Gravel Road

Started by CredePendrel, July 20, 2019, 02:11:12 PM

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CredePendrel

I am confi
Quote from: WASasquatch on August 15, 2019, 02:05:47 PMOh I see. That's pretty common regardless of Cycles. Been a issue long before Cycles was introduced. I think other software has the same quirks about bating out procedural/in-house materials sometimes.

Yes definitely! But you are right its not a limitation of the Cycles engine itself,  my apologies. The models may not look that bad, but there are some cool effects, like a translucency shader and changes to the brightness/contrast that wont carry over. Still may not look that bad, its on my TODO list. Ill post something in the file sharing section when I can.

WAS

Quote from: CredePendrel on August 16, 2019, 08:00:54 AMI am confi
Quote from: WASasquatch on August 15, 2019, 02:05:47 PMOh I see. That's pretty common regardless of Cycles. Been a issue long before Cycles was introduced. I think other software has the same quirks about bating out procedural/in-house materials sometimes.

Yes definitely! But you are right its not a limitation of the Cycles engine itself,  my apologies. The models may not look that bad, but there are some cool effects, like a translucency shader and changes to the brightness/contrast that wont carry over. Still may not look that bad, its on my TODO list. Ill post something in the file sharing section when I can.

Because TG itself is kinda unique about how it renders objects, I often Optimize them in TG for TG use, as no model I've downloaded besides scanned using a single map have come out like it's example images in TG. This is largely because of lack of true translucency without glass shaders, or opacity, etc.

If you want I could try to take a crack at optimizing them for TG. I've done semi-transparent pedals using glass.

CredePendrel

#17
Finally was able to get back to this project file. Thanks again WAS for the updated file, I may be onto something I like. Although I cant promise I actually understand how the network works I do see the differences between the versions and a bit of how the warp shader works!

The project had no terrain features so I added a fractal terrain and setup the SSS similar to opening a default project. After the render I noticed the gravel road running right up the front of the terrain lol. Is there anyway to get around this? Would the effect be the same if I used a height-map instead of a fractal?

EDIT: I just noticed that the Grass Populations are going up and over the background Fractal Terrain in addition to the "Gravel Road" shader. I would interested in hearing how to resolve this. Currently the all the vegetation assets are plugged into the Grass Distribution node and try as I might I couldn't find a way to also hook a distribution shader up to it to limit max altitude. No pressure, but .tgd is attached in case anyone wants to take a look through. 

EDIT2: One more update before bed (AnotherField5). Used different grass populations this time. Lightning looks horrible though, sorry for that; messed with some photoshop effects so we can see the content better.

Dune

That looks pretty good already. I added some nodes to the setup, so your road goes through the hills. Another way to not have it go uphill would be to stop the simple shape base where the mountains start, so decrease length or mask out the far part by the terrain SSS.

luvsmuzik

From my limited experience with Blender cycles material export , you are correct. Difficult to add translucent gloss and displacement in most instances. I find it easier to switch back to Blender render, save a  new object and file, then In edit mode assign basic common materials ( deleting the bling sort of) then after exporting object to Terragen I can add as many texture effect nodes to each material as I want and save as a tgo.

Good progress!

CredePendrel

Quote from: Dune on September 08, 2019, 02:20:08 AMThat looks pretty good already. I added some nodes to the setup, so your road goes through the hills. Another way to not have it go uphill would be to stop the simple shape base where the mountains start, so decrease length or mask out the far part by the terrain SSS.
Thank you good Sir! This looks interesting! Hopefully I can find some time to go over it this afternoon. When I loading the project file though I got 47 identical warnings. Image attached below, is it something to be concerned about?

CredePendrel

Quote from: luvsmuzik on September 08, 2019, 04:42:57 AMFrom my limited experience with Blender cycles material export , you are correct. Difficult to add translucent gloss and displacement in most instances. I find it easier to switch back to Blender render, save a  new object and file, then In edit mode assign basic common materials ( deleting the bling sort of) then after exporting object to Terragen I can add as many texture effect nodes to each material as I want and save as a tgo.

Good progress!
Thank you luvsmuzik. That sounds like a good workflow. May have to give that a try if I could focus long enough on one project to get it done lol!

CredePendrel

Couple small updates while having coffee Sunday morning....Attempting mixing in some other greener grass populations. Also trying to get better lighting (so painful!). At first I thought the grasses looked ok at the distance (image8)  but quickly realized the colour was too contrasting so I removed them. Off to run some errands with the wife, will return later!

Dune

The warnings are nothing to worry about, because I opened your file in an old 32-bit version of TG (3.7), and saved it as such. It's the only version I have on this old online machine.

CredePendrel

Quote from: Dune on September 08, 2019, 11:37:42 AMThe warnings are nothing to worry about, because I opened your file in an old 32-bit version of TG (3.7), and saved it as such. It's the only version I have on this old online machine.
Ok awesome thanks! Good to know! Back to experimenting.

CredePendrel

Hope no one is getting annoyed yet. Still working on this but have made some progress. Not happy with the lightning and  having the worst time positioning with the sunlight without creating nasty shadows.

CredePendrel

#26
Hey.

Sorry, its me again! I think I've done it now! This one is far and away the best so far! Larger version can be found here....

Dune

Looks really good. I think you'd need some more smaller grasses or other groundcover (small leaves) off the path, or at least give that ground/soil some displacement with a mix of small displacement and some fake stones.

CredePendrel

Quote from: Dune on September 09, 2019, 01:30:50 AMLooks really good. I think you'd need some more smaller grasses or other groundcover (small leaves) off the path, or at least give that ground/soil some displacement with a mix of small displacement and some fake stones.
Excellent idea! Thank you. I will try and isolate those areas today and add some more detail! Really happy with this one!!

N-drju

Hehe, not annoying one bit. ;)

I think you have these roads well under control now. Ulco's suggestion of avoiding hills is also worth looking into. I need to grab this .tgd when I get back home.
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