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General => Terragen Discussion => Topic started by: Marlin on November 16, 2009, 05:47:21 PM

Title: Need help with objects.
Post by: Marlin on November 16, 2009, 05:47:21 PM
I need some help with the objects I'm porting to Terragen 2. I can get the glass in the object transparent but am having difficulties getting the reflections and tinted glass. I'm having problems getting metal to look like metal.

Where am I going wrong? I've played with the specular and translucent aspects but can't seem to get it.

Help........ ;D 
Title: Re: Need help with objects.
Post by: schmeerlap on November 17, 2009, 04:51:44 AM
Sorry no one has responded to your queerie regarding reflections on object. I can't help you in that regard as I've been trying to do the same thing recently, without any success. Best I could manage using the reflection parameters was an inadequate milky look to my "metal ball". It might be a good idea to send Seth a pm asking him how he got the metallic reflection look to his metal ball in his "Balls and Stones" image:
http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=7545.0

Meanwhile I'll keep trying to produce something acceptable, that is worth sharing.

John
Title: Re: Need help with objects.
Post by: inkydigit on November 17, 2009, 06:58:22 AM
for the reflective metal, did you try here?
http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=5341.msg56421#msg56421 (http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=5341.msg56421#msg56421)
sorry I can't help with the glass...
Title: Re: Need help with objects.
Post by: Henry Blewer on November 17, 2009, 08:28:55 AM
I am working on the glass now. It is easy to get an object to vanish...

I tried several settings using the default shader. I tried a reflective shader, with some small success. That is until the transparency goes below 0.7125.

Last thing I tried was a water shader. Reduce the roughness to zero. The transparency can be adjusted. The Decay Distance seems to be the key here. This needs to be set at the objects scale size. The reflectivity can be set also.
This seems to be the solution, at least until the new object render engine is released. Apparently the current render engine uses a z buffer for transparency. From the bits I've read in various posts, the next object render engine will be full ray-traced.
Title: Re: Need help with objects.
Post by: Henry Blewer on November 17, 2009, 08:55:20 AM
P.S. - Please don't think we were not answering you. This is a very difficult subject to implement.
Title: Re: Need help with objects.
Post by: Walli on November 17, 2009, 10:01:27 AM
for metallic objects, pipe the default shader through the reflective shader - there you will get real reflections. Highly reflective materials need a pretty high index of refraction, I think you can go above 15 in some cases
Title: Re: Need help with objects.
Post by: Henry Blewer on November 17, 2009, 01:40:24 PM
Walli, those are pretty much the same settings I tried On the bottom image. I did not get any type of result like that. I'll post what I was able to manage.
Title: Re: Need help with objects.
Post by: Walli on November 17, 2009, 02:29:27 PM
I didn´t try on imported object so far (well, I did a very long time and it worked as far as I can remember), I used the built in sphere object. Hopefully this doesn´t make a difference.
Title: Re: Need help with objects.
Post by: Marlin on November 17, 2009, 02:30:00 PM
Thanks for the info I'll give it a try.

;D ;D
Title: Re: Need help with objects.
Post by: Henry Blewer on November 17, 2009, 03:24:39 PM
Here is what rendered out using Walli's settings. I am using Version 2.0 (Build 2.0.3.1) I added the clouds so there was something to be seen through the image.
Title: Re: Need help with objects.
Post by: Walli on November 17, 2009, 05:05:39 PM
could you post the tgd?
Title: Re: Need help with objects.
Post by: dandelO on November 17, 2009, 05:55:16 PM
Well, I wasn't even aware that the transparency worked correctly in the reflective shader yet. I'd been still using my own transparency shader(an edited water shader) up until now, I'll give the reflective shader a go again now, though. Cheers, Walli! :)
Title: Re: Need help with objects.
Post by: Mandrake on November 17, 2009, 07:53:59 PM
Quote from: njeneb on November 17, 2009, 03:24:39 PM
Here is what rendered out using Walli's settings. I am using Version 2.0 (Build 2.0.3.1) I added the clouds so there was something to be seen through the image.

Looks like you still have the water shader hooked in here.
Title: Re: Need help with objects.
Post by: Marlin on November 17, 2009, 09:20:18 PM
Here's what I got....

