How would you do something like this in Vue ?

#1

Hi all,

I 'm constantly giving Vue a shot, but I 'm not getting along very well with it. It's probably just me; Judging from what I see around, I know great things can be done with it.

Mountains and canyons and plants and ecosystems are great and all, but I 'm after a flatter kind of landscape. What I 'm trying to achieve is something like the attached image, which I created in 2 minutes in the Alpha version of Terragen 2 (and I find it very realistic, even if it was a pretty basic newbie test). I am talking about the look of the terrain, not the atmosphere or the sky. I 'm right at home with network/node-based systems, but I just can’t get anywhere near this result in Vue.

So, how would you create this picture in Vue (using a procedural terrain) ?

Thanks,
nick
#2

Go to http://www.geekatplay.com/tutorials.php and http://www.geekatplay.com/epic.php and you will find your way with VUE

#3

terragen does those big landscape in a more natural way, the fractal land models seems to
be much more naturally from start, you should probably learn how to use procedural terrains, that will give more detail to the landscape, then you have to find a good blend among filters
and fractals, but it takes some more time and tweaking to get it decent.

If you can afford it, get worldmachine or geocontrol, that will boost up the terrain creation
massively, otherwise if you stick to vues terrain it will take you much longer time and effort to get close.
world machine and geocontrol is completly designed to provide a close model in how to create terrains in natural way, wich in fact vue really isn´t, thou they have started to improve the terrain tools with sculpting and new erosion models, it still lacks functions or procedurals to describe landscape terrains in such a good way as worldmachine or geocontrol.

As mentioned above…check geek at play they have alot to learn from.
or get asilefx advance terrain creation perhaps.

Another thing is to use real world data images or dems.

Michael

#4

Thanks a lot Yannis, but you see, the thing is I 've been through all that. That’s why I posted the example image above, it’s not that I don’t know my way around Vue, it’s that I 'd love to see that kind of terrain created within it, and so far I haven’t been able to even come close. If it can be done, I 'm sure someone here will know how.

Thanks anyway though :slight_smile:

Thanks Michael, like I said, I know my way around the system, especially since it’s a node-based one which I feel right at home with. But I guess I was asking for an experienced user to create the above picture in Vue, mostly as a “proof of concept”, even if just to prove that it actually can be done in Vue. That would be at least enough to convince me that it’s even worth the effort.

I 'll definitely take a closer look at GeoControl and World Machine too. Thanks again guys.

nick

#5

Right now I have uninstalled vue for the moment and are most busy with lightwave, so I can´t try and whip something up right now, also all my stuff scenefiles and renders are transfered to dvd:s for a checkup later on so I can´t really show anything that I thought might be close.

You might want to check
walters Terrain pack, it deals with techniques to get very close to terragen landscapes mostly
the shading and texture part, I really didnt think it came close in terms of the actual geometry thou.

check vues gallery in the showcase under landscape category if theres somethings close
http://www.e-onsoftware.com/showcase/?page=7#
Johannes rosenberg used vue render and worldmachine or geocontrol for this, not sure wich one of them.
it´s not the same type of terrain you want perhaps, but with proper filtering it could be, but you can se that the detail structure and erosions are much more natural than the standard vue stuff.
I believe that if e-on improves on all their functions and procedurals,filters and erosion it would be pretty easy
to acheive this inside vue to, the procedural techniques are there.

Michael

#6

Yes I am starting to believe it all comes down to the lack of better functions. The underlying system is there, I think all it needs is new and more powerful procedural nodes. Easier said than done, I know, but I hope e-on improves on them soon.

Do you have a link to more info about that terrain pack you mentioned ?

Thanks again,
nick

#7

I did state a wrong name for it, it is terrapak
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=162&t=534631&highlight=terrapak

I don´t have it myself, but it might be of help.

Michael

#8

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