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General => Terragen Discussion => Topic started by: anthonylongman on July 14, 2010, 01:53:19 AM

Title: Ringworld?
Post by: anthonylongman on July 14, 2010, 01:53:19 AM
I am wondering if Terragen 2 can be used to model inside out landscapes as in Larry Niven's Ringworld?
Title: Re: Ringworld?
Post by: Ogre on July 14, 2010, 03:44:41 PM
I've been working on something.  You cannot displace objects enough to get them to work so it has to be done with the internal objects But you cannot render from the inside of a planet.

SO I set a planet to have a negative radius and limited its visibility to a ring around the equator using a surface shader and an altitude constraint.  Still a very early WIP but here is the tgd file to play with.
Title: Re: Ringworld?
Post by: dandelO on July 14, 2010, 03:49:12 PM
Nice, now make it Möbius! ;) :D

Anyone for multiplayer Halo?
Title: Re: Ringworld?
Post by: anthonylongman on July 14, 2010, 04:26:27 PM
That's very interesting. I should say I just found this site/software yesterday, so I am completely ignorant.  The scenario I have been thinking about is on a much smaller scale of 60-70 miles diameter and say 20 miles broad.  Because of the much smaller scale I don't think your ingenious solution would work, given the amount of cross curvature that would result - but perhaps that could be compensated with a height map adjustment. The gravity would still be skewed a little sideways though, I suppose?  Can externally produced geometry - perhaps in the form of a full set of height maps for a ringworld - be imported and then used as a basis for landscaping etc.?  Will the other tools accept an inverted surface of this kind?

All comments will be much appreciated
Title: Re: Ringworld?
Post by: Ogre on July 19, 2010, 03:20:33 PM
You can import external geometry but exterme displacements applied proceduraly to the object often cause the geometry to seperate at its edges.

Here is q quick test with a externally made ring object and some displacement applied.