How To Make A Ringworld

Started by ares2101, November 15, 2011, 10:28:40 AM

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ares2101

I've seen a lot of discussion on ringworlds and caves in other topics, but for the most part they were pic sharing threads without too much instruction.  Does anyone have a basic tutorial for how to make ringworlds?  There are two main types I'm thinking of.

Small closed ones with roofs like this:
http://www.acceleratingfuture.com/michael/blog/images/Stanford_Torus.jpg

Larger, more open ones like with Larry Niven's Ringworld:
http://orbitalvector.com/Megastructures/Ringworlds/ringworldlansdscape.jpg

cyphyr

I guess you've seen this thread

http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=10980.0

Most of your needs can be found within here (if this is the kind of thing your looking for). I never really finished this due to a family bereavement and work but I did say at the time I'd write up a tutorial. I should get around to it soon now I seem to have some time ...

Cheers

Richard
www.richardfraservfx.com
https://www.facebook.com/RichardFraserVFX/
/|\

Ryzen 9 5950X OC@4Ghz, 64Gb (TG4 benchmark 4:13)

ares2101

I guess for now I'll go through that thread and try and take some notes and just experiment with what is described.

cyphyr

Try this to be going on with. The basic principle is to use a plane object as your world base and displace in into a ring shape using simple shape shaders. I found it hard to use most of Terragen's internal distribution settings as these are based on taking a reference point from a planet which is only in the scene now to hold an atmosphere. To get around this I created a series of image map masks and simple shape shaders to separate out rivers and landscape features.

At some point I'll get around to writing a proper tut, hopefully ::)

Attached is a stripped down version of the ringworld from the thread mentioned above.

Hope this helps

Cheers

Richard
www.richardfraservfx.com
https://www.facebook.com/RichardFraserVFX/
/|\

Ryzen 9 5950X OC@4Ghz, 64Gb (TG4 benchmark 4:13)

dandelO

#4
And I posted the file for a version I was making in the same thread when we were all playing around with this idea.

The image it makes is this:



Here's my post containing the .tgd, I used planet nodes instead of Richard's plane method. "You Got Boost Power!"
*Racer models not included.

ares2101

Quote from: cyphyr on November 15, 2011, 02:12:05 PM
Try this to be going on with. The basic principle is to use a plane object as your world base and displace in into a ring shape using simple shape shaders. I found it hard to use most of Terragen's internal distribution settings as these are based on taking a reference point from a planet which is only in the scene now to hold an atmosphere. To get around this I created a series of image map masks and simple shape shaders to separate out rivers and landscape features.

At some point I'll get around to writing a proper tut, hopefully ::)

Attached is a stripped down version of the ringworld from the thread mentioned above.

Hope this helps

Cheers

Richard

OK, I took a look at the included file.  I figured out how to create the plane, but I can't seem to figure out how to apply the shape-changes to it. 

ares2101

I should probably elaborate.  On the provided file, I see in the Node Network that the Plane object has a Surface Shader tab on it that links to everything else.  I don't see that in mine and I don't see how to give it one, without it, I can't link it up to anything else.

Dune

I think, and I don't want to sound patronizing, that it's good to get to grips with the basics of TG before venturing into something as complex as a ringworld. If you open the plane, you'll see a default shader as it's surface shader. From there, you can point it to whichever node you want. The default is an internal node, but as soon as you point to a node outside an input will be there. Hope that gets you going.

ares2101

Quote from: Dune on November 16, 2011, 03:02:54 AM
I think, and I don't want to sound patronizing, that it's good to get to grips with the basics of TG before venturing into something as complex as a ringworld. If you open the plane, you'll see a default shader as it's surface shader. From there, you can point it to whichever node you want. The default is an internal node, but as soon as you point to a node outside an input will be there. Hope that gets you going.

I had a premature senior moment (only new to forum, have experience with TG2), I made the connections and have been trying to recreate the nodes provided by Richard in order to figure out how they work.  So far I've pretty much figured out how he made the ground outside the ring go away, but haven't figured out how to curve the ground just yet.

ares2101

OK, I figured out what I was doing wrong.  I had the plane long in the wrong direction, so the simple shape shader was making it a long valley rather than a half-pipe.  I messed around with it some more, made it really big and managed to create this.



I think with a little tweaking of the appearance of the arch this will look pretty much how I'd want any image on a really big ringworld to look, even better would be figuring out a way for it to look fatter toward the bottom (is it possible to stretch a plane toward its middle?).

For smaller ringworlds I'll need to practice uses the shaders on the edges to make them look nicer.  I'll also need to learn the tricks for making ceilings.