Cubemap Seams

[simonoc]

One of the things I liked about Terragen 0.8 was the ability to quickly setup ground fog. I used this features a lot in many skyboxes but I cannot find the same setup in Terragen 3.0, so I setup a cloud layer at height 0 with a 3d volume of about 1000 so that it goes down towards the ground. The problem is when I render the 6 cube sides I get seams on the cloud layer (see image). I found this thread talking about problems with cube maps seams and I tried the suggestions of raydetail region and padding changes but it does not make any difference. I tried changing the cloud layer quality, sample jitter, step size and nothing seems to make the seams go away.



Does anyone have suggestions on how to get rid of the cubemap seams? (see image above)

[Oshyan]

A: use Spherical Camera output if you can, if not then B: try turning off the Acceleration Cache (set it to None) in the cloud layer. Also make sure you're using GI Caching, if Global Illumination is enabled.

You should also avoid use of Ray Detail Region settings above about 2; 8 is "right out". If you need that much, try the 360 degree options. But I don't think it's going to help in this situation anyway as it is designed to deal with shadow casting and I don't think the terrain would be casting shadows on your clouds here (unless you have that option enabled in the cloud layer).

Last but not least, the option in TG Classic simply repurposed the simple haze for use as ground fog, but this meant that the haze in the atmosphere was unrealistic (i.e. no haze above ground level) so it was non-ideal. in TG 3 it's better since you can have fully volumetric cloud layers to make fog out of. BUT if you're OK with losing realistic atmosphere haze (as you would have in TG Classic as well), then just use the same technique in TG3, for example Haze Density 200, Haze Exp Height 15. Keep in mind you'll need to up Atmosphere Samples to avoid noise. However the seams issue you're having may still remain, depending on the cause. Again I suggest using Spherical Camera output if possible, it should be convertible to a cube map.

- Oshyan

[simonoc]

A: use Spherical Camera output if you can, if not then B: try turning off the Acceleration Cache (set it to None) in the cloud layer. Also make sure you're using GI Caching, if Global Illumination is enabled.

The Acceleration Cache for the cloud layer (the planet clouds) is set to None (highest detail)
GI Caching seems to be active for the renderer (tick on box GI surface details) and the drop down box has Global illumination.

How do you setup Spherical Camera, I did a search of the forums and found this thread which says:

Start by rendering the GI cache files for each tile separately, being sure to put sequential numbering into the cache file names. Then do primary rendering for each tile using the cached solutions and use "equal blend within range", setting the number of blended files equal to the number of tiles (and GI cache solutions) you have.

How do you render the GI cache files for each separate tile? Also how do setup spherical camera's?
I cannot find any way to create a special camera type or change the existing type to spherical. Please don't tell me this is bought version only?

Last but not least, the option in TG Classic simply repurposed the simple haze for use as ground fog, but this meant that the haze in the atmosphere was unrealistic

I don't want to implement the old style ground fog, the old Terragen looked terrible compared to the latest version.

[Oshyan]

GI Caching is a separate option, it's under the GI settings in the middle, *above* "GI Surface Details". If you're using it, you need to have first generated your GI cache files.

Generating multiple GI cache files and blending them is only necessary if you are rendering separate cube faces, *not* if you are using spherical camera. In the case of multiple cube faces, render a GI cache file for each face, with numerically sequential names, e.g. gicache_0001.gic, gicache_0002.gic, etc. then specify the file name with a wild card, e.g. gicache_%04d.gic, specify the "Number of files to blend" as equal to the number of GI cache files you generated (presumably 6, 1 for each cube face), and then use "Equal Blend Within Range" for the interpolation type.

Spherical Camera is indeed only available in the licensed versions. It does make things a lot easier though.

- Oshyan

[simonoc]

Thanks for the reply but I am confused where and how to setup the GI cache files because I cannot find any option in the free version of Terragen v3.0. to do this.

In the case of multiple cube faces, render a GI cache file for each face, with numerically sequential names

I looked through the online documentation and found this page and it says:

Setup the lighting how you want it, doing test renders with "No GI cache file" checked in Render GI Settings (this is the default). Switch to "Write to GI cache file" in Render GI Settings. Specify a location and filename for your GI cache file. Include a frame formatter such as '%04d' (not including quotes) somewhere in the filename.

I cannot find this option in the GI cache dialogue window, I assume this is a license version feature only?
Here is an image of what I see when I open the GI settings dialogue window:

[Oshyan]

Yes, GI Caching is only available in the licensed versions. You can see a full feature breakdown by product version here: http://planetside.co.uk/products/tg3-product-comparison

- Oshyan