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General => Terragen Discussion => Topic started by: Grassynoel on September 01, 2016, 02:35:35 AM

Title: texturing a population
Post by: Grassynoel on September 01, 2016, 02:35:35 AM
Hi all,
I want to populate my scene with rocks from Zbrush and while they are adopting the same textures as the terrain, the distribution of snow - rock is off (unsurprisingly as the distribution map needs surface normals if my guess is correct).
Is there a way to define slope (and altitude though I don't need it here) for my rocks so the snow is on top and rock is on the side despite their orientation?

Any help gladly accepted.
Glenn
Title: Re: texturing a population
Post by: Dune on September 01, 2016, 03:11:03 AM
Did you take the colors through a transform shader set to final position? I guess so. Then if you have slope restrictions in a surface layer, you should be able to do what you want. You could also try and take the rock colors separately from the snow colors and feed them into the rock, then add a fresh (newly made) snow layer with those slope restraints. But then you'd get snow on all rocks, so you'd have to mask it again by the terrain mask you use for rock/snow distribution. If you get my point  :P
Title: Re: texturing a population
Post by: Grassynoel on September 01, 2016, 03:31:45 AM
I haven't used a transform shader and on reading about it it seems only used to translate shares on xyz. Not sure how to use that.
If I make a simple scene and add a OBJ rock (not a population), I can't get surface layers to work correctly on it. I set them up the same as I have on my landscape without luck.

G
Title: Re: texturing a population
Post by: Dune on September 01, 2016, 03:39:59 AM
Try plugging a transform shader between the colors and the object's default shader, and just check 'final position'. That translates the colors to a world distribution, instead of translating it to the rock's distribution, so to speak. Works the same way as the grass pop I just posted a few days ago (tgd there).
Title: Re: texturing a population
Post by: Grassynoel on September 02, 2016, 03:36:50 AM
None of that is working for me.
Could you have a look at this simple scene and tell em how you would hook it up?
Title: Re: texturing a population
Post by: Dune on September 02, 2016, 04:02:14 AM
Here you are. This should work.
Title: Re: texturing a population
Post by: Grassynoel on September 03, 2016, 01:04:30 AM
Nice. Many thanks.

Seems like the "use Y" is totally important too. Pretty cryptic. :)
Needless to say I am off an acing. Thanks again.
Title: Re: texturing a population
Post by: Kadri on September 03, 2016, 01:42:42 AM

There are some rendering(?) artifacts but i like it.
Title: Re: texturing a population
Post by: Grassynoel on September 03, 2016, 02:01:10 AM
Oh absolutely. I am projecting a non tiling texture through the camera etc. Just testing and not really caring about the detail. Now I have the technique in place I can get busy making it nice :)
Title: Re: texturing a population
Post by: Kadri on September 03, 2016, 02:48:16 AM

:)
Title: Re: texturing a population
Post by: Grassynoel on September 03, 2016, 03:51:09 AM
Looking more like this.. but still more to go
Title: Re: texturing a population
Post by: Dune on September 03, 2016, 12:09:05 PM
Cool already.
Title: Re: texturing a population
Post by: bobbystahr on September 03, 2016, 05:25:21 PM
Nice SciFi render, be interesting to see where you go with this...
Title: Re: texturing a population
Post by: Grassynoel on September 04, 2016, 01:38:01 AM
Well, here is an update. Not sure how I feel about it yet. :)
Title: Re: texturing a population
Post by: Dune on September 04, 2016, 02:20:56 AM
Very interesting and different. Any update depends on what you want to depict, what the story behind it is, but I like it as is. If it's hot, or explosion, you need smoke, if it's light not, but maybe some beams in a thin vapor would be interesting (shadows from surfaces)?
Title: Re: texturing a population
Post by: Grassynoel on September 04, 2016, 02:28:25 AM
Yeah, I'm going to ditch the floating rocks. They looked okay with the water shader but too visually confusing. Doing some LOOOOOONG renders with clouds ATM.
Title: Re: texturing a population
Post by: bobbystahr on September 04, 2016, 03:05:57 AM
Agree with Dune on it's your choice on direction...I like the "but maybe some beams in a thin vapor would be interesting (shadows from surfaces)?" part of his comment; and bloom and starburst can be very effective even in a quite thin atmosphere.
Title: Re: texturing a population
Post by: Grassynoel on September 04, 2016, 08:26:22 AM
UPDATE :)

