Paint spruce in snow white but how?

[PeterParker]

Hello everybody!

Anyone knows how to paint trees in Terragen in snow white?
I´ve seen this in the following Thread: Above the white sea http://www.planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,21019.0.html There you can download the TGC-File.
How can i connect the TGC File on to my Spruce? The Spruce is only getting thicker but that´s it. No white....
Who knows how to set the node in the right way?

Thanks a lot for your help :-)

[N-drju]

We've discussed it just a few days ago. Have a look at this:

http://www.planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,22279.0.html

Hope it helps you!

[PeterParker]

We've discussed it just a few days ago. Have a look at this:

http://www.planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,22279.0.html

Hope it helps you!

Thanks for your help N-drju, but i dont get it. So where in the nodes i place what?

Here is the Terragen Node View and the Spruce:





This is the Spruce view with the tlc file Tree snow. Where do i place this tgc to make the spruce white???

[PeterParker]

Ahhh :-)



Now i´ve a merged Shader in between the Tree and the tgc File Tree Snow and there´s finaly snow.
But some parts are not white. Does anybody now how to cover up the whole tree in snow??

Thank you very much.

Peter

[N-drju]

Glad I could direct you to the right direction.

As far as your follow-up question is concerned - just be creative with the power fractal! For instance, reduce the feature scale and lead-in scale of the fractal that you mask the snow with. The bigger the fractal gets, the more black gaps it will have and black gap = no effect/color. If you don't want to reduce the fractal, use contrast and coverage sliders to reduce / increase the snow coverage as you see fit. If you need an all-white tree, you can just use the surface layer without any mask, or you can increase PF coverage to some outrageous values. Here's what I got with PF mask:

[attach=1]

Good luck and shout out if you need some more advice!

[Dune]

Or set a grey-whitish color in the black slot of the PF, for less, but still, snow.
Btw. You don't really need a merge shader. If you add just a surface layer between the default shader and the part (so 'under' the output from the default shader), set slope (final, use Y), and if needed altitude, there will be white on all parts/leaves/branches, overriding the color called in the default shader.
If you set coverage less than 1, it'll be less, if you add children they will appear. If you add displacement, the tree will be displaced (horribly). If you mask, you can use a transform shader between the PF and the surface shader mask input to make in a world distribution (if you check that, of course).

[N-drju]

If you add displacement, the tree will be displaced (horribly).

Mutant tree from the depths of hell? But I guess a very small displacement could actually yield some nice effects - like heavy clumps of snow "hanging" from the branches. Would that work?

[Dune]

Depends on the polycount of the clumps. If they're very fine, you can get nice effects indeed. But I guess they're not. But a little bump would work nicely.

[luvsmuzik]

Does powerfractal detail add to the polygon count of an object if it is used just for color? I guess the tracing for detail is what ups the render time?

While this is being discussed, when modelling an object for such purpose....does Terragen store the polygon count of each object in a population or is it cached as one object? Like....okay I loaded you, on to the next. So many 3D programs do such fine detail meshes now I wondered how TG handled them.

[Dune]

With poly count of an object I mean the fineness of the object itself, how many polys/vertices it has. If you displace (no bump, but really force displace) a fine meshed object it will look displaced, if you displace an object with just a few polys it will be torn apart. So a PF doesn't add to the polycount... but if you have a fine PF through a (world position) transform shader to color (or bump) a course, low poly object, it will still add fine grain or bump to it, same as with a fine meshed object.
Unless I misunderstand your sentences... 

[PeterParker]

Or set a grey-whitish color in the black slot of the PF, for less, but still, snow.
Btw. You don't really need a merge shader. If you add just a surface layer between the default shader and the part (so 'under' the output from the default shader), set slope (final, use Y), and if needed altitude, there will be white on all parts/leaves/branches, overriding the color called in the default shader.
If you set coverage less than 1, it'll be less, if you add children they will appear. If you add displacement, the tree will be displaced (horribly). If you mask, you can use a transform shader between the PF and the surface shader mask input to make in a world distribution (if you check that, of course).

Hello Dune, thanks for your hints. But i´ll be honest i dont understand much of Terragen.
When i use a surface layer nothing happens. Just with a merge shader used it seems to work.
Dont know the difference between the Shaders.
But thank you very much :-)

[PeterParker]

Glad I could direct you to the right direction.

As far as your follow-up question is concerned - just be creative with the power fractal! For instance, reduce the feature scale and lead-in scale of the fractal that you mask the snow with. The bigger the fractal gets, the more black gaps it will have and black gap = no effect/color. If you don't want to reduce the fractal, use contrast and coverage sliders to reduce / increase the snow coverage as you see fit. If you need an all-white tree, you can just use the surface layer without any mask, or you can increase PF coverage to some outrageous values. Here's what I got with PF mask:

[attach=1]

Good luck and shout out if you need some more advice!

Thank you N-drju! :-)
I´ll try this method out. i think i´ll be back soon...sorry ;-)

[PeterParker]

OK, sorry, it´s me again, like i said...

N-drju, no matter what i do, but nothing takes effect. When i change the lead in scale nothing happens. The snow dont change.
Here´s the file: maybe the file is not set correctly or what ever.
Can you show me please how to deal with this file?

I have to go to the spruce and change the surface shader with the tree snow shader, right?
Now i see the spruce partly white but when i disable all the shaders to see what shader is responsible for the white
nothing happens. It´s still partly white! But the shaders are all disabled. How is that?

Look at the picture: All Shaders are disabled and nothing is connected, so the spruce must be green but:




By the way your spruce looks great with the snow in it! But mine is horrible....

[luvsmuzik]

With poly count of an object I mean the fineness of the object itself, how many polys/vertices it has. If you displace (no bump, but really force displace) a fine meshed object it will look displaced, if you displace an object with just a few polys it will be torn apart. So a PF doesn't add to the polycount... but if you have a fine PF through a (world position) transform shader to color (or bump) a course, low poly object, it will still add fine grain or bump to it, same as with a fine meshed object.
Unless I misunderstand your sentences... 

Got it! On a lot of mine I wasn't lowering the scale and lead in nearly low enough. I even had to scale back the transform input shader! Great advice, thanks!

[luvsmuzik]

@Peter Parker
I am hooking transform input into third from left "color function" of my object color shader.....I think I see in your images it is hooked into "input"....

I also change the default color to white or off white so only the Power Fractal adds color...