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General => File Sharing => General => Topic started by: Volker Harun on August 02, 2007, 03:53:01 AM

Title: Volker's Attic
Post by: Volker Harun on August 02, 2007, 03:53:01 AM
Hello,

five months ago I had been working with the Hornblower terrain.
You can download it in another thread (http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=813.msg9425#msg9425).

I revisited the terrain and made some minor adjustements for speeding up the rendertime. Attached is the modified Hornblower Terrain.

It is built up with one Fractal terrain with two outputs. Each one gets a Twist and Shear to different planar directions. After that they are merged by using a fractal shader.

Almost too easy, isn't it? Yes ... and it has one major disadvantage, the features are very repetive ... it is getting boring after a short time.

Well, let us wait ... a bit ... Towerbuster is a bit more interesting ...
Title: The Towerbuster Terrain
Post by: Volker Harun on August 02, 2007, 04:34:39 AM
The Towerbuster Terrain is built on the same idea ... and it shows me that it is worthwhile playing around with shaders  ;)

Again two opposite Twist and Shears are merged.
One difference is that they get their data from different terrains.

The second tweak is inside the merge shader which is set to 'subtraction' of terrains. When I have chosen this option, I thought that I will end up with a terrain that does not show the Twist and Shear anymore.
But TG2 rather cuts the terrains ... which is kind of fun  ;D ;D ;D

Last node is a simple Fractal terrain, you could delete it but then the terrain might have really sharp edges.

Have fun ... free for non-commercial use. Else ask for permission.
Title: Re: Volker's Attic
Post by: ProjectX on August 02, 2007, 07:35:49 AM
I made an interesting terrain in a similar way to your hornblower once, I plugged a powerfractal into two twist and shears with opposite values and merged them, except I used the original power fractal again as the control node. It was a nice terrain, it twisted one way on the low sections, and the other on the high sections. It would probably render faster if I cloned the power fractal and removed a lot of the octaves from it and then used it to control the merge shader, but it works and looks pretty. I love the idea of subtracting the terrains, that's a stroke of brilliance, what gave you the idea of doing that?
Title: Re: Volker's Attic
Post by: Volker Harun on August 02, 2007, 07:44:23 AM
I was bored with the terrain and just went through the available options ,)
Title: Cracked Rocks
Post by: Volker Harun on August 07, 2007, 05:50:09 AM
Here comes my solution for a cracked surface.

The clip will insert a sphere at coordinates 0|25|0 - the nodes are in the internal network of this sphere.

It is one simple powerfractal that is making the displacement.
The important thing to get decent cracks this way is to play with the displacement offset, it is the key. Here I use the offset inside the surface layer 'Get Cracks'. Be aware that Only breakup colour is turned off!

The Noise variations are set to zero ... play with all alternatives!
You should keep the Colour roughness quite low. Colour Contrast lets you decide how sharp the edges become (together with the offset value).
If you just want to make rocks without cracks, turn off clamp high, clamp low colour.

Have fun, asalam aleikum,
Volker Harun

Title: Re: Volker's Attic
Post by: Tangled-Universe on August 07, 2007, 05:57:16 AM
Very nice, will definitely take a look into it, thanks!

Martin
Title: Re: Volker's Attic
Post by: rcallicotte on August 07, 2007, 09:14:33 AM
Thanks, Volker.  Another gift to open!   ;D  Cool!   8)
Title: Re: Volker's Attic
Post by: j meyer on August 07, 2007, 03:50:55 PM
Aleik“asalam effendi,
they just don“t wanna look like yours. ;)
I really enjoy this file exchange,very inspiring.
;D J.
Title: Re: Volker's Attic
Post by: AndyWelder on August 07, 2007, 06:19:48 PM
Thanks a lot, Volker!
Hope to find some time soon to play and analyze.
And thank you, j meyer, too.
Title: Clouds
Post by: Volker Harun on August 30, 2007, 11:45:04 AM
First, I want to set here a link to an old cloud-clip that I still use for a startoff ... Old-Clouds (http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=622.0)

And now for some clouds, that I use more frequent.
The fractal is built from scratch - I needed more contrast than I was able to achieve with the standard fractals - thatswhy the funny colour-values and colour offset.
I guess that the Noise and Warp can be finetuned.

