to pare it down and tweak things from there than go balls deep...

Calm, calm, calm ^^,

I know my setting are extreme, it's made on purpose to have (maybe) an extreme changement and isolate the parameters I'm looking for ;)
The goal was not to make a landscape, but just light rays.
Did it ! Let's go to the next point, following my begginer's path ;)

Btw, if you want another of my extreme plays, check the linked image XD

Have a nice day :)

zepeu