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General => Terragen Discussion => Topic started by: Whistletooth on September 18, 2013, 05:20:05 PM

Title: Render Fractal Shaders To Image Files
Post by: Whistletooth on September 18, 2013, 05:20:05 PM
 I am working in game development and we create our terrain textures based off of satellite photos. We create the textures in Photoshop in layers. But, I feel that they always have a slight fakeness to them, since we cannot use the actual satellite photos.

Is there a way to apply fractal shaders to the imported terrain models and then render the resulting shaders as they appear on the terrain model to JPG or TGA files based off of the UV's? That way, our terrains would have a more natural look.

I'm not sure if I phrased this correctly, but I hope it makes sense. Thanks for any help since I am still very new to Terragen.

Title: Re: Render Fractal Shaders To Image Files
Post by: ndeewolfwood on September 18, 2013, 06:55:05 PM
 
I should be less difficult to increase your map quality with other texture map in photoshop i guess.
You could use terragen to generate those texture with top camera render.

But you can't import mesh with uv >detail in terragen>regenerate correct uv map according to this.

If your terrain don't have big slope it should ok with top camera.

Or you can use some camera mapping and project those render on uv on any serious 3d package.
Title: Re: Render Fractal Shaders To Image Files
Post by: ndeewolfwood on September 18, 2013, 07:04:33 PM
Ohhh take a look on this.
You can adapt this kind of workflow with terragen too.

http://wiki.splashdamage.com/index.php/An_Advanced_Terrain_and_Megatexture
Title: Re: Render Fractal Shaders To Image Files
Post by: Oshyan on September 18, 2013, 07:09:22 PM
Terragen does not have a direct texture export option at this time. You would need to use a regular Render and set it up to be neutral for texture rendering as much as possible. That would generally mean orthographic camera, flat lighting (sun at 90 degrees for example), no atmosphere, etc. This will only work for things that can be represented in a planar map, so it would not handle complete textured models for example (unless they were essentially planar terrain models). You could apply your textures to a flat surface, render that to an image, then apply that as a texture map in your game engine perhaps.

- Oshyan
Title: Re: Render Fractal Shaders To Image Files
Post by: ndeewolfwood on September 18, 2013, 07:26:23 PM
And the thing is  : how many texture map size youre game can deal with and how close are you from the ground ?
What kind of gameplay and point of view for this game ?

If you want some extra details your can use procedural shaders directly in you're 3d game engine....It could be very resource friendly and pretty nice too.   
Title: Re: Render Fractal Shaders To Image Files
Post by: Whistletooth on September 18, 2013, 10:23:38 PM
 Thanks for all the replies. I guess I should discuss this with the engineers and others to see what they say. Maybe it will be too much work to change the way we are doing things. I just know that on the art side I am always looking to improve the look of things, and I forget the other subjects like frame rate.

I've used Vue for years and have been looking at Terragen 3 lately. Something about the terrains and renderings just look more real to me in TG3. It also seems like the nodes will make it more controlable than what I've found in Vue. Only testing and time will tell.