Planetside Software Forums

Support => Terragen Support => Topic started by: Erwin0265 on February 29, 2016, 10:23:36 PM

Title: Real Glow on an Object
Post by: Erwin0265 on February 29, 2016, 10:23:36 PM
Hi all,
I'm trying to get an effect on an imported OBJ but just can't get the effect working.
I'm trying to get a glowing effect akin to a glowing light panel.
Using a Default shader, I have played with the luminosity, reflectivity, reflection tint and index of reflection; all to no avail. BTW, I used the default shader as that is what was associated with the OBJ on import (I had to reload all of the texture images for other parts of the model but the "glowing blue" parts do not have an associated image file; I hope that makes sense).
I have attached a few jpg's to show what I am after (a promo image) as well as the best I have been able to achieve.
Any suggestions?
Title: Re: Real Glow on an Object
Post by: N-drju on March 01, 2016, 03:57:01 AM
Erwin, do you want light panels that actually cast a glow on surrounding surfaces? Do I get this right?

Or do you simply want panels that 'look' bright?

Have you tried altering GI values? This way you can get the shadows less accentuated and the lights and bouncing lights more visible. Increasing luminosity to some extreme values may work but is not nearly as effective.
Title: Re: Real Glow on an Object
Post by: Klas on March 01, 2016, 12:42:27 PM
Set the Luminosity on the blue_glowing shader to colour light blue and a the value to something like 50 or 100.
Title: Re: Real Glow on an Object
Post by: Oshyan on March 01, 2016, 09:54:09 PM
Luminosity would need to be set very high. The slider value 0-1 is just the "suggested"/default values. Try in the 100s as Klas mentioned.

- Oshyan
Title: Re: Real Glow on an Object
Post by: Erwin0265 on March 02, 2016, 07:04:32 AM
I did some testing last night and found that, not only did I need to increase the luminosity values but also the Diffuse colour.
So rather than setting the diffuse colour as I wanted and leaving the value set to 1; I had to raise that value to 100 and also do something similar for the luminosity value.
For anyone that may be interested in the settings and their effect, I have attached a screengrab of my test renders along with a text file describing the settings (all settings are using the default shader's Colour tab).
Anyone wanting clarification on anything; just ask..........

[attachimg=1]
Title: Re: Real Glow on an Object
Post by: N-drju on March 02, 2016, 07:26:48 AM
That's very useful and kind of you to share. Thanks! How about putting that into tutorial section on Planetside Wiki? :)
Title: Re: Real Glow on an Object
Post by: AP on March 02, 2016, 07:32:50 AM
Thank you for doing such an extensive series of tests as it certainly shows what can be done with a glow effect. It looks like a nice combination of Neon, LED, and Fluorescent lights.
Title: Re: Real Glow on an Object
Post by: AP on March 02, 2016, 07:34:30 AM
Quote from: N-drju on March 02, 2016, 07:26:48 AM
That's very useful and kind of you to share. Thanks! How about putting that into tutorial section on Planetside Wiki? :)

That seems like a good idea if each image has a label near it listing each setting. Maybe even an animated GIF would be better?
Title: Re: Real Glow on an Object
Post by: N-drju on March 02, 2016, 08:26:52 AM
Like they have here;

http://www.planetside.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Cloud_Layer_v2

Erwin? Oshyan? What do you say?
Title: Re: Real Glow on an Object
Post by: Erwin0265 on March 03, 2016, 03:15:03 AM
I'm happy to reformat this as a more descriptive "guide", but it's not really a tutorial; rather, an exploration (of sorts).
As for the animated gif; I haven't a clue how to create one of those but happy to learn if someone can instruct me.
I would prefer the gif to be additional, however, as I find separate images more useful myself, so I imagine there would also be others with a similar preference.
Title: Re: Real Glow on an Object
Post by: AP on March 03, 2016, 03:19:57 AM
If you can add the description to each example, i can make an animated GIF. That to can go to the WIKI.
Title: Re: Real Glow on an Object
Post by: Erwin0265 on March 03, 2016, 03:34:32 AM
OK.
I'll create the "guide" and we can take it from there and see what we can put together............
Title: Re: Real Glow on an Object
Post by: AP on March 03, 2016, 04:14:21 AM
Excellent.
Title: Re: Real Glow on an Object
Post by: Erwin0265 on March 03, 2016, 06:21:47 AM
OK,
I've put together a tutorial in Word with all of the test renders, an explanation of the settings and copious amounts of gibberish.
Now how do I get that in the tutorial section?
And, I assume that you (Chris) will be needing a copy of all of the test renders to compile into an animated gif?
I'll be interested to see how this goes as I wrote 2 other tutorials for the tutorial section (Xfrog plant conversion in PoseRay and another in Cinema4D) but nothing eventuated from them (although I do refer to them when I gain forget how I did things the last time...... :D)............
I can upload the tutorial and the test renders to Sendspace and post a link here but that still makes it difficult for others to find and it would be nice to see something new in the tutorial section............
Title: Re: Real Glow on an Object
Post by: TheBadger on March 03, 2016, 09:04:35 PM
you can log-in to the wiki. Also post it here as a pdf or preferably as an image file. You should probably post it a few times to make sure it gets to people, i would guess.

