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General => Terragen Discussion => Topic started by: D.A. Bentley (SuddenPlanet) on April 25, 2021, 12:52:34 PM

Title: EXR Heightfield Load - Worked in 4.4.67 - Broken in 4.5.56
Post by: D.A. Bentley (SuddenPlanet) on April 25, 2021, 12:52:34 PM
I just noticed that Heightfield Load of EXR heightfields is broken in 4.5.56, while it still works in 4.4.67

Anyone else notice this?
Title: Re: EXR Heightfield Load - Worked in 4.4.67 - Broken in 4.5.56
Post by: Nala1977 on April 25, 2021, 12:56:07 PM
it works fine for me, using heightfield load, heightfield resize, heightfield adjust vertical, heightfield shader
Title: Re: EXR Heightfield Load - Worked in 4.4.67 - Broken in 4.5.56
Post by: WAS on April 25, 2021, 01:05:14 PM
Is your heightfield too big? Files over 2gb aren't loading in the latest versions.
Title: Re: EXR Heightfield Load - Worked in 4.4.67 - Broken in 4.5.56
Post by: D.A. Bentley (SuddenPlanet) on April 25, 2021, 01:17:15 PM
Quote from: WAS on April 25, 2021, 01:05:14 PMIs your heightfield too big? Files over 2gb aren't loading in the latest versions.
Oh, yes I guess thats it.  Mine are 2.5 - 4GB in file size.  Thanks for the info.
Title: Re: EXR Heightfield Load - Worked in 4.4.67 - Broken in 4.5.56
Post by: WAS on April 25, 2021, 01:19:59 PM
Yeah it's unfortunate. Wonder how this even happened without testing. So many projects I can't even start right now.

From what I understand, the alpha testers are our old members like Ulco and such, who often do the same over and over (no offense) and aren't really always testing what TG can do and stressing it, so a lot always gets by the alpha testers because they aren't really "testing" unless probably testing a new feature that testing was requesting on. IMO we need more testers, who actually sit there all the time just messing with what TG's possibilities, to discover issues. :P
Title: Re: EXR Heightfield Load - Worked in 4.4.67 - Broken in 4.5.56
Post by: Dune on April 26, 2021, 01:41:29 AM
That's right. I haven't got time to test every feature (and the new or old features needing testing are not always specifically mentioned), and though there are about a hunderd or more alpha testers in the list, it's only just three or so ever giving feedback (on the alpha site). Perhaps most of them have long abandoned TG, which is too bad. So, yes, more testers are needed, but there are hardly any users here, so I wonder where to get those from (FB perhaps :P )
Title: Re: EXR Heightfield Load - Worked in 4.4.67 - Broken in 4.5.56
Post by: WAS on April 26, 2021, 03:08:23 AM
Wow! That's a lot MIA  :o
Title: Re: EXR Heightfield Load - Worked in 4.4.67 - Broken in 4.5.56
Post by: digitalguru on April 26, 2021, 07:43:39 AM
Quote from: SuddenPlanet on April 25, 2021, 01:17:15 PM
Quote from: WAS on April 25, 2021, 01:05:14 PMIs your heightfield too big? Files over 2gb aren't loading in the latest versions.
Oh, yes I guess thats it.  Mine are 2.5 - 4GB in file size.  Thanks for the info.
I wonder if there's a way to tile heightfields - where are your heightfields coming from?
Title: Re: EXR Heightfield Load - Worked in 4.4.67 - Broken in 4.5.56
Post by: D.A. Bentley (SuddenPlanet) on April 27, 2021, 12:24:24 AM
Quote from: digitalguru on April 26, 2021, 07:43:39 AM
Quote from: SuddenPlanet on April 25, 2021, 01:17:15 PM
Quote from: WAS on April 25, 2021, 01:05:14 PMIs your heightfield too big? Files over 2gb aren't loading in the latest versions.
Oh, yes I guess thats it.  Mine are 2.5 - 4GB in file size.  Thanks for the info.
I wonder if there's a way to tile heightfields - where are your heightfields coming from?
My heightfields are EXR's coming out of Terragen using Heightfield Generate.  It's easy to turn them into tiles in World Machine, but then there is more work placing them in Terragen and trying to minimize seams.  Terragen's Border blending in the Heightfield shader kind of bows the seams down if you don't set it to zero.  So I'll stick with my 32k heightfields for now.  I end up converting them to 16-bit Grayscale Tiff's with Zip compression anyways in the end and those work fine.
Title: Re: EXR Heightfield Load - Worked in 4.4.67 - Broken in 4.5.56
Post by: digitalguru on April 27, 2021, 06:04:14 AM
I see your issue.
Have you tried loading those exrs as displacement? Or exporting the terrain via a displacement to scalar shader, it might be more forgiving memory-wise than loading and exporting as a heightfield.
Title: Re: EXR Heightfield Load - Worked in 4.4.67 - Broken in 4.5.56
Post by: WAS on April 27, 2021, 12:19:55 PM
Quote from: digitalguru on April 27, 2021, 06:04:14 AMI see your issue.
Have you tried loading those exrs as displacement? Or exporting the terrain via a displacement to scalar shader, it might be more forgiving memory-wise than loading and exporting as a heightfield.

The issue is TG will not import anything over 2gb in filesize. Will come up "file not found". And I think a 32bit EXR will be larger than a TER.

If it's a terrain you absolutely need now, you'd probably be able to get under 2gb with the microexporter, and then running through MeshLab.

Cleaning up a Terragen Terrain/Object in MeshLab:

Screenshot_2.jpg

The resulting file will be magitudes smaller than the original, especially if you lower face count some, which in many cases is negligible in quality if you keep the ration small enough.
Title: Re: EXR Heightfield Load - Worked in 4.4.67 - Broken in 4.5.56
Post by: D.A. Bentley (SuddenPlanet) on April 27, 2021, 01:34:03 PM
Quote from: digitalguru on April 27, 2021, 06:04:14 AMI see your issue.
Have you tried loading those exrs as displacement? Or exporting the terrain via a displacement to scalar shader, it might be more forgiving memory-wise than loading and exporting as a heightfield.
No, I haven't done either of those.  I don't have memory issues with 128GB so I tend to stick with what I know how to do.  I am doing large batches of terrains so I need a pipeline that I can do over and over with simplicity.
Title: Re: EXR Heightfield Load - Worked in 4.4.67 - Broken in 4.5.56
Post by: digitalguru on April 27, 2021, 04:51:46 PM
can't remember if I've asked this before - do you use Maya?

scratch that :) - just found the post where you use Modo and Blender

definitely thinking about ways to tile terrains in Terragen without using a DCC though