Recent posts

#81

Terragen Discussion / Re: Displacement map question

Last post by Kevin Kipper - May 20, 2025, 05:12:34 PM

You may have to add a Compute Normal node after any terrain displacement and before the displacement from the jagged rock image.  Then, you could use an Image Map Shader node (with jagged rock) with displacement enabled and a Distribution Shader as a mask.  Set the Slope Constraints in the Distribution shader.

#82

Terragen Discussion / Displacement map question

Last post by rolland1013 - May 20, 2025, 04:00:07 PM

I not having any luck getting this to work. I have a displacement map of a jagged rock surface that I want to apply to my terrain surface. But I want it to only affect terrain with a slope greater than 30 degrees. I've tried using the altitude constraints in a Surface Layer node, but it doesn't work. As a test, I created a small painted shader, and that works. But that isn't a practical solution for what I'm trying to do. Is there a way of doing this that uses slope and elevation to mask a displacement map?

Thanks,
Niel

#83

Image Sharing / Happy accident

Last post by Belmont224 - May 20, 2025, 02:17:12 PM

This is my first image worth posting, and it's creation was an accident. I thought it looked cool though. Literally... I need to fix the trees growing straight out of the rock.

The accident was when I unchecked the box to light surfaces with the sun. This created this cloudy, cold looking image.

#84

Terragen Discussion / Re: Heightmap problem

Last post by digitalguru - May 20, 2025, 08:59:59 AM

How are you mapping the displacement? can you post an image?

#85

Terragen Discussion / Heightmap problem

Last post by rpleak - May 20, 2025, 05:18:08 AM

I am having a problem using heightmaps. I have created a small planet with a radius of 43780 meters, but when I load heightmaps to give it a cratered surface, all the hieghtmaps load at the top of the planet, and drape down the sides. This produces a a surface that is smeared down the sides from the top, and aren't perpendicular to the sides of the planet.
Any suggestions?

Thanks;
Rob Pleak

#86

Terragen Discussion / Re: Render subdiv settings

Last post by digitalguru - May 20, 2025, 04:49:26 AM

I rendered a short section last night - results were interesting

no popping or artefacts in the non animation setting render - the only difference I see is in the shadows. The animation settings had shadows with a softer falloff, whereas the non animation had a harder terminator. Looks better to me and in comparison the non animation version shadows now look a bit "blobby"

non-animation setting:
fully_adaptive = "1"
microvertex_jittering = "1"
force_all_edges = "0"
detail_jittering = "1"
detail_blending = "0"
displacement_filter = "1"
jitter_shading_points = "1"
ray_detail_multiplier = "1"
stabilise_ray_detail_in_motion = "0"
ray_detail_stabilisation = "3"
override_size_of_subdiv_cache = "0"

animation settings:
fully_adaptive = "1"
microvertex_jittering = "1"
force_all_edges = "0"
detail_jittering = "0"
detail_blending = "0.5"
displacement_filter = "1"
jitter_shading_points = "0"
ray_detail_multiplier = "1"
stabilise_ray_detail_in_motion = "1"
ray_detail_stabilisation = "3"
override_size_of_subdiv_cache = "0"

non animation settings render:


animation settings render:

#87

Terragen Support / Re: Exporting an FBX camera ou...

Last post by digitalguru - May 19, 2025, 08:58:45 AM

Millions of miles? Sounds like you're flying through a solar system?

Matt is right, get the scale working in Maya first, then export that camera to TG. You may need a further scale factor when you export the camera to get the scene looking right.

Maya is not great at huge scene scales. I remmeber a show that had a pretty detailed layout of a section of Edinburgh that was modelled at real world scale. Due to floating point errors animation was going nuts and had to be baked at the origin then moved to its final location, so make sure any "hero" anim takes place at the origin.

Don't think you need to go as low as a couple of metres, but I'd have to experiment with something like this, but couldn't say for sure.

Thinking about this, if I was doing something like a fly through of the solar system then coming to Earth and ending on a landscape, I'd consider splitting the anim into two sections - at different scales and blending the two.

#88

Terragen Discussion / Render subdiv settings

Last post by digitalguru - May 19, 2025, 08:30:39 AM

For my animation I've been testing still frames prior to rendering a whole sequence (will be testing a segment overnight) but just wondering about some of the render subdiv settings, particularly remembering the animation checker feature that used to change some of those settings.

Reading the docs I see a few salient settings - from the docs:

Detail jittering: For still images you should keep this turned ON. However, there is a mistake in the renderer that causes this to change from one frame to the next in an animation, so for animations you should switch it OFF. The Animation Check button (on the render node's Advanced tab) will check this setting and offer to turn it OFF.

Jitter shading points: Jitter shading points chooses a random point on each micropolygon as the point where lighting and shaders are calculated. The results of those calculations are used to colour the whole micropolygon. Jittering provides a more natural image, but because of a mistake in current versions the jitter is different on each frame so it is a source of unwanted noise in animations. The Animation Check button (on the render node's Advanced tab) will check this setting and offer to turn it OFF.

I'm highlighting these as the help mentions "because of a mistake in current versions the jitter is different on each frame" etc and I wonder how relevant this is today? Don't know if the those doc are up to date with recent versions of TG. I'm currently on 4.6.31.

The last time a rendered an animation was 4(!) years ago and it looked good with these settings:
fully_adaptive = "1"
microvertex_jittering = "1"
force_all_edges = "0"
detail_jittering = "0"
detail_blending = "0.5"
displacement_filter = "1"
jitter_shading_points = "0"
ray_detail_multiplier = "1"
stabilise_ray_detail_in_motion = "1"
ray_detail_stabilisation = "3"
override_size_of_subdiv_cache = "0"

I'll do a test with default setting vs the last render settings used.
Just wondering if these params are still relevant for the newer version of Terragen (4.6.31) vs the older version 4.4.18.1, probably yes, but still wanted to check (as I may farm this render out).
f.y.i - render test segment will be where the camera pans the scene at a medium speed.

#89

Terragen Discussion / Re: No displacement underwater...

Last post by Belmont224 - May 18, 2025, 04:11:30 PM

Thank you! That worked.

#90

Terragen Discussion / Re: No displacement underwater...

Last post by Dune - May 18, 2025, 01:41:17 AM

First of all; the amount of detail under water can be increased in the 'advanced-subdivison settings'. Set ray detail multiplier to a higher number than default 0.25. Usually 0.5 will do, but the higher you go the longer the render time.
Then for the faceted part you need to up the Ray detail region (to 360/optimal), or the padding - I think the latter is the best to try first, just slide it to the right.

It's not a bug, btw, but an intentional detail setting, as often underwater is less 'important' and calculation of underwater areas is heavy on the machine. So the default is a 'good average'.