object to terrain

[AlanR]

still looking for that ideal solution to convert a 3d object into a terrain, I am an experienced modeller, fairly new at terragen. My workflow consists of bring terrains in global mapper or esri, exporting to max for editing, adding detail, ie, roads, paths etc, also leveling roadways, that would otherwise just conform to an average (usually 5m data sets) and I am yet to find an ideal solution to then output this as a GIS file ( or directly to terragen file format) at high resolution. We can create cm resolution terrains, thats what we do, and if i could follow this workflow and after editing, get that in terragen as a terrain file, that would be the icing on the cake!
any ideas, have done most, but most dont keep the precision I need, ie greyscale is to fiddly
cheers

[red_planet]

Possibly a mad thought...

Have you considered exporting from Max as an obj.

I'm sure it will have a fairly poly count but if your hardware is up to it..RAM + Processor..it may be feasible.

Rgds

Chris

[AlanR]

thats the easy part, what I need to be able to do is bring it in as a terragen terrain format, not a polygonal format, keeping all my edits,

[Oshyan]

What specific issues do you have when bringing in a terrain as a high resolution OBJ? If you're trying to do certain kinds of texturing, e.g. slope-based, it can be problematic, but you can do a lot, and you can also populate on objects, so it might be an adequate approach.

If your edits don't add overhanging features then theoretically a high resolution, 32 bit EXR (or similar HDR format) heightfield export should work well.

- Oshyan

[AlanR]

main problem I have had is not being able to populate, 2 different obj files from about 4 different sources, never works, the obj(terrain) is about 400 by 600metres, and no ridiculous changes in elevation, very subtle, still no joy

[bobbystahr]

main problem I have had is not being able to populate, 2 different obj files from about 4 different sources, never works, the obj(terrain) is about 400 by 600metres, and no ridiculous changes in elevation, very subtle, still no joy

Hmmm, I'd li\ke to see the .tgd...I've had no problem on a variety of obj's from different sources. All run through PoseRay before importing into TG3 though...

[Oshyan]

Alan, have you tested populating on a simpler test object, just to make sure it works and you're setting it up correctly?

- Oshyan

[AlanR]

tun it through posray, run everything through that first, tried it on a terragen plane, and was ok, attached, mat file included but cant attach image, sorry, be good if you can help solve the issue, cheers

[Oshyan]

No problems getting it to work here. You changed the Anchor in your population to "Sit on Object" and specified your Terrain object, right?

Attached is an example with the built-in grass clump just so it's portable.

- Oshyan

[bobbystahr]

No problems getting it to work here. You changed the Anchor in your population to "Sit on Object" and specified your Terrain object, right?

Attached is an example with the built-in grass clump just so it's portable.

- Oshyan

That must be it cuz I put 3 pops on it no problem

[AlanR]

yeh, thanks all,

No problems getting it to work here. You changed the Anchor in your population to "Sit on Object" and specified your Terrain object, right?

yeh, of course, the problem lies in distribution map, although I was sure I tried it without one to begin with, as thats what every sane person would do, right! forgot to change projection to UV!!
all good now, onwards and upwards, and texturing the obj in terragen now
any limitations i need to know about
cheers, and thanks again

[Oshyan]

Glad you got it working! Texturing on objects is not quite as versatile as with terrain, for example slope restrictions are problematic. If you're using UV maps, you may have to use a Transform Shader to switch to World Space for any *non-image-based* textures, i.e. procedurals, that you want to apply.

- Oshyan

[AlanR]

A lot of it will be placement of plants, trees and shrubs, with a little natural displacement on the actual object. 3d is great for straight lines, nature doesnt do straight lines!! thats why if I can i will do final scenes in terragen, with lots of underlying procedurals, architecture in the landscape stuff mainly, modelling in max and zbrush, will get the hang of it just dont use it enough
cheers

[AlanR]

hopefully TG 4 will allow the painting shader to work on obj's

[bobbystahr]

hopefully TG 4 will allow the painting shader to work on obj's

As an option you could create B&W masks in a paint program of your choice and use them for controlling dispersal. If memory serves me I don't think you can paint on an imported object....I could be wrong so try any way.