Planetside Software Forums

Hi, I'm a very inexperienced user (can do basice dirt and snow landscapes) who is involved in a project to make a planet that is mostly flat and where people live in extensive connected fertile canyons or 'cracks'.  

I tried to make a canyon, but it ended up as a very straight trench, which was too unnatural.

Any tips?

Edit; oh I am on the Free version.

Welcome to the forums :)

To create extensive connected canyons I'd suggest to start with this shader:

http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=6432.0 (http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=6432.0)

This shader creates cracks which also don't look too straight.
"Simply" increase the scales to your taste (I'd make them around 2-3 kilometer-scale at least If I understand your idea correctly). Don't forget to scale the displacements, set in the 2 surface layers, accordingly.
You now have huge cracks which you can use as a base for the canyon.

To add detail to the walls you can use a redirect shader (under displacement shaders) to displace the vertical walls.
Attach a powerfractal to the X and Z port of the redirect shader and play with the scales. In general a nice start is to have the displacement factor half the size of your feature scale.

This should get you started I think :)
I'd like to see how this works out for you. If you need any help then let me know. I've made a couple of canyons myself too.

Cheers,
Martin

 :D Thanks for quick reply.  Off to do.

Did this in the meantime.  Wouldn't mind a river at the bottom, but I find the lake a bit cumbersome.  I suppose I;ll have to work on it.  This is from a Volker terrain (coloured by me).
(http://s81.photobucket.com/albums/j238/Latics/?action=view&current=canyonwithoutwater.jpg)

Struggling to find the scale increasers.   Getting some very spiky results.   The mystery would disappear with the rule book, I know, but if anyone could help me out here, you'd have my warm thanks.

I'll prepare you an example...hold on...

Something in this direction?

---

Make the spike and roughness of the displacement tab of the power fractals very small. This will help the spikiness.

Quote from: njeneb on March 25, 2010, 04:57:32 PM
Make the spike and roughness of the displacement tab of the power fractals very small. This will help the spikiness.

Ghehe, well thanks Henry :) but that's not the issue here. He's trying to find a principle to create his idea, which I offered. Technical details etc. are up to himself :)

Quote from: Tangled-Universe on March 25, 2010, 04:51:53 PM
Something in this direction?

That's awesome.   Something like that but with the canyons a bit more connected.  

Here's the .tgd, it contains some explanation on the most important stuff.

http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=4484.msg98454#msg98454 (http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=4484.msg98454#msg98454)

Martin

Quote from: Tangled-Universe on March 26, 2010, 05:36:58 AM
Here's the .tgd, it contains some explanation on the most important stuff.

http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=4484.msg98454#msg98454 (http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=4484.msg98454#msg98454)

Martin

Bless you and all who sail in you.  ;D

Isn't that a quote about the Bucket woman? (Keeping Up Appearances)

Bugger, that's my secret out.

lol ;D

I found these, if any other nubs wander in with the same question.

http://en.tgblog.de/?p=26=1  <  walkthrough of how to make a single canyon with two heightfields.

http://en.tgblog.de/?p=27&cpage=1#comment-606  < step by step voronoi dried clay.  Scale it up.

previous contributors where helpful, but no-one were pitched at quite the right level for me, i.e. stunned monkey.

First original canyon, using the heightfield method above    Anyone one know why overhangs and such are only on one side?  Here is the map:

Are your twist and shear shaders working in opposite directions? You might need to have two different heightfield generators and make sure the merge shader is set to highest (raise).

merge shader is set to highest (raise)


Managed to get it to loom in the right direction, by doing what you suggested with the twist and shear.

next issue... on the vohnoi page, I ended up with this



instead of the nice dried mud they get.




Compare and contrast our work flows... where have I gone wrong

theirs:



mine

Did you also copy the values used in each of the nodes? Might be that the scale is off and if you zoom in you'll see the cracks?

Quote from: Primalace on March 31, 2010, 01:17:54 PM
Did you also copy the values used in each of the nodes? Might be that the scale is off and if you zoom in you'll see the cracks?

None were given... the first time i did it, it worked (up to the subtract), but something went wrong after I fiddled. I restarted and couldn't get it.  I didn't need zooming in that first time.

I messed about with the xyz on the canyon wall and got it to really loom, though it looks a bit samey.

I've attached a clip file that has values set up for around 1-2 metre cracked mud. It should be self explanatory when you insert the file. You can adjust the placement via changing the surface layers properties.

cheers

ok, that worked to a point.  I made it bigger and I zoomed in.

I wanted to rough up the canyons and thought I could do it like I did on the heightfield canyons, above, with redirect shaders, but it says I can't because my compute terrain is not connected to my planet.  Is there another way to make the close up canyons realistic or have I missed something?

Ok worked that out.

Next problem.   How to make this roughing up... more rough (the preview looks great, the render not so much).    And why will it not let me colour by altitude.  Instead I can only do this wierd war paint thing by slope restraints.



(ignore the globe for now, it's my next thing... how to change its surface).

The Surface Shader has a tab, Altitude Constraints. I use this for creating color layers. The key for getting nice tight layers using this is the Min and Max fuzzy zone inputs/sliders. If you set the lowest layers max height to 200m and the max fuzzy zone to 0, no color will be above 200m. On the next Surface Layer, set the min height to 200m with 0 min fuzzy zone. This will start the next color at 200m.

Continue doing this for as many layers as you like; setting the min and max altitude. Each min altitude is the previous surface layers max altitude. I use obnoxious contrasting colors to test the layers, then change them to the proper colors when I am happy with the setup.

Quote from: njeneb on March 31, 2010, 09:49:38 PM
The Surface Shader has a tab, Altitude Constraints. I use this for creating color layers. The key for getting nice tight layers using this is the Min and Max fuzzy zone inputs/sliders. If you set the lowest layers max height to 200m and the max fuzzy zone to 0, no color will be above 200m. On the next Surface Layer, set the min height to 200m with 0 min fuzzy zone. This will start the next color at 200m.

Continue doing this for as many layers as you like; setting the min and max altitude. Each min altitude is the previous surface layers max altitude. I use obnoxious contrasting colors to test the layers, then change them to the proper colors when I am happy with the setup.

I got this but the alts is so low, like 30m or so.   Despite the scalar being set at 2000 and the main surface layer being displaced to 7500.    I thought they set the height and this would be higher?   

Could you post your TGD file in the file section. I'll take a look at it. Then set up things how I do them. I'll post an explanation also.

sure, didn't know i could do that...

I'll have something for you tonight (EST)

Thanks!  Though don't knock yourself out, Easter weekend means no free time to do anything with it.

Here's a link to a step by step group of tgd's of how I make canyons.

http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=9344.msg98985#msg98985

I hope this helps. My method is quite different from the file you posted.