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General => Terragen Discussion => Topic started by: chrisshort on July 11, 2013, 10:47:26 AM

Title: Objects importing in on the dark side...
Post by: chrisshort on July 11, 2013, 10:47:26 AM
I haven't had too much trouble with population with plants and such as far as lighting that corresponds to the given scene, but when I try to import a single object (obj with uv bitmaps attached), it always seems on the dark side and doesn't match the lighting scheme. I also can't seem to find any diffuse levels to help brighten the object. Luminosity just makes it glow unnaturally.

What is the normal procedure when importing an object to make it illuminate properly?

Thanks!
Chris
Title: Re: Objects importing in on the dark side...
Post by: Tangled-Universe on July 11, 2013, 11:20:44 AM
Hi Chris,

Can you show us how it looks? I have a couple suspicions, but I can't give you good advice if I can't see what's going on.

Cheers,
Martin
Title: Re: Objects importing in on the dark side...
Post by: chrisshort on July 11, 2013, 12:08:27 PM
This is just a rough placement of a rough model imported. Normally I like to have extreme lighting angles (main light behind objects etc) and let the GI fill in the shadow areas naturally but the models always comes in very flat. For this placement I have the lighting from behind the camera so we could see something. The shadows can be seen too dark and the overall appearance is stil on the flat side.  Suggestions?
Title: Re: Objects importing in on the dark side...
Post by: Upon Infinity on July 11, 2013, 12:38:45 PM
If you go into your shader properties there is a diffuse slider above the luminosity slider.
Title: Re: Objects importing in on the dark side...
Post by: Tangled-Universe on July 11, 2013, 12:43:40 PM
At first sight I'd say there's nothing wrong happening here in relation to your model or the render process.

I missed your remark on the diffuse setting. At first I read it like you meant that upping diffuse didn't work, but now I see you meant you can't find it.

If you go to your model's node by clicking on the "Objects" bookmark in the node network, you'll see at the right side of the node a plus-symbol (+).
Double click on it.
If it's a population of your model then you'll see another grey node, which is the object holder/node for the population, also double click on the plus-symbol of that.
After doing that you are inside the internal node network of the object and you should see a bunch of red shader nodes.
If it's a single object then you should already see the red shader nodes.

Click on a red shader node, say for skin, bark or leaf and you'll see a "diffuse colour" setting.
In many cases it's default @ 0.5.
If you increase that then your texture will brighten up.
For starters compare default 0.5 with 1 and see how much you like that, then start tweaking from there.

Good luck!
Title: Re: Objects importing in on the dark side...
Post by: chrisshort on July 11, 2013, 01:43:01 PM
Doh,
My eyesight is failing. I got it working better.

Another Q: Is it better to use Normal maps as opposed to bump maps in the displacement section?
Thanks....
Title: Re: Objects importing in on the dark side...
Post by: TheBadger on July 11, 2013, 02:58:32 PM
T2 does not use normal maps. I don't know about T3 yet.
Title: Re: Objects importing in on the dark side...
Post by: bobbystahr on July 13, 2013, 09:37:13 AM
Quote from: chrisshort on July 11, 2013, 01:43:01 PM
Doh,
My eyesight is failing. I got it working better.

Another Q: Is it better to use Normal maps as opposed to bump maps in the displacement section?
Thanks....

As I understand TG2 it doesn't displace on imported objects but applies bump only so you're just as well off using bump maps...that's what I've been doing