Ive tried reading though some threds of exporting using the lightwave thingo..I pretty sure I can get that to happen but what I really didnt get from the threds was if this supports the colour information aka shaders of the terrain. I dont mean shaders as material files just a colour image thats going to match a heightfield(as in UV's) or .lwo mesh that I export. I guess what I was to make sure I can do is load up the model files and have the texure i see in TG2 and that it fits. In the end I dont need my model to be high poly but the colour is the thing thats going to make it look good for my 3D skybox for the source engine(yes 3D skybox not a 6 sided cube)..anyway i fthere is a post about let me know if now..some clarity pretty please.
cheers everyone ;D
Adam
what nobody knows or is it so obvious that you feel you dont need to say anything ???
As far as I know it is not possible to export the color information with the .lwo along.
You can render a top-down view of the exported area to get a color image which you can hook into your .lwo model later, but it won't 'fill' all the shapes/angles of the model because there are a lot of overhangs and displacements.
Martin
yeah thats what i was afraid of, Im not sure if I want to spend time trying to match up image renders from a tg2 camera to match a terrain even if the terrain had no overhangs. And its seems then I have hit a wall with terragen 2 until maybe it has that feature, I know its hard to export procedural terrain as ive read in allot of other threds but I guess thats why other apps have implemented mega texures and areas of intrest to handle small sections for export ect, but hey I love what I have seen so far with this app and I will keep my eye on whats going on.. :)
ad
Correct, the textures do not export with either of the LWO exporters. Presently TG2 is optimized more for internal rendering rather than texture generation for other applications. But interoperability with other systems will be a future priority.
- Oshyan
I really hope like you said that export gets better :) I mean I am developing for games so while terragen is fantastic at creating images its not really usful for what I have to come up with for work except for skyboxes. So what about the system that l3dt has with mega textures and terrain files..is there any plans for that? the moment its working email me and Ill be happy to spend some money on terragen 2.
Oshyan I know you work hard on this and its allot to develop im just a little disapointed cause I cant get these fantastic terains in the games we are woking on :'(
what about to render out a simple heightmap greyscale image froma camera as in Z depth? - almost every app ive working in 3d with can do this. And im not really working with proc terrains im only working with heightmaps ive made in worlmachine then on top of that the surface shaders, I dont mind loosing the overhangs because really I dont have overhangs..well not big overhangs anyway.
Why don't you match up an orthographic camera (pointing down 90 degrees) to the output .ter terrain's export area settings? If the terrain is 1000x1000, the camera needs to be positioned above the centre of the square at 500, 500.
you mean output the mesh though lightwave? Because my machine even though its not bad 2 gig of ram simply runs out of memory to export the area of terrain im dealing with..I just want to see if i can get a plain old dirry heightmap from a camera view..a rendered grey scale image. Again if you have ever tried to match up a model to colour information for terrain u will probably know its not that its not easy and is a huge waste of time..so if output of a heightfield .ter is possible froma camera view....how?
No, export from TG2 as a .ter and create an ORTHO camera matching to the output area. Search the forum for how to do it - you can specify the area and the resolution to export as a .ter. Take the .ter back into World Machine if you want, or use another app to convert from .ter to another format (there are ones that will do that).
well i did plenty of searches for getting out heightmaps and I didnt find anything that matches the problem or someone who has actually done it..I am at a loss :-\..If someone was to point me to the thred that sais here use this node and do this then i could play with it..but i have no idea which node i should be conecting to what..doesnt make sense to me..id love to give it a try though if someone knows. In the end im now working with Vue(adam feels like trator), but i mean its quite simple in Vue to output colour height and alpha within the same render job..and then its done, I mean Vue doesnt look as good to me but I have to go with workflow here...that is until i find a solution for tg2.
thanks for the help so far :)
Check this thread:
http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?PHPSESSID=b5a26f6048f4a1705a2b574c3085572a&topic=2493.0
And these:
http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?PHPSESSID=b5a26f6048f4a1705a2b574c3085572a&topic=894.0
http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=3684.msg38115#msg38115
cool thanks jimB
i will try it when i get home from work..and let everyone know how it goes..i mean I really want to get it to work..
cheers again
ad
Leveller has a useful terrain mesh optimized .obj output. Load a .ter, export and optimize at your desired resolution.