More interesting is the setup:
If the clipfile does not load correctly:
The Powerfractal goes to the upper cumulus and to the transform shader.
So there are duplicate cloud layers with half of my usual density. The only difference is that one cloud's fractal is moved by a few metres. Which make a difference.

Have fun and peace upon you!

Volker
Title: Re: Volker's Attic
Post by: rcallicotte on August 30, 2007, 11:56:13 AM
Looks like fun, Volker.  I've been working with clouds for a few days.  I'm about to render one complete (by tonight at this rate...slow rendering) and will look at this new clip file in the meantime.
Title: Re: Volker's Attic
Post by: Volker Harun on August 30, 2007, 05:24:58 PM
Here is a crop of a testrender showing those clouds.
Title: Re: Volker's Attic
Post by: rcallicotte on August 30, 2007, 05:27:21 PM
Nice. 
Title: Re: Volker's Attic
Post by: moodflow on August 30, 2007, 08:06:01 PM
Pretty neat Volker.  Kinda has some "virga" effect.

I'll post a sample (when I get home) of some of the cloud research I did in TGTP a few months ago.  I need to stop "improving" my stuff and just post the dang things!   ;D

EDIT:

Ok home now.  Here is an image I created back in the beginning days of TGTP.  It features clouds with a "virga" effect.  Still working on the technique.  Glad to see others are getting there as well.
Title: Re: Volker's Attic
Post by: moodflow on August 30, 2007, 08:06:45 PM
BTW, I am scared of attics!  Lotsa cobwebs, darkness, spiders...
Title: Re: Volker's Attic
Post by: nvseal on September 03, 2007, 05:23:23 PM
Moodflow, please tell me that's some kind of photo.
Title: Re: Volker's Attic
Post by: moodflow on September 03, 2007, 05:27:04 PM
Quote from: nvseal on September 03, 2007, 05:23:23 PM
Moodflow, please tell me that's some kind of photo.

Actually its not.  Its an image I created a few months ago, but abandoned due to crashes past a certain point.   I am probably going to re-render it with this new update, so we'll see.

Title: Re: Volker's Attic
Post by: nvseal on September 03, 2007, 05:47:39 PM
That's just amazing. I really thought it was a photo.
Title: Transparency mask
Post by: Volker Harun on September 17, 2007, 04:35:00 AM
A while ago I offered a workaround to fake transparent water.
It is not perfect and needs some tweaks.

I'll put the link here, only: http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=2188.msg21304#msg21304

Have fun,
Volker
Title: Re: Volker's Attic
Post by: Volker Harun on September 23, 2007, 06:15:54 AM
Sonshine777 has made in April a better version for transparent water, that I missed so far, but you should not: http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=1391.0
Title: Re: Volker's Attic
Post by: Volker Harun on December 07, 2008, 04:35:56 PM
The Awakening ...

this should show that I am still at work - but my machine got out off time ...

Anyway ... take the file for inspirations.

Volker Harun
Title: Re: Volker's Attic
Post by: rcallicotte on December 07, 2008, 05:28:10 PM
Oh geez.  You've got to be kidding me.  Downloaded.

Thank you.   ;D
Title: the control node
Post by: ashiq on January 20, 2009, 01:37:26 PM
I plugged a powerfractal into two twist and shears with opposite values and merged them, except I used the original power fractal again as the control node. It was a nice terrain, it twisted one way on the low sections, and the other on the high sections. It would probably render faster if I cloned the power fractal and removed a lot of the octaves from it and then used it to control the merge shader, but it works and looks pretty. I love the idea of subtracting the terrains, that's a stroke of brilliance, what gave you the idea of doing that?
Title: Re: Volker's Attic
Post by: Volker Harun on January 20, 2009, 02:00:50 PM
Well, the merge shader has multiple options - and I went for the trial-and-failure-way.

I am glad that you like it. And yes, it is not the fastest kind of terrain, and you may discover that the atmosphere settings are a bit difficult, as the terrains' scales are a bit off.

Still - most of my terrains have a merge shader included.

Regards,
Volker