(//)

I'm still having problems with the complex objects...A crosswing fighter from ShareGC. either opaque or transparent. What about a glass shader that is for objects that have multiple surfaces to work?
Title: Re: Need help with objects.
Post by: Mandrake on November 17, 2009, 09:31:49 PM
When you right click on the shader and add reflection it will jump to the default shader (material) reflection tab, don't let that fool you.
Jump your IOR up, not reflection.
Title: Re: Need help with objects.
Post by: Klas on November 18, 2009, 06:04:18 AM
Here is a sample for a glass shader that can be used for a windshield:
Title: Re: Need help with objects.
Post by: Henry Blewer on November 18, 2009, 06:24:00 AM
Walli, here is the tgd file for the image I did on this subject.
Title: Re: Need help with objects.
Post by: Marlin on November 18, 2009, 09:59:05 AM
Bingo Klas.... ;D

This did the trick.

(http://)

(//)

Thanks........now on to the metal.
Title: Re: Need help with objects.
Post by: Klas on November 18, 2009, 01:55:40 PM
Add a reflective shader between the default shader of the gray surface and the object part like on the glass shader and play with the settings.
Title: Re: Need help with objects.
Post by: Henry Blewer on November 18, 2009, 02:35:44 PM
Cool looking spacecraft. I am glad the windows came out well!
Title: Re: Need help with objects.
Post by: Marlin on November 18, 2009, 05:15:25 PM
Can you believe it's a free download from Share GC.......... a lot of good stuff over there.
Title: Re: Need help with objects.
Post by: inkydigit on November 19, 2009, 05:50:00 AM
looks great thus far Marlin, looking forward to the update!
Title: Re: Need help with objects.
Post by: Marlin on November 19, 2009, 08:00:01 PM
How about this.............. ;D
Title: Re: Need help with objects.
Post by: Henry Blewer on November 20, 2009, 01:13:40 AM
Good stuff. I would add a power fractal to the stone for some color variation. Maybe two. Are you using the free version?
Title: Re: Need help with objects.
Post by: Marlin on November 20, 2009, 07:55:57 AM
Quote from: njeneb on November 20, 2009, 01:13:40 AM
Good stuff. I would add a power fractal to the stone for some color variation. Maybe two. Are you using the free version?

Yes. I'm stuck with the free version at this time. Planetside doesn't recognize discover card at this time and that is the only credit card I have at this time. I would like to get it with animation... ;D

The land was just a quickie for a background to show off the model.
Title: Re: Need help with objects.
Post by: Henry Blewer on November 20, 2009, 09:03:21 AM
I had difficulty with my creadit card also. Contact Planetside directly. It's not quite as easy, but it was not horrible. Waiting on the Post Office was the hard part.
Title: Re: Need help with objects.
Post by: jritchie777 on November 20, 2009, 04:37:29 PM
As for metal the key is the index of refraction setting it higher than 2.5 which I believe is the end of the crystal indexes of refraction.  As for glass are you having a problem with that?  Are you trying to get to something like the attached image.  I've made the archway into a emerald which has both reflective and transparent glass like qualities.

JR
Title: Re: Need help with objects.
Post by: bobbystahr on November 20, 2009, 04:57:43 PM
Well done, but a problem I keep having shows up here....the shadows do not relfect the fact that the light is coming through the object and are in fact opaque
Title: Re: Need help with objects.
Post by: Mandrake on November 20, 2009, 05:16:39 PM
Quote from: Marlin on November 19, 2009, 08:00:01 PM
How about this.............. ;D


Nice if I were about to blast you out of the sky and cross your wake.
develop your Point of view. Your marching forward integrating obj's, now work your scene.
Title: Re: Need help with objects.
Post by: jritchie777 on November 20, 2009, 05:27:34 PM
Let me understand correctly - shadows as seen through the object coming from the scene or shadow of the object as light passes through it?

For the former I used the default shader attached to the density function of the water shader tab and adjusted transparency and luminous to be functions for density within the object.  There I was able to effect the opaqueness of the object by increasing or decreasing the water density utilizing the function.

For the later, to get more realistic shadow (depends a lot on surface but) given off by the object I use the reflection tint setting it to a bit darker color than the object.

Don't know if this helps or not...
JR
Title: Re: Need help with objects.
Post by: Mandrake on November 20, 2009, 05:34:26 PM
>Let me understand correctly - shadows as seen through the object coming from the scene or shadow of the object as light passes through it?

I think Klas would like to explain the reflection and shadows problem hehe