how to create multiple craters?

[iseiji]

Hello guys, I am new to Terragen, i am having trouble putting multiple craters in one scene.
The "planet" node seem to only accept one input at a time, how do I input multiple craters into one planet?   any specific nodes I need to use?   

thanks!

[TheBadger]

Hi,

I believe their are a number of ways. I will list the couple that come to my mind at the moment.

1) Use a image map created in PS or another image editing software. And put that over your scene as a displacement.

2) use this : http://www.planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,7327.0.html?PHPSESSID=fdcc073f924ae32981fa0b1f088ebecd

or http://www.planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,14513.0.html?PHPSESSID=fdcc073f924ae32981fa0b1f088ebecd

In the case of the links what you want to do is download the tgd(s) and go through the node tree and delete out anything not part of the craters. Then, once you have just the planet or moon, and the craters, start playing with all the settings of the craters to see what does what. then make the craters more like how you want them to be.
Lastly, save out a "clip file" (group of nodes) and import that into your own planet project. Now you can connect the node tree (clip file) you saved and alter it even more to meet your needs.

3) there is also a script around here some place for craters, but I could not find a link (may be removed). I believe I have a copy of it on my PC someplace, but it is not mine to post. And I don't recall who made it in the first place. Someone else may be able to comment on the script and if it is OK to post for you.

Still there are a number of other ways to go about this. But Im too tired to think right now.

Hope what I wrote can be a little help.
Others, I'm sure will help too when they see your post.

welcome to the forum.

[yossam]

Or you could try this.............


http://www.sharecg.com/v/70849/browse/5/3D-Model/Craters-Construction-Kit

[Oshyan]

In a more literal and direct answer to your question, 1: displacement is additive, so as long as your craters aren't overlapping in area, you can just chain them together, with the output of one going into the input of another. 2: if you need to put together multiple different sub-networks of terrain nodes, you can use a Merge Shader.

- Oshyan

[iseiji]

wow thanks guys, problem solved!  I tried Oshyan's method and it worked.  I am actually inverting crater depth to create "rock towers" 

thanks again!   much appreciated   

[Oshyan]

Glad it solved your problem. Nice towers!

- Oshyan

[bobbystahr]

Or you could try this.............


http://www.sharecg.com/v/70849/browse/5/3D-Model/Craters-Construction-Kit

Yup, good call....found that a while back and find it very useful through a displacement shader

[bobbystahr]

Agree w/ Oshyan, and welcome to the forum....

[PabloMack]

Any likelyhood that craters could be populated with a populator at some point in the future? I could have used this on another project that went south some time ago (but it didn't fail because of the lack of this capability). If an object could be used to displace the terrain instead of just being placed onto the terrain then it might be a more general solution. Another use of this would be to populate termite mounts.

[Oshyan]

Displacements can't be populated, crater shaders are displacement and not objects, so unless we can figure out how to do instancing of displacement shaders (how do you handle this with an infinite procedural shader?), then the short answer is no. Of course there are workarounds as the crater construction kit and others have shown. If we could use objects to drive displacement again this would be some kind of a solution, and in fact a more versatile one, but that's not something we currently have planned (though it would indeed be nice).

So basically there are possibilities, but nothing specifically planned for now.

- Oshyan

[Oshyan]

Matt reminded me that we do have the Shader Array node which is the closest thing to a "populator for shaders", but it does not have a built-in randomness function.
http://planetside.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Shader_Array

- Oshyan

[Dune]

Maybe you can warp the array?

[billhd]

Try playing with the voronoi noise type in the power fractal node.