Slope Map Test

[vimutti]

Here's my first attempt at slope dependent texturing in C inema 4D using the Selectors – Slope Tab which exports as a .bmp. The slope map was then placed in Cinema as an alpha map – no normals map this time. I tried a normal map with the alpha and it does have some promise but in this one was a little too gritty - or something. There is no other bump here but there is a normal map in the first (primary) material that is “under” the alpha with the slope map.

I need a lot more experience here – don't feel like I have any control over any of the many variables.

One thing I don't understand (help Johannes!!) is why the slope bitmap is so low resolution when applied to the terrain with the alpha channel. It was absolutely “chunky”. Most of the work here was to try to hide that heavy and huge pixelation. Is this some more of Cinema's workarounds to try to get a useable resolution?

Anyway, thanks for looking. I'm fairly pleased for a first piece out of the box. This has real promise! Ask if you have any questions. Not that I can actually answer anything here yet, but I'll give it a try.

[cajomi]

The second render looks really good.

About the pixels in the slope export:
Slopes can change very fast, so you often get a "clustered" structure. Best is to set a higher range for the area, where the slopes are taken, for example min 0 to max 15, for the flat parts, + fuzzi with 50 for the max value.
In general, to improve qualtiy, increase the size of the terrain. What was the size of the exported alpha map?
I do not know, whether Cinema reduces the size of the maps in the alpha channels, but I do not think so.

To the normal: The normal maps in GC are in general very strong. Can you set the power of the normal map in Cinema?
Else I will think a about a splitted export, so that there are different strength for the geometrie.

[vimutti]

Hi Johannes, thanks for the quick reply. Yes Cinema can adjust normal strength from 0 to infinity (maybe) I'll work out some of the rest soon. Size of terranin and exported alpha was the same I think at 1024X. Yes I do like that the normals out of GC are strong and can always be adjusted down if wanted. I try them at 50% and 300% just to see the effect. They are subtle and nice usually around 75 to 95% in Cinema for me.

Many thanks!

vim

[cajomi]

You shoud use for the maps 4096er resolution (including the normal map) and then export the terrain with a smaller size. That will give best results.