Planetside Software Forums

General => Terragen Discussion => Topic started by: X_Joshi_X on February 11, 2016, 09:35:46 AM

Title: Creating continents using image map shader?
Post by: X_Joshi_X on February 11, 2016, 09:35:46 AM
Hey everyone!

Is it possible to use for example a black-white texture showing different continent outlines to blend a fractal shader for continents by it? Already added oceans and scaled the power fractal to continent size.

Here is the texture on how I want the continents to be: http://i.imgur.com/0ZjDDsN.png

I already tried an image map shader to blend the power fractal but the settings don't seem to do anything :/

Thanks for all help!
Title: Re: Creating continents using image map shader?
Post by: Dune on February 11, 2016, 10:35:48 AM
If this can be changed into a spherical map you can, well, map it to the planet in a spherical way thru an image map shader, and use as a mask (output to mask input of surface shader). White for the oceans, obviously, and if you inversely mask a surface shader, you can add all sorts of textures and displacements as a child of that surface layer, building up your planet.

Perhaps you can add your tgd here, so we can check it out.

EDIT: Even in a simple setup it works with a Y projection, but for nicer continents you have to blur the image.
Title: Re: Creating continents using image map shader?
Post by: Oshyan on February 11, 2016, 02:38:14 PM
The simplest way to do this is just use it as a Mask (Mask input) on your Power Fractal. This will not produce ideal results, but should show immediate result that you can then consider if your map is setup right (does it need to be changed to Spherical Mapping for example, as Ulco suggests).

- Oshyan
Title: Re: Creating continents using image map shader?
Post by: X_Joshi_X on February 16, 2016, 08:59:35 AM
Thanks for the help both!

I'm still confused with the complexity of Terragen compared to other 3D software.

Here's my tgd so far: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0qdaxAxmY1lS0ZKenhES3N0VDQ/view?usp=sharing

I masked out a fractal terrain by the spherical image texture but it still doesn't seem right :/
Title: Re: Creating continents using image map shader?
Post by: Dune on February 16, 2016, 12:36:39 PM
That setup should work, though I haven't the png imported. Perhaps the mountain displacement is too little to see right for this whole planet view. What happens if you add a zero in the displacement of the fractal terrain shader? Then you should see at least something happening.