Hi Guys,
Forgot this.
RE - CONVERT THE TARGA TO A JPG. I used the free XNVIEW APP to do this, but
any graphics app should be able to do same
Aidan
At 13:54 28/10/2005, you wrote:
Hi George and all,
Spent some time last night in the IRC with Timo and Boris working out what
to do with Height Maps / Height Fields exported out of World Machine, or
apps of that ilk. In my case I did a test and Exported out of WM as a TGA.
STOP - CONVERT THE TARGA TO A JPG. Strangely I have found that if I use a
TGA first out, in the Shader in RS, it does not work. If I initially load
a JPG version all is fine. Then replace it with the Targa - IT THEN SEEMS
TO WORK WITH TARGA. A bug Maybe? Not Sure ... After you have got through
below and know what I mean, try it.
SO, I then launched RS, and created a new VSL Material with just a Bump
Map VSL object inside a Surface Geometry Shader.
DO NOT USE THE WIZARD TO CREATE A BUMP MAP - IT DONT WORK, as Timo said,
quiet eloquently - its F**ked.
Instead do this:
1. Open a new project
2. Go to the MATERIALS Tab in the Select Window [ usually Left side strip
under File menu on default environment ]
3. Right click in between AND NOT ON the default Materials. Select PURGE
to clear out the defaults and create a blank space.
4. Right click again and select NEW, VSL MATERIAL
5. The Material Preview Square appears - Double Click this
6. AVOID THE WIZARDS - Just click / tick advanced
7. Select the Material Folder object [ top left in the Shaders tab under
the word Shaders ]
8. Now right click this and select New, Shader
9. A Sub Object Appears Called Surface properties - we need to change this
10. Look further down the screen underneath the VSL OBJECTS Section at
Shader Type
11. Click the little down arrow to see the contents of the drop box
and Select SURFACE GEOMETRY instead
12. Now look back up the screen - the Sub Object has changed to SURFACE
GEOMETRY
13. Next we look at the VSL OBJECTS section. From here Drag and Drop the
BUMP OBJECT into the Surface Geometry Sub Folder
14. You should now have:
Material
I_____Surface Geometry
I_____________Bump Height=Bump [ Map coords ]
15. Look under the Vsl Objects section and you will see the Bump Object
Properties. At this stage all you need to do is load your saved JPG Height
Map image into the File section.
16. Once loaded, way up top left above the ADVANCED tick box TICK PREVIEW.
You should now see your Bump Height Map Preview
17. IMPORTANT - Below in the Bump Mapping Properties, under Vsl Objects,
set the Bump Height to something like 0.01. Remember this number. I also
realise you cannot see the Bump in the preview anymore just a smooth
sphere, dont worry. Change back to 0.1 again and its back. 0.01 is a low
height, too low to be visible in the preview.
18. Close the Material Properties window
19. In the Select Window switch over to the GEOMETRIC OBJECTS Tab, the
first one left of the Materials tab
20. Select the SDS Tab above left and now click on the SDS Rectangle,
before accepting and / or drawing, we need to increase the resolution of
the rectangle. Change the U and V from default 2 to 10.
21. Before Drawing, go to the top view
22. Now drag out your Rectangle from above
NEARLY THERE
23. Under the GEOMETRIC OBJECTS Tab you should have ROOT and a Subdiv
object [ the rectangle ]. Double click the Sub Div Object to go to its
properties.
24. Look down to the RENDERING SUBSECTION - Max Displacement. Its at
0.0000 at the moment. Change this to the same Number you used in step 17
above - 0.01
25. Close the Object Property Window. Make sure the SubDiv Object is still
selected and go across to the Materials Tab to our VSL Material we created
earlier.
26. Right click the Material, MAP and PARALLEL.
27. Still in the top view - click the top left of the Rectangle Mesh and
drag out to the bottom right of same to apply the Parallel Map.
28. Now go back to the Front view and ALT RIGHT MOUSE in the view until
you have a perspective view you like. NOW HIT THE RENDER BUTTON
29. You should now see a Displaced HEIGHT MAP on your rectangle.
WHAT IS A DISPLACEMENT MAP? Well from what I understand it physically
alters the geometry of the surface to the 'shape' of the Height Map as
opposed to applying just a bump map which gives the illusion, but does not
change the geometry. Shadows will work with the displaced surface ... I
Think, over to the guru's!
30. Mess around with the 0.01 figure - increase / decrease and see what
you get. Remember higher amounts of displacement takes longer to render
AND if you change the number make sure you do so for both the Rectangle
Object Properties [ rendering, max disp ] and the Material Properties [
Bump Height ]
Phew, loads of steps, but I did this in a way that made no assumptions of
knowledge. I realise this may be too simple for Guru's, but its written
for us grunts down in the trenches :)
Cheers
Aidan
At 20:22 27/10/2005, you wrote:
Hi Mark, List,
> BTW: see http://www.world-machine.com for some fascinating new landscape
> simulation software!
Is the interface with RealSoft real easy?
Neil Cooke
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark Heuymans" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, October 28, 2005 2:15 AM
Subject: Re: back online finally
> At 06:43 PM 10/26/2005 -0400, you wrote:
>
> >Hi List :
> >
> > Not dead . My computer was , for 2 1/2 months however . Myself , I
> >spent that time mostly out of town , 1 month on vacation and 1 1/2 months
> >on another Hydro generator rebuild project . Home once and a while on
> >Sundays and the time I did put toward getting the virus's out was mostly
> >wasted ... they turned out to be on the network as well .
> >
> > Anyway , I hope all is well with everyone here , and that all had an
> >enjoyable summer and a nice autumn , so far .
> >
> > Thousands of emails to catch up on now that that out of town project
> >has ended and I'm finally back online , with a good firewall this time !
> >
> >Cheers
> >Garry Curtis
>
>
>
> Welcome back, I was just getting worried... ;)
>
> SP2 has been out for a while now but it's been very quiet on this list
> lately. Maybe SP2 solved so many problems there are no issues left?
>
> BTW: see http://www.world-machine.com for some fascinating new landscape
> simulation software!
>
>
> cheers,
> Mark Heuymans
>
>