I think PS' preference is that people use the TG wiki pages.
Title: Re: Real Glow on an Object
Post by: Erwin0265 on March 04, 2016, 04:57:34 AM
QuoteAlso post it here as a pdf or preferably as an image file.
Umm, you do realise that there are 26 test renders?
I found an online PDF converter and converted my 52MB Word document to a 1.43MB PDF file!
I must admit, I never realised how much smaller in size the file would be converting from Word to PDF............
So, although I do hope to include the animated gif suggested by N-drju (with Chis' help) and then perhaps add it to the wiki (if people think it worthy), I've attached it here for anyone who's interested.
Please let me know if there's anything unclear or there are any typos (I write in English, not American  ;)).
Title: Re: Real Glow on an Object
Post by: N-drju on March 04, 2016, 05:25:33 AM
A clean, neatly organized tutorial / manual. Thanks for sharing and taking your time to write it - it's not easy at times!

By the way... Allied Fleets Destroyer's crew has a wide selection of light bulbs / electricians. :D
Title: Re: Real Glow on an Object
Post by: Erwin0265 on March 04, 2016, 05:29:00 AM
QuoteA clean, neatly organized tutorial / manual.
Thanks.
Writing tutorials is easy (I used to be a teacher); learning Terragen; now that's not easy!  :P
Title: Re: Real Glow on an Object
Post by: AP on March 04, 2016, 06:03:58 AM
I can take those images within the PDF and convert over to GIF. Then they can go over to the WIKI.
Title: Re: Real Glow on an Object
Post by: Erwin0265 on March 04, 2016, 08:22:39 AM
Sounds like a plan.
Is there anything else you need from me?
I wish I could master Terragen this easily........... ;)
Title: Re: Real Glow on an Object
Post by: AP on March 04, 2016, 05:28:48 PM
I would need the pictures separated because on the PDF, there are two to each page. That way i can make the GIF animation per each image.
Title: Re: Real Glow on an Object
Post by: Erwin0265 on March 05, 2016, 02:01:44 AM
OK, I've uploaded them to Sendspace:
https://www.sendspace.com/file/5ceduq
Have fun.  :)
Title: Re: Real Glow on an Object
Post by: AP on March 05, 2016, 02:27:10 AM
It will not take long, just a few minutes to convert.
Title: Re: Real Glow on an Object
Post by: KyL on March 05, 2016, 10:23:32 PM
What about adding a light haze in the scene? Something like a very thin clouds to help having a nice glow?

That's pretty much what would happen in reality, unless you want the kind of glow a camera lens is creating... in that case you're pretty much stuck with insanely high luminosity values and hope to have the Anti-aliasing bloom do the job.
Title: Re: Real Glow on an Object
Post by: Erwin0265 on March 10, 2016, 05:12:08 AM
Sorry for slow response; had to reformat communications PC (twice) thanks to unauthorised updates by MS which resulted in loss of audio...
Chris; gif done? Are you familiar (ie. have a clue) as to how to combine our stuff and upload to PS wiki?

Kyl; although I haven't tried it (doing others things currently), I cn't imagine it would be too useful as the distance from camera to hanger bay (what's shown in the test renders) isn't that much so a slight increase in haze wouldn't really be noticed; a greater increase and it would look like a foggy night in space (remember, in space, no-one can hear you scream  see haze).  ;)
Title: Re: Real Glow on an Object
Post by: bobbystahr on March 12, 2016, 03:04:12 PM
Quote from: Erwin0265 on March 10, 2016, 05:12:08 AM
(remember, in space, no-one can hear you scream  see haze).  ;)

hee hee hee