Can't find Fractal Terrain Node

Started by caekdaemon, July 30, 2011, 03:02:16 PM

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caekdaemon

I'm not exactly sure what a tgd file is, but here is a screenshot of what I mean.

I'm not sure where the output from the lake goes. I assume it would go to a the final input section, but there is no input for it to go to.

Henry Blewer

Have you added a Lake object from the water tab? If not do so. Now click on the surface shader tab of the Lake object. There will be an input that says water shader 01 or water shader 02. Click on the box to the right of this. There should be two choices, assign and create. You'll select assign. This will bring up the node tree selection window. You'll select the Surfacelayer - Foam.

On the main tab. There is a slider for the water level. You'll need to increase this until the water appears in the preview image.

In your screenshot, the red nodes are the shaders. The gray node, Lake 01, is the object; in this case a plane.
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Oshyan

The Lake node is an Object Node, so it does not need to be connected to any input. However you do need to specify the planet it references on its Planet tab (inside the Lake node's settings).

- Oshyan

Henry Blewer

Quote from: Oshyan on August 18, 2011, 05:34:20 PM
The Lake node is an Object Node, so it does not need to be connected to any input. However you do need to specify the planet it references on its Planet tab (inside the Lake node's settings).

- Oshyan

Thank you. I completely forgot about that. I hardly ever do any planet renders. At least that is my excuse and I'm sticking with it.
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Forget Tuesday; It's just Monday spelled with a T

caekdaemon

Alright then, this is getting very strange. I've linked it to the planet, but nothings happened. Not a single damned change. Its width is the same as the planets, which I assume should make it a planet wide ocean. The depth is set up to what I think should make it fairly deep (7500).

But nothing has changed.

Henry Blewer

You may need to create a sphere object at the same location as the planet object. The new sphere will just be slightly larger than the planet object. (You can copy and paste the size from the planet) Now link the ocean tgc file to this sphere. You should have a planetwide ocean.

Getting the size correct is tricky at best.
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Forget Tuesday; It's just Monday spelled with a T

dandelO

Easier to just simply use both spheres at exactly the same size.

This might seem a silly thing to say on first look, if you're only used to seeing surface-level shots, but even then, it's apparent what is happening with fractal displacement. Fractal displacement doesn't just happen in the upwards direction...

A power fractal with displacement amplitude of '2000m'(default terrain) will displace 1000m(maximum) each way, both up and down. The displacement is measured from the default planet normal(the surface before displacement).
This is very easy to understand once you realise what's happening, and with the fractals displacing in each direction, this will create peaks and troughs, so that the planet-sized water sphere will still be visible where the surface displaces downwards into troughs. :)

Oshyan

Agreed, if you want a planet-wide ocean don't use the Lake (note: "lake", not "ocean" ;) ) object, instead use a 2nd sphere with a water shader and play with its scale (starting at the same as your planet) until you have the desired water level.

- Oshyan

Dune

And if you don't really need depth (meaning transparency), you might consider a reflective shader, added to the water shader, where the water shader has transparency and/or reflectivity set to 0. The water shader just provides the waves. The Reflective shader is faster to render.

Matt

Quote from: Dune on August 20, 2011, 03:21:59 AM
And if you don't really need depth (meaning transparency), you might consider a reflective shader, added to the water shader, where the water shader has transparency and/or reflectivity set to 0. The water shader just provides the waves. The Reflective shader is faster to render.

In that case, why not just set transparency to 0 on the water shader, then you don't need a separate reflective shader?
Just because milk is white doesn't mean that clouds are made of milk.

Dune