Creating a Tower Tutorial

Started by schmeerlap, June 20, 2011, 07:42:11 AM

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schmeerlap

It's been many moons since I posted my "Terragen2 for the Terrified" tut here. It seems to have been quite popular (5588 downloads) so I've decided to do another one. This one isn't going to be as nanny-state as the previous one in that you will create your own settings and your own scene, with some advice from me on suitable settings. Basically you will be creating a Tower using the Crater shader inverted, and applying displacement to it. The tut features the use of Lateral normalised displacement, the inclusion of a second Compute Terrain, and use of a Strata  & Outcrops shader to enhance the tower displacement. The tut will also show you how to constrain the displacement to the tower. I've also included instruction on how to insert a clip file (cloud layer clip file included) for those who are uncertain how to do this.
The tgd file for the scene is included for reference.
It is aimed at beginners.
I'll create a link to it on the Terragen Wiki page, and at ReRo tuts for the few still interested in Terragen2 there.

Erratum: In the section Constraining Displacements, the text "I've also checked the Limit Minimum Altitude and entered a value of 3000". Should read "I've also checked Limit Maximum Altitude and entered a value of 3000".

John
I hope I realise I don't exist before I apparently die.

inkydigit

uncanny timing, John, I am currently messing with these kind of structures, will check this out...
cheers
Jason

Henry Blewer

Thanks John. I've been banging my head against my monitor trying to guess how you do these.
http://flickr.com/photos/njeneb/
Forget Tuesday; It's just Monday spelled with a T

Kadri

Quote from: inkydigit on June 20, 2011, 08:46:04 AM
uncanny timing, John, I am currently messing with these kind of structures, will check this out...
cheers
Jason

Me too! Thanks John ;)

Xynedia

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#4
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DannyG

New World Digital Art
NwdaGroup.com
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Viktim


FlyLaika

Thank you! I wanted to learn this.

choronr

John, thank you for your generosity. Looking forward to experimenting with your information.

Mandrake

Thanks John, really liked your other tutorial and can't wait to give this one a look see.
I've been saving Inky's for an appropriate time so now I can study them both, outstanding!!

aymenk2003

Thanks John , well done...

N.KAID
Le peu que je sais, c'est à mon ignorance que je le dois.

TheBadger

Very helpful to me! Thank you.
It has been eaten.

mcmiller

#12
This tut is great! Thanks for putting this together. I always wanted to learn how to do this.  8)

My results came out slightly different with altered warping effects in different places on the tower. I'm assuming it was the position of the tower or some other random seed at play.

I don't want to throw cold water on your effort, but I was confused by what appears to be a minor typo in the explanation of the distribution shader that leads to the strata and outcrop shader. It looks like minimum altitude constraints was written (for the 3000 and 200) when you may have meant maximum. I could be wrong, though.


schmeerlap

Quote from: mcmiller on August 01, 2011, 12:02:33 AM
. . . . . I was confused by what appears to be a minor typo in the explanation of the distribution shader that leads to the strata and outcrop shader. It looks like minimum altitude constraints was written (for the 3000 and 200) when you may have meant maximum.

You're quite right, mcmiller. That is a typo (knew this stingy Scotsman should have employed a proof reader).
I had already told the reader to ". . . check the Limit Minimum Altitude and enter 0 with a Fuzzy Zone of 200."
I'll write an erratum to my original entry in this thread.
Thanks for this observation.

John
I hope I realise I don't exist before I apparently die.

TheBadger

#14
Hello schmeerlap.

Thanks again for the tuts, but I am having trouble with my tower, hope you can give some direction.

After following the tutorial carefully a few times, and not getting anything like you got. I decided just to write down all of your file settings (seeds and everything) and try to recreate what you made this way. I got closer but still nothing like what you made. I just cant figure it out. My camera angle is different but thats all.
I realize that you want us to have are own results, but mine are so off that something has got to be wrong with my file.

Also, at the bottom of page two of the tutorial, you instruct that
Quotenamed it Smaller Tower Displacement, and inserted it between the Tower Displacement shader and the new Compute Terrain node.
but this does not follow your node network. I tried it anyway, and it did something interesting, but still not what you made.

None of this is a complaint! I have a good idea that your tutorial will make possible for me, but I need to figure out what I'm not getting here first.

My .tgd is attached if you got a min ;)

O'yeah, I stopped at the top of page 3 of the tutorial with my file. so Im just asking about the work up to that point.

Thank you
It has been eaten.