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General => File Sharing => Rocks => Topic started by: schmeerlap on June 20, 2011, 07:42:11 AM

Title: Creating a Tower Tutorial
Post by: schmeerlap on June 20, 2011, 07:42:11 AM
It's been many moons since I posted my "Terragen2 for the Terrified" tut here. It seems to have been quite popular (5588 downloads) so I've decided to do another one. This one isn't going to be as nanny-state as the previous one in that you will create your own settings and your own scene, with some advice from me on suitable settings. Basically you will be creating a Tower using the Crater shader inverted, and applying displacement to it. The tut features the use of Lateral normalised displacement, the inclusion of a second Compute Terrain, and use of a Strata  & Outcrops shader to enhance the tower displacement. The tut will also show you how to constrain the displacement to the tower. I've also included instruction on how to insert a clip file (cloud layer clip file included) for those who are uncertain how to do this.
The tgd file for the scene is included for reference.
It is aimed at beginners.
I'll create a link to it on the Terragen Wiki page, and at ReRo tuts for the few still interested in Terragen2 there.

Erratum: In the section Constraining Displacements, the text "I've also checked the Limit Minimum Altitude and entered a value of 3000". Should read "I've also checked Limit Maximum Altitude and entered a value of 3000".

John
Title: Re: Creating a Tower Tutorial
Post by: inkydigit on June 20, 2011, 08:46:04 AM
uncanny timing, John, I am currently messing with these kind of structures, will check this out...
cheers
Jason
Title: Re: Creating a Tower Tutorial
Post by: Henry Blewer on June 20, 2011, 08:51:30 AM
Thanks John. I've been banging my head against my monitor trying to guess how you do these.
Title: Re: Creating a Tower Tutorial
Post by: Kadri on June 20, 2011, 10:51:14 AM
Quote from: inkydigit on June 20, 2011, 08:46:04 AM
uncanny timing, John, I am currently messing with these kind of structures, will check this out...
cheers
Jason

Me too! Thanks John ;)
Title: ...
Post by: Xynedia on June 20, 2011, 12:21:52 PM
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Title: Re: Creating a Tower Tutorial
Post by: DannyG on June 20, 2011, 07:35:29 PM
Thks John

Danny
Title: Re: Creating a Tower Tutorial
Post by: Viktim on June 24, 2011, 06:00:44 PM
Thank you very much
Title: Re: Creating a Tower Tutorial
Post by: FlyLaika on June 29, 2011, 04:05:25 PM
Thank you! I wanted to learn this.
Title: Re: Creating a Tower Tutorial
Post by: choronr on July 01, 2011, 03:19:37 PM
John, thank you for your generosity. Looking forward to experimenting with your information.
Title: Re: Creating a Tower Tutorial
Post by: Mandrake on July 10, 2011, 07:13:09 PM
Thanks John, really liked your other tutorial and can't wait to give this one a look see.
I've been saving Inky's for an appropriate time so now I can study them both, outstanding!!
Title: Re: Creating a Tower Tutorial
Post by: aymenk2003 on July 29, 2011, 12:14:43 PM
Thanks John , well done...

N.KAID
Title: Re: Creating a Tower Tutorial
Post by: TheBadger on July 30, 2011, 01:59:24 PM
Very helpful to me! Thank you.
Title: Re: Creating a Tower Tutorial
Post by: mcmiller on August 01, 2011, 12:02:33 AM
This tut is great! Thanks for putting this together. I always wanted to learn how to do this.  8)

My results came out slightly different with altered warping effects in different places on the tower. I'm assuming it was the position of the tower or some other random seed at play.

I don't want to throw cold water on your effort, but I was confused by what appears to be a minor typo in the explanation of the distribution shader that leads to the strata and outcrop shader. It looks like minimum altitude constraints was written (for the 3000 and 200) when you may have meant maximum. I could be wrong, though.

Title: Re: Creating a Tower Tutorial
Post by: schmeerlap on August 01, 2011, 05:31:14 AM
Quote from: mcmiller on August 01, 2011, 12:02:33 AM
. . . . . I was confused by what appears to be a minor typo in the explanation of the distribution shader that leads to the strata and outcrop shader. It looks like minimum altitude constraints was written (for the 3000 and 200) when you may have meant maximum.

You're quite right, mcmiller. That is a typo (knew this stingy Scotsman should have employed a proof reader).
I had already told the reader to ". . . check the Limit Minimum Altitude and enter 0 with a Fuzzy Zone of 200."
I'll write an erratum to my original entry in this thread.
Thanks for this observation.

John
Title: Re: Creating a Tower Tutorial
Post by: TheBadger on August 06, 2011, 04:20:54 AM
Hello schmeerlap.

