Terrain combination?

[cajomi]

Correct me if I am wrong, but it seems to me, that if you import two height fields at the same location, the last terrain simply overwrites the first one.

[rcallicotte]

Yes.

Use Heightfield Merge to combine the two heightfields.  Don't know the scientific exactness behind it, but it appears to work this way.

[cajomi]

That does mean, that TG2 will not be able to render rivers. For that, two terrains are necessary, one to shade with a water shader, one to shade with the river bed shader, and of course water with transparence.
That would mean, that carrara is the only software to render true rivers.
Are there plans, that the water object can be a loaded heightfield?

[rcallicotte]

I was pretty sure someone did something with rivers related to GC2, but perhaps it wasn't related to imported terrain files to TG2 to do that.

[old_blaggard]

I don't quite know what you mean - someone here used a GC terrain and its exported flow maps to create a river.  You can use masking very easily to create a river, and from what I understand the maps that GC can export work as masks just fine.

[Matt]

Heightfields can also be applied additively. In the Displacement tab of the Heightfield Shader, uncheck "flatten surface first". Not very intuitive but it works.

Matt

[Matt]

A Merge Shader can be used to merge two shader branches according to the highest altitude, and this would allow you to shade your water heightfield differently.

Matt

[cajomi]

Thanks for the answers.

The problem is not the shading. GeoControl2 can export two terrains: One dry and one with water (all not water parts are lowered). This would make it possible, to render true rivers. You can not only shade the rivers, but shade the water surface, the transparency (when available) and you can shade the underlying river bed. But that can only work, if both geometries are present. If you use a water object, the water object it seperated from the terrain and so allows the fading out and showing the ground.

[Matt]

The Lake object should do the trick. This is a separate object, so when transparency is supported you will get the results you want. You can use the Lake object as a water table because you can displace its surface however you want. (I even considered calling the Lake object "Water Table".) If you input a heightfield shader to the water shader then you will get the topography you need.

I think that to make it more intuitive we might want to add a separate shader channel to the Lake object which can be used for defining the water table (rather than chaining the heightfield with the water surface shader as we do now).

EDIT: it would also be good if this can be done without the node network.

Matt

[cajomi]

So the water object is the solution!
Thank you, I will have to try that.

BTW: I am planning a video tutorial (or two), to show, how to work with imported terrains inside of TG2. That is a lot of work, and it would be wasted time, if the workflow would change to much.
Should I better wait until the next update?
The 1. tut will mostly show how to add details (this should be controlled with imported masks) where they are needed (so different fractal details to different parts), and how to use imported masks for shading.
The 2. will deal with rivers and roads.

[dhavalmistry]

So the water object is the solution!
Thank you, I will have to try that.

BTW: I am planning a video tutorial (or two), to show, how to work with imported terrains inside of TG2. That is a lot of work, and it would be wasted time, if the workflow would change to much.
Should I better wait until the next update?
The 1. tut will mostly show how to add details (this should be controlled with imported masks) where they are needed (so different fractal details to different parts), and how to use imported masks for shading.
The 2. will deal with rivers and roads.

no no...dont wait...make it now NOW NOW!!!!!!

[rcallicotte]

However this happens, this is awesome.   

[SeerBlue]

Matt's suggestion of using the Lake object for rivers works quite well, especially with the files GC2 output Cajomi mentioned. I was working on images for ME-DEM doing just that before my computer died a horrible death. GC2's output works so well because it is an actual derivative of the heightfield and not generated manually in PS ,for example, so it blends very good. Just plug your water terrain into the water shader above the lake object.
The only thing I noticed while experimenting with this is the increased render time that comes with water in images.
I looked for images on my external harddrive but had not archived any there, so all was lost when my graphics computer failed massively,,,,and this laptop isn't up to rendering the tgd's I had anyway. SeerBlue

[rcallicotte]

Thank you so much SeerBlue.  I plan to try this this week or next.

[dhavalmistry]

I was actually going to make a discussion topic here about importing and using GC/GC2 terrains in TG2.....cuz they look a lot different in GC2 and in TG2...I dont know about you but its hard to visualize things in GC2 preview render and then try to achieve same thing when brought over in TG2

I could really use some help in that area....

and I didnt know that Planetside had plans to change UI....to be honest...I like this UI and I am very much used to it....changing it might only make loose grip in some cases like me....