How do i make it a Rock?

[Doug]

It looks like a brown thing. How do i add a Rock PBR?
I have tried adding, subtracting, mixing, merging and i still cant add a Rock PBR without
changing the PetroGlyphs.

[Kevin Kipper]

Hi Doug,

If you want to apply PBR texture maps to your rock object take a look at this thread:
https://planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,30229.msg295653.html#msg295653

[Doug]

Kevin, i can do that, add a Default Shader and load the PBR into it and make a rock
My Petroglyphs are also a Default Shader
whenever i add anything into that default shader or add another shader with a PBR in it
my petroglyphs change, as in not there, not deep anymore

[Kevin Kipper]

Hi Doug, 

From the main menu can you choose File > Export Gathered Project,  and upload it so I can take a look at your setup?  

Thanks!

[Doug]

ok
try this

[Dune]

Just add some PF shaders to the color input of the default shader. You can use black and white mixes, but also a mix of colors. In the latter case keep the rock base color grey/white.
For some subtle displacement/bump use a PF and feed it through a transform shader set to world position into the main input of the default shader. Use the displacement setting, color won't do anything.
You can do the same with reflectivity; add some PF to any of those function inputs and you get diversity. But take all through a transform shader set to final world position.

I made you a small example of how you can do this with an internal cube as rock.

[KlausK]

hi, wanted to take a look but I get error messages. The rock obj and the maps are missing in the gathered project.

CHeers, Klaus

[Doug]

how do upload a .obj file?

[Doug]

Just add some PF shaders to the color input of the default shader. You can use black and white mixes, but also a mix of colors. In the latter case keep the rock base color grey/white.
For some subtle displacement/bump use a PF and feed it through a transform shader set to world position into the main input of the default shader. Use the displacement setting, color won't do anything.
You can do the same with reflectivity; add some PF to any of those function inputs and you get diversity. But take all through a transform shader set to final world position.

I made you a small example of how you can do this with an internal cube as rock.

thats cool
but i want the petroglyphs to look hammered in and red colored, not just a negative displacement

[Dune]

You can use the same image map to add the red to the petroglyphs with an extra surface layer after the default shader, masked by the same image map, and you can also use a small scale PF to breakup the image map, so it's more diverse. Just experiment a bit.

[Kevin Kipper]

Hi Doug,

For now, just put the rock OBJ file and its material file, MTL, in a ZIP file and upload the ZIP file.  If necessary, email it to support@planetside.co.uk.

Next time, when you gather the project to a specified location, you should see a Terragen Project file, TGD, and a ProjectAssets folder containing the rock object and the image map.  (I think you still need to manually copy the MTL file to the ProjectAssets folder).  Then ZIP the entire contents and upload that.  

[Doug]

ok thanks
here it is

[Kevin Kipper]

Hi Doug,

It appears that while the RockNewer.obj has a uv mapped defined, its geometry is not assigned to the map.  In other words, the uv map is empty.  This may account for the unexpected results when trying to combine it with other shaders in Terragen, and also why you're having to insert the Transform Input shader node after the Parts shader in order to align the petroglyph image with the position of the object in the scene.

You might want to also consider having a version of the petroglyph image as a higher contrast greyscale image so it can be used as a mask for other shaders.  

[Doug]

thanks for trying
the rock is just a shape with a flat grey uv from Bryce7
i use a default shader to add a PBR to it in Terragen
and a default shader to add the petrogyphs
and im trying to combine those two

[Kevin Kipper]

Hi Doug,

Here's an example image to illustrate what I was referring to in the previous post.



The top section of the image is the rock object loaded in Lightwave.  When first imported, the uv map is defined but there was no geometry assinged to it.  This can be seen in the top quadrant where I've indicated "Before: no geometry assigned to uv map".  For uv purposes, I split the rock down the center and laid it out as in the lower quadrant where I've indicated "After: geometry assigned to uv map".  Then I resaved the object as an OBJ file.

I "photoshop'd" the petroglyph texture map so that it aligned with the uv layout, see the preview window in the Terragen portion of the example image.  I assigned this texture map to the Colour image parameter and the Displacement image parameter of the Default shader, just as you had done. 

Next I assigned Power fractal shaders to the "Colour function" parameter and "Displacement function" parameters.

When that was complete, I saved the rock object as a TGO, or Terragen object.  I loaded the TGO as a popluation and scattered it around the ground so you can see how the rock instances still maintain their look.

Hopefully, this example shows that you can combine shaders togther to get the look you want, and the importance of having good uv coordinates on objects to start with.