Thanks again for the tuts, but I am having trouble with my tower, hope you can give some direction.

After following the tutorial carefully a few times, and not getting anything like you got. I decided just to write down all of your file settings (seeds and everything) and try to recreate what you made this way. I got closer but still nothing like what you made. I just cant figure it out. My camera angle is different but thats all.
I realize that you want us to have are own results, but mine are so off that something has got to be wrong with my file.

Also, at the bottom of page two of the tutorial, you instruct that
Quotenamed it Smaller Tower Displacement, and inserted it between the Tower Displacement shader and the new Compute Terrain node.
but this does not follow your node network. I tried it anyway, and it did something interesting, but still not what you made.

None of this is a complaint! I have a good idea that your tutorial will make possible for me, but I need to figure out what I'm not getting here first.

My .tgd is attached if you got a min ;)

O'yeah, I stopped at the top of page 3 of the tutorial with my file. so Im just asking about the work up to that point.

Thank you
Title: Re: Creating a Tower Tutorial
Post by: schmeerlap on August 06, 2011, 11:26:40 AM
Quote from: TheBadger on August 06, 2011, 04:20:54 AM
(seeds and everything)

Hi TheBadger
Checked your tgd. Change the seed of the large displacement power fractal to 14795 (as per my tut) and you'll have the same displacement as me.
To clear up the placement of the small displacement power fractal . It should be inserted after the large displacement power fractal as per the node network I've attached below.
You should now be ready to continue with the tutorial.

John
Title: Re: Creating a Tower Tutorial
Post by: TheBadger on August 06, 2011, 03:34:56 PM
Thanks John! Your a cool dude 8) Cant believe I missed that though! Feel good and stupid now, better stop working so late ;)
Title: Re: Creating a Tower Tutorial
Post by: TheBadger on August 07, 2011, 05:05:08 AM
Hey John, Everything is great now!

I just want to trouble you with one more question please.
I would like my towers to not be so tall, rather somewhere around 100-200 meters. When I change the crater depth/diameter the tower shrinks, but some strange stuff happens too. For example, the render may cut off part of the image, or the render will not look like the preview. This does not seem to happen in your file though. Other than that, should I be changing all of my related settings, strata, distribution shader and so on to match the new depth?

Thanks
Title: Re: Creating a Tower Tutorial
Post by: schmeerlap on August 07, 2011, 07:34:52 AM
Hi TheBadger

Yeh, everything is relative. If you reduce the size (diameter/depth) of the inverse crater by say a factor of 10 you'll also have to decrease your displacements proportionally. You will experience render problems from time to time with extreme displacements.
If you click on Objects>Planet01 (the default planet) you'll see a paramater at the bottom called Displacement Tolerance which is set to a default of 1. You could try increasing that tolerance to accommodate bigger displacements. This may help to a degree, but will also increase your render time.

John
Title: Re: Creating a Tower Tutorial
Post by: DannyG on December 16, 2011, 10:40:40 AM
Nice tutorial John, like Mcduff I learned alot. A few little distorted issues to fix in the foreground detail. But heres my shot @ it
Thanks
Danny
Title: Re: Creating a Tower Tutorial
Post by: Henry Blewer on December 16, 2011, 10:48:39 AM
Nice one Danny. I like the atmosphere and the two moons.

This method works well for many landscape features.
Title: Re: Creating a Tower Tutorial
Post by: DannyG on December 20, 2011, 06:11:09 PM
Thks Henry, you are correct, going through the tutorials step by step approach really opens your mind of all kinds of possibilities. It sheds alot of light on many images I have seen with similar displacements
Danny
Title: Re: Creating a Tower Tutorial
Post by: bobbystahr on December 26, 2011, 01:22:39 PM
Quote from: schmeerlap on June 20, 2011, 07:42:11 AM

It is aimed at beginners.
I'll create a link to it on the Terragen Wiki page, and at ReRo tuts for the few still interested in Terragen2 there.


John

There's still some of us there, and we now have TG2 comps as well as Terragen Classic ones John.....
Title: Re: Creating a Tower Tutorial
Post by: bobbystahr on December 26, 2011, 01:23:09 PM
Another great tute btw....well done. ..  ...
Title: Re: Creating a Tower Tutorial
Post by: bobbystahr on December 26, 2011, 01:25:39 PM
Quote from: DannyGordon on December 16, 2011, 10:40:40 AM
Nice tutorial John, like Mcduff I learned alot. A few little distorted issues to fix in the foreground detail. But heres my shot @ it
Thanks
Danny
That's an awesome sky/atmo Danny, in addition to a great experiment with the tute......