Thought this was a reasonable effort :)
One day I'll get the hang of it
Looks like that day has about arrived ;D
Andrew Randle
The Geostation
Ooops I'm having trouble keeping the ordering of the topics, and just replied to the last rather than the first topic - looking forward to seeing more of your strata Frank.
Andrew Randle
The Geostation
(http://image1.ialmond.com/7/3/F/3/AP_240_MID.JPG)
looks a lot like one of my first trys
These are all very interesting. I've played around with these, but haven't found a way to keep the strata confined to a specific area - namely, the steep slopes where they would actually occur.
I have a feeling I've managed to do this with a distribution shader with slope constraints set. Bit like you would do for a population
All right, I'll give that a whirl sometime.
Frank,
Have you been able to place any populations in the areas where you have the strata shader applied?
It has been my experience that the shader changes the normal shape of the terrain whether it is a height field or a fractal doesn't matter and when you place a population in the area where the strata shader is, it computes the elevations based on the original surface. What this does it to cause the items you have populated to either be buried or floating in mid air.
Has anyone come up with a solution for this problem?
Quote from: old_blaggard on February 04, 2007, 04:29:33 PM
These are all very interesting. I've played around with these, but haven't found a way to keep the strata confined to a specific area - namely, the steep slopes where they would actually occur.
I've created an example on how to restrict the strata to the slopes:
[attachimg=#]
Nice, thanks 3DGuy.
Regards,
Will
That's really quite simple... I wonder how I didn't work that one out.. thanks for the tgd 3DGuy.
Simon. ;D
all we need now is for terragen 2 is incorperate a way to colour stratas.. and your set..
Actually, you can hook up colour shaders and whatnot :P If you switch around the base colour and the strata you'll see the strata's in an off colour.You could possible hook up an image shader or something to get them coloured the way you want to.
Another way to create stratas which can be coloured individually is described in this post: http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=678.msg5456#msg5456
Well described is a bit much - I put the tgd-file for download a few days ago.
Regards,
Volker Harun
Thanks a bunch 3DGuy. That'll save me some time ;).
Thanks 3Dguy you answered a ton of questions in one .tgd file. I now have direction to go with for future strata work. :)
Yep. Thanks, 3DGuy. I love the willingness to share and teach. This enhances the atmosphere here by scads.
The thing is, I know alot of things, how they work. But combining it all into a cool scene is another thing :)
So I share what I know and hope someone uses that to create a cool scene.
Looks a lot more than reasonable, well done.
However, 1 stratum, 2 strata. There is no such word as stratas!
*Puts on language geek hat* Heheh... I didn't know the singular for it... nifty ;).
8)
3d guy and all.
I'm still a big of an idiot, what part of your tgd file acutally controls the strata lines. I tried turning items on and off, but failed to understand.
thank for any help
btw and off topic, I called folder because I fold models like those on this page
www.langorigami.com
david
Well in my example, look in the shaders part (use the node view). There's a 'strata and outcrops' shader there. That controls the look of the strata. That is linked to the distribution shader (Distribution shader v4 02). That one controls where to apply that strata shader. In this case it's limited to slopes of at least 30 degrees.
the strata outcrop shader?
edit..you beat me to it!!! posting at the same time 3dguy:P
Thanks
Now it does make sense - I really appreciate the help and information
david
What the Outcrops and Strata Shader really needs is the functionality to colour strata like you could with the old So-Strata plug-in, maybe this is coming for the final release I don't know. When I herd that there was going to be strata built in to TG2 I throat great you'll be able to colour these strata without needing to use a plug-in and all the headaches that involves. Using So-Strata I could never get it to work properly with Terragen 0.9.43 I always got an error message.
Any way the Outcrops and Strata Shader is a great tool that will be even grater once the ability to colour strata is included.
For the future I would like to see the capabilities of this shader extended to include folded strata and been able to randomize the thickness and height of individual strata along their length as in nature not all strata are uniform in there thickness and height, it would also be nice if you could use a gradient to vary the darkness/ lightness of a strata to make them more realistic, all this how ever is for the future, no rush.
Regards to you.
Cyber-Angel
Oshyan has confirmed that you will be able to color strata sometime in the future... hopefully the *near* future ;).
3dGuy:
A question popped into my mind, and I cannot answer it myself because I am rendering. I have been looking at this tgd and I was wondering if there was any use for the [distribution shader] node in the terrain network? I am just trying to gauge what is going on in your technique so I can try to understand a node architecture that would allow the [strata and outcrops] node to be above the [compute terrain] AND also be able to be restricted through the [distribution shader] node. I am working on a technique that really relies on being able to restrict numerous nodes by using the [distribution shader], and I am having trouble getting it to work! So hopefully I will figure this little speedbump out and be able to post my findings in the near future. Thanks for the help 3DGuy, I really appreciate it.
I used the distribution node in the terrain network for the mushrooms you can find in the fun with the crater shader (http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=187.0) thread. So there is some use for it :) Creating overhangs for instance. I tried using that technique with the strata but somehow it failed (or I wasn't doing it right) so I tried in the shader network and that worked.