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General => Terragen Discussion => Topic started by: ewong on December 17, 2014, 12:49:32 AM

Title: colouring?
Post by: ewong on December 17, 2014, 12:49:32 AM
Hi,

I don't know the terminology yet, but if I have the attached mountain range with a lake defined, 
and 'vegetation' (via base colour shader) but it is very bad. How do I create vegetation on the mountains?

Is it an object shader? Terrain shader? 

Thanks

Ed
Title: Re: colouring?
Post by: Dune on December 17, 2014, 03:12:05 AM
You need to add surface shaders below the base color, where you can add (smaller) displacement and color, by coloring the surface shader and/or attached power fractal shaders (with color, maybe with some displacement, if needed). You can then define where these colors and smaller displacements should end up on your terrain, like higher altitudes only, or steep slopes only. The fuzzy zone determines how abrupt the transitions are.
The white surface shader has a special function called displacement intersection, which kind of takes an average of the displacement over a larger patch of the terrain and thus smoothes this area. If you don't need snow, throw it out.
The shore darkening surface shader is something I use a lot to define the edge of a water expanse and give it some sparkle and wet darkness on the coastline. Flat seas need a small fuzzy zone (little wetness higher up the coast, rough seas can use higher altitudes above sea level and softer fuzzy zone).
That's basically how it works. The colors I added are just any colors.
So, check out all the settings and see what changing them does.
Title: Re: colouring?
Post by: ewong on December 17, 2014, 03:24:55 AM
Quote from: Dune on December 17, 2014, 03:12:05 AM
You need to add surface shaders below the base color, where you can add (smaller) displacement and color, by coloring the surface shader and/or attached power fractal shaders (with color, maybe with some displacement, if needed). You can then define where these colors and smaller displacements should end up on your terrain, like higher altitudes only, or steep slopes only. The fuzzy zone determines how abrupt the transitions are.
The white surface shader has a special function called displacement intersection, which kind of takes an average of the displacement over a larger patch of the terrain and thus smoothes this area. If you don't need snow, throw it out.
The shore darkening surface shader is something I use a lot to define the edge of a water expanse and give it some sparkle and wet darkness on the coastline. Flat seas need a small fuzzy zone (little wetness higher up the coast, rough seas can use higher altitudes above sea level and softer fuzzy zone).
That's basically how it works. The colors I added are just any colors.
So, check out all the settings and see what changing them does.

Hi Dan,

I just tried out the changes and I got a whole bunch of warnings and patches of purple. 

"SetParamFromString: Unknown parameter: "motion_blur_position" in class: camera
"SetParamFromString: Unknown parameter: "stereo" in class: camera
"SetParamFromString: Unknown parameter: "stereo_left" in class: camera
"SetParamFromString: Unknown parameter: "stereo_centre" in class: camera
"SetParamFromString: Unknown parameter: "stereo_right" in class: camera
"SetParamFromString: Unknown parameter: "stereo_mode" in class: camera
"SetParamFromString: Unknown parameter: "inter-axial_separation_in_mm" in class: camera
"SetParamFromString: Unknown parameter: "zero_parallax_distance" in class: camera
"SetParamFromString: Unknown parameter: "import_offset" in class: sphere
"SetParamFromString: Unknown parameter: "import_scale" in class: sphere
"SetParamFromString: Unknown parameter: "import_offset" in class: planet
"SetParamFromString: Unknown parameter: "import_scale" in class: planet
"SetParamFromString: Unknown parameter: "import_offset" in class: lake
"SetParamFromString: Unknown parameter: "import_scale" in class: lake

Am I missing something?

(currently upgrading to 3.2.03 from 3.1.  So I"m guessing that might be it..)

Thanks

Ed

PS: Apparently the pink is in one of the power fractal shaders and the warnings are because I was
using an old version of Terragen3.  Just upgraded and now no warnings. :)

Btw, that's seriously complicated stuff in the shaders area. 



Title: Re: colouring?
Post by: Dune on December 17, 2014, 03:25:47 AM
Yes, you need teh latest update. By the way, if this is what came out (I never rendered), you should try changing the values in the white surface shader, or enlarge the patch size in the compute terrain shader (to 50 or 80) and see what happens. Remember, all numbers are in meters.
Title: Re: colouring?
Post by: WAS on December 17, 2014, 11:50:39 AM
Here is a "colored" terrain I did for my friend I made pick up the demo and was having the same issues. May help if not very covered above.
Title: Re: colouring?
Post by: ewong on December 19, 2014, 02:46:31 AM
Quote from: WASasquatch on December 17, 2014, 11:50:39 AM
Here is a "colored" terrain I did for my friend I made pick up the demo and was having the same issues. May help if not very covered above.

Thanks for a decent starting point!  I started playing around with the shaders and still quite get the effect I want. 

Btw, when saving the render, why is it restricted to tiff or bmp?   (And this forum doesn't even allow either.)

Ed

Title: Re: colouring?
Post by: bobbystahr on December 19, 2014, 10:49:24 AM
Quote from: ewong on December 19, 2014, 02:46:31 AM
Quote from: WASasquatch on December 17, 2014, 11:50:39 AM


Btw, when saving the render, why is it restricted to tiff or bmp?   (And this forum doesn't even allow either.)

Ed

I've often wondered that as well.
Title: Re: colouring?
Post by: archonforest on December 19, 2014, 10:52:33 AM
Quote from: ewong on December 19, 2014, 02:46:31 AM
Quote from: WASasquatch on December 17, 2014, 11:50:39 AM
Here is a "colored" terrain I did for my friend I made pick up the demo and was having the same issues. May help if not very covered above.
Btw, when saving the render, why is it restricted to tiff or bmp?   (And this forum doesn't even allow either.)
Ed
Guess 'coz those are high quality formats?
Title: Re: colouring?
Post by: WAS on December 19, 2014, 01:16:55 PM
Quote from: archonforest on December 19, 2014, 10:52:33 AM
Quote from: ewong on December 19, 2014, 02:46:31 AM
Quote from: WASasquatch on December 17, 2014, 11:50:39 AM
Here is a "colored" terrain I did for my friend I made pick up the demo and was having the same issues. May help if not very covered above.
Btw, when saving the render, why is it restricted to tiff or bmp?   (And this forum doesn't even allow either.)
Ed
Guess 'coz those are high quality formats?

BMP is high quality, but with about half of its size being unnecessary due to absolutely no compression of any sort.

PNG and TGA should be optional outputs. TGA for exporting heightmaps, textures, etc, from TG3. PNG because it is a standard right along with TIFF.