Terragen 2 is primarily a renderer. It is not explicitly intended as a terrain modeler for other applications. In other words while it has great tools for creating realistic terrain, the focus is on rendering those terrains within TG2, not exporting them to other systems like games, or other renderers. Data interchange will be more of a focus in the future, but even then we will be aiming more at other high end 3D applications like Maya, Softimage, etc. rather than game purposes. The effects industry is just a larger, more immediately applicable market.
That being said, if all you need is normal heightfield output (grayscale), right-click on a heightfield node and choose Save As. Give it a .ter extension. Then use TerraConv (http://koti.mbnet.fi/pkl/tg/TerraConv.htm) to convert 16 bit TIFF. You should then be able to convert this to any format you need.
- Oshyan
Would it be possible when the SDK is ready for some one to write a converter to move TG2 scene data into other software pipelines? The problem I see until Multi-Pass Rendering is ready in future is how you are meant to match lighting and shadows either in software or in compositing with TG2 generated deliverables with that of deliverables generated in other 3D Assets and / or live plates?
I am not really shore where TG2 fits into the chain of existing work flows and/ or pipelines and how well for the time being (Setting aside that it is a WIP for moment) how it is going to handshake with the needs of production eco-systems, but maybe I'm over looking some thing!
Regards to you.
Cyber-Angel
We intend to natively support some aspects of data interchange with other applications, but it is likely this could also be handled (for specific application needs, for example) by using the SDK.
The current workflows that many people are using professionally to integrate TG2 with other apps generally involve either backgrounds/skyboxes, or compositing against TG2 rendered plates using exported LWO geometry to project shadows. This is a fairly effective workflow for many needs, but it will be improved/expanded in the future.
- Oshyan
Quote from: Oshyan on June 06, 2008, 12:16:12 AM
The effects industry is just a larger, more immediately applicable market.
I don't think the effects market is necessarily larger, but TG2's current strengths are probably more easily applied there at present. Improving terrain generation and export for both game development and non-realtime visual effects is important for Terragen's future.
Matt
I think terrain/landscape needs in the effects industry are larger than terrain/landscape needs in games - perhaps that says it better. There are a large percentage of games that have absolutely no use for any terrain, whereas if only for virtual set creation, the vast majority of movies *could* use a terrain renderer. Whether they will need to or not is another queston. They are also more likely to need more licenses for render farms, etc. whereas terrain generation is generally handled on a single workstation. Not to say that I don't think the games market is worth serving, but as you said TG2's current strengths are more easily applied to the effects industry, and that essentially makes it a larger market for us right now.
- Oshyan
Games:
I think as far as the use of TG2 in the games is concerned, the only place I could envision it been used is Cut-Scenes and the like, rather than in game. I am not really up with the different game engines out there currently, so I am unsure as to weather any of them could support high resolution procedural terrain generated in TG2 at high enough frame rates for the game play experience today's players expect.
Production:
The question of weather production houses are going to want more licences for render farms is a tricky one, especially for smaller companies; Planetside could go down the "Licence Per Node" route but that brings up in the mind of Render Farm managers the question of weather their company is going to have to pay Planetside a yearly licence renewal fee (Anti-Spy ware software is a case in point), my advice would be to go down the alternative route.
The model that is adopted by some vendors (and liked by software reviewers) is one licence for unlimited nodes for render farms, but companies would still be required to have a licence per workstation as now with the option for companies to by multiple licences in blocks: lets say they have 200 workstations they could buy 4 X 50 blocks with each block costing a given amount.
In this model there could be a scheme where once a certain amount of licences have been brought the cheaper it should be, with the option of negotiation on a case by case basis for smaller companies.
The last option would be select some of the Internet based Render Farms as official partners and have them install TG2 on their farms and have TG2 rendered in that fashion this is already done mostly for renderers such as PR Renderman, V-Ray, Brazil R/S and Maxwell Render, however there are internet render farms that do Maya and Lightwave so there are precedents out there.
Regards to you.
Cyber-Angel