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General => Terragen Discussion => Topic started by: amandas on June 10, 2020, 03:29:26 AM

Title: Heightfield placement visual helper
Post by: amandas on June 10, 2020, 03:29:26 AM
Is there a bounding box helper with interactive gizmo to support placement of heightfields, or anything that can support visually heightfield placement?

Best regards
Title: Re: Heightfield placement visual helper
Post by: N-drju on June 10, 2020, 03:37:49 AM
Not sure if this will be of any help to you, but you could right-click in the preview window (best to use top view or a high-alt camera) and choose the "copy coordinates" option. Then, you can drop these coords into any shader that supports coordinate inputs.
Title: Re: Heightfield placement visual helper
Post by: amandas on June 10, 2020, 03:57:46 AM
Quote from: N-drju on June 10, 2020, 03:37:49 AMNot sure if this will be of any help to you, but you could right-click in the preview window (best to use top view or a high-alt camera) and choose the "copy coordinates" option. Then, you can drop these coords into any shader that supports coordinate inputs.
Thanks for quick reply! So basically I could use a primitive (say I scaled box), interactively place it and copy the final coords to the HF? Looks like a plan :)
Title: Re: Heightfield placement visual helper
Post by: amandas on June 10, 2020, 04:02:30 AM
Ok this looks like a workaround, if only I could parent the HF under the BBox or link coordinates...
Title: Re: Heightfield placement visual helper
Post by: N-drju on June 10, 2020, 04:08:04 AM
Quote from: amandas on June 10, 2020, 03:57:46 AMSo basically I could use a primitive (say I scaled box), interactively place it and copy the final coords to the HF?
Not really - you don't have to add anything as a placeholder.

Just click in the preview window on any place that you would like the heightfield to be centered at. Then, use the context menu to copy the coords.
Title: Re: Heightfield placement visual helper
Post by: N-drju on June 10, 2020, 04:13:50 AM
Unless I misunderstood your intention and you want to generate the heightfield directly on the box object...?
Title: Re: Heightfield placement visual helper
Post by: amandas on June 10, 2020, 04:24:58 AM
I just wanted to have a visual guide, the trick with using a primitive box for placement, then copying its coordinates to the Transform input shader of the HF works fine for now, thanks for help :)
Title: Re: Heightfield placement visual helper
Post by: N-drju on June 10, 2020, 04:32:41 AM
Ok, great. You can also use the "landmark" object. Renders instantaneous compared to the native box and can as well be scaled and coloured while having no impact on the scene whatsoever.
Title: Re: Heightfield placement visual helper
Post by: amandas on June 10, 2020, 04:51:00 AM
Quote from: N-drju on June 10, 2020, 04:32:41 AMOk, great. You can also use the "landmark" object. Renders instantaneous compared to the native box and can as well be scaled and coloured while having no impact on the scene whatsoever.
Thanks, yeah this really helps to have a fast GUI overlay with Landmark object, I only wish I could do per axis scaling as well, but it is still a great way to improve workflow.
Title: Re: Heightfield placement visual helper
Post by: bobbystahr on June 15, 2020, 12:36:51 AM
Quote from: amandas on June 10, 2020, 04:02:30 AMOk this looks like a workaround, if only I could parent the HF under the BBox or link coordinates...
you could also use a Simple Shape shader
Title: Re: Heightfield placement visual helper
Post by: amandas on June 18, 2020, 03:35:59 AM
Quote from: bobbystahr on June 15, 2020, 12:36:51 AM
Quote from: amandas on June 10, 2020, 04:02:30 AMOk this looks like a workaround, if only I could parent the HF under the BBox or link coordinates...
you could also use a Simple Shape shader
Thanks!
Title: Re: Heightfield placement visual helper
Post by: luvsmuzik on June 28, 2020, 09:38:18 AM
Welcome to the forum. Very curious to see your Travelers entry. Your True Bliss game reminds me of a cg version of "Etch-a-Sketch" we old timers used to have. (Hand held design toy) You have some incredible works in your online portfolio. :)