Middle Earth DEM Project

[monks]

Hey Robes, I did send an apology for my disappearance to your bluebottle address I believe a couple of weeks ago.

Hmm, yep lots to catch up on. Hey, I read the Wilbur tuts....way to go Joe with those, and rivers!
Well right now I've got the hang of image maps in TG. Next up, water. Then once I have this sussed, we can move on to GTS image maps *if* you wanna.

As I've said before, this project will never go away for me so onwards and upwards as best I can!

monks

[Redrobes]

I think bluebottle has gone to the four winds. I had to move back to the normal ones. Always best just to use the standard email addresses.

If TG2 is using image masks to do a lot of stuff then I am sure I can supply... and yes still most definitely interested in continuing with it. I dont know how high a res we can go to. I did some stuff not so long back with a lot of data and a terrabyte is very very big. I reckon if we continue then we really have to draw a line in the sand and say lets get to this point before we make it any bigger and more complex. The scale of the project was growing at a rate as fast as we could technically keep up with the ability to provide it.

I would really like to be able to get the first stage rendered. I think thats either the 20K square or 40K one. We were really close to being able to do it last time I checked. Thats still a lot of data but it is manageable.

[monks]

Here's the latest.

http://www.skindustry.net/medem/file...2/render03.png

I 've turned off the atmosphere to get a better look at the textures. These are the masks 'as is' output from GeoControl. I turned off all the default fractal breakup up on them in TG- I didn't want any additional noise at this point. I'm also not sure of the technicalities of the layer blending that I've used on the masks in the GeoControl renderer. If I knew those, then I could in theory simulate them in TG.
There's a problem with the river mask not meeting the banks. This *could* be because I've not textured that side of the river. That's jsut a case of swapping the masks for the full coverage ones. I'll have a run overnight. This took 7 hrs wih a quad!
Seer used a mask in his project that this is based on that wasn't included in the package he gave me. That's a blur river- so that may well correct this.
I like using image masks because you really know where everything is going to be and how it should look. What's more you know *before* you get into the render, check, change, render,check,change cycle.

I've also got a full river mask I'd lie to try.

Yeh, the first stage...I think I'm gonna get the 20K into WM and just do the Goddamn mountains at that scale. I think with image processing I'm sure we could get some nice mountains from that at 40K. If you look at what Joe's done on the Wilbur pages, you can see that it's certainly possible.
However, I won't stop there. It'll be back into Global Mapper for the proper mountains at say 40K res. But that can wait.
Howard Zhou is bringing his plugins into line with WM 2.o which is great news. That workflow that I used for the Mistys of using real terrain as vectors will then be possible.

monks

[Redrobes]

The mountain looks great. The lighting on it especially is excellent and it feels big. Much bigger than I could ever get out of mine. The river is a bit mirror like but I know TG does amazing water so I guess its just a few parameter twiddling.

7hrs is a long time. This is Mindol which is a 4x4 set. So that would mean doing another 400 like this ! Whew

Let me know what you want from me at any time. I was trying to ditch the random mountains in the make file last time I was doing stuff. I wanted to get to the point where I could render any of the tiles within the 80x80 set. Then it would be a case of sending every spare CPU cycle at generating them all.

[monks]

Hmm, the mountain looks good but it could look a lot better. I've not got the glaciers in at all and the specularity on the snow is not there. There is also a skirt of grey which is not covered by any of the image maps- an oversight- but a proc layer will sort that out.
Like you say the water just needs some tweaking- it's set at default at the mo. I'm trying to get in touch with Seer but his old email is bouncing so I've sent some pms out. I think now that the image maps are pretty much sussed, the water is really the big thing- especially for GTS because it really excels at that; including glaciers and snow

I think the GTS output will look ravishing in TG. I'm gonna suss the water in TG do some nice renders and then I can think about the big run.

monks

[meleeguy]

I like it.

And therefore, I swing my mighty +1 sword of rep at you, rolling an adjusted 11. Since you are new here, I determine your AC to be 10, so it lands.

When do we get to the fly over of helms deep?

[Redrobes]

I'm trying to get in touch with Seer but his old email is bouncing so I've sent some pms out. I think now that the image maps are pretty much sussed, the water is really the big thing- especially for GTS because it really excels at that; including glaciers and snow

I think the GTS output will look ravishing in TG. I'm gonna suss the water in TG do some nice renders and then I can think about the big run.

Seer was pretty active over the summer as he made up some towns and maps with his kids who became the FHCO's... Doing some grocery store work for a bit but posted recently within a week or so.
http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=2189

For GTS masks there should be loads in the CalcTiles folder of Mindol test. There should be a complete (?) set for every colour tex render but you know we can add or change anything required. But that should provide about 10 or so per tile. If they need to be B&W only then ill have to make some new texture scripts. Or show you how easy it is to write a script to generate them.

The GTS texture creator has always been a rough cut to getting a texture. I use it all the time on here tho. TG2 should be able to do a much better job so interfacing source to tex engine would be a good idea. I was hoping Seer would be able to do much of that as he knows TG2 well.

...therefore, I swing my mighty +1 sword of rep at you, rolling an adjusted 11. Since you are new here, I determine your AC to be 10, so it lands.

Yes good call. Now that the reputation amount is shown as a value I think that it needs a good clubbing in the upward direction. Given that I defer all really hard terrain questions to you then your current amount is woefully inadequate !

When do we get to the fly over of helms deep?

For meleeguy this one. Me-Dem is about the terrain but there were (unfortunate past tense there) projects to model the buildings too. Here is the zenith of the Minas Tirith Project.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=eAruygQtw8Y

Such a shame it went pear shaped.

[monks]

well I sussed the river problem- rendering now. I was using the wrong mask, good job Seer!
I got hold of him now.
I put in some mudflats but they'll need a bit more work I expect. Hey, thinking of getting some reeds in there as well- ooh, I like this now...


Right, thanks for reminding me- I did expect we had something to run on from GTS.

hehe- I have AC10 at mapping?- you jest surely sir! I'll post some Global Mapper screenies when I get the chance- should have put some up by now. Glad you like meleeguy anyway

Yeh, Minas Tirith- gutted! No share, no fair //sob //unutterable curses in their direction


monks

[monks]

http://www.skindustry.net/medem/file...2/render06.png

nice...

monks

[Redrobes]

yeah real nice ! Just gotta get the water to line up with the banks. Love the clouds btw. But even the grassy plains look pretty cool too.