I was using bloom and lens flare but neither were contributing much. Here on the water you can see a little flare which is nice.
Title: Re: texturing a population
Post by: Dune on September 04, 2016, 09:16:50 AM
Very nice! Quite a subtle whisp of cloud and the water/air drop is an interesting touch.
Title: Re: texturing a population
Post by: Kadri on September 04, 2016, 10:04:20 AM

Interesting and good.
I changed the former one to widescreen and i liked it more in that way.
Title: Re: texturing a population
Post by: Oshyan on September 04, 2016, 01:51:46 PM
That latest image is *really* cool! One of the best sci-fi Terragen renders/scenes I've seen, perhaps ever.

- Oshyan
Title: Re: texturing a population
Post by: bobbystahr on September 04, 2016, 02:02:21 PM
Quote from: Oshyan on September 04, 2016, 01:51:46 PM
That latest image is *really* cool! One of the best sci-fi Terragen renders/scenes I've seen, perhaps ever.

- Oshyan

I'm in agreement...but I'd have left the rocks in myself....
Title: Re: texturing a population
Post by: Grassynoel on September 04, 2016, 04:45:34 PM
QuoteInteresting and good.
I changed the former one to widescreen and i liked it more in that way.
Yes I want to go widescreen when it's done. Just too lazy to do it :)

QuoteThat latest image is *really* cool! One of the best sci-fi Terragen renders/scenes I've seen, perhaps ever.
Thanks Oshyan, given how many renders you've seen that's high praise.

I have actually rendered it three times with and without the blue light and with and without clouds so I can more precisely control how the building peeks through them at the top. Might try to make it all 'In camera" if I can as I continue to polish.

Glenn
Title: Re: texturing a population
Post by: Oshyan on September 04, 2016, 11:00:21 PM
Can't wait to see where you go from here. Be sure to make a nice, high-quality final render so we can share it in the new Planetside Software website image gallery... :D

- Oshyan
Title: Re: texturing a population
Post by: ajcgi on September 05, 2016, 05:43:10 AM
This is very nice indeed. A well executed concept.
Title: Re: texturing a population
Post by: Grassynoel on September 05, 2016, 08:42:43 AM
QuoteBe sure to make a nice, high-quality final render so we can share it in the new Planetside Software website image gallery...
I'd like to but the beta trail has ended and the number of populations and image size and filtering are limited. Will have to wait to buy it or for the next beta. :)

Here's where I have gotten to tonight anyway. Still playing and learning. Having fun mostly which is great.
Title: Re: texturing a population
Post by: Dune on September 05, 2016, 09:01:35 AM
I suggest a purchase and staying around here  ;)
Title: Re: texturing a population
Post by: Oshyan on September 05, 2016, 04:55:22 PM
AA limits will be higher in the free version of TG4, which we'll release soon.

- Oshyan
Title: Re: texturing a population
Post by: Grassynoel on September 06, 2016, 01:49:51 AM
Bumped everything as high as I can. Still working on it  :P

Title: Re: texturing a population
Post by: Grassynoel on September 06, 2016, 02:39:45 AM
This is it for today.
Do you all like the rocks around the blue light or not?

Glenn
Title: Re: texturing a population
Post by: Dune on September 06, 2016, 02:45:36 AM
No, sorry, I preferred the previous rocks and not the spikey ones.
Title: Re: texturing a population
Post by: Kadri on September 06, 2016, 05:10:08 AM

I can see why you made them but you don't necessarily need them if you ask me.