In Cinema 4D

[vimutti]

Here is one in Cinema 4D. Used the slope dependent filter but it does not show very well. The new Alpha 15 sure is nice! Great work Johannes.

[cajomi]

landscapes in Cinema are not so easy as in Bryce, Vue or Terragen.
For Cinema it really looks great.

A question: I did not own Cinema, so I could not test it. May be, the maps have to be rotated, before they fit to the imported terrain. Obj import has a relative free position and so the orientation. I would suggest, you try a very simple terrain, one mountain in an edge and then use a texture map, exported from GC, to see, whether the maps have to be rotated.

[vimutti]

Hello Johannes, I tried what you suggested and have actually looked into this once before. It does not turn anything - all comes into Cinema OK. I think it is the actual bitmap texture I used here that makes it a little blurred looking. I'm still working on how to predict. ( I was tired yesterday when I made this and it looked OK then....!)

However, sometimes when I bring the normal map I have to flip the X and Y vectors in Cinema in order for the shadows to work correctly - but not always!!! Why is that?

I am working to get some finer detail in the finished terrains. Ive tried 8192 res normal map but it will not come out of CeoControl well enough to use in Cinema. It is only partially complete when it comes out - or maybe C4D can't use something that big.

By the way, the 16 bit .tiff greyscale intended for Vue users works perfectly now for Cinema too. All the unwanted terracing is gone. I apply it to the Cinema 4D Relief Object which saves memory as it is a native object.

Thanks - still working on it when I have the time.

vim

[cajomi]

I am not sure, why you have to flip the normal map, but I am sure, that is a bad sign. This can only mean, that something there is not, as it should be.
The main problem with normal maps is, that there are some different methods, to encode them. For every software, you use to create a normal map, you have to find out, how it must be imported into the render software.
I have tested the GC maps with 3DSmax, and with one setting it worked fine.
It is also tested in Carrara, the same.
To get the right import I found, it was most important first to find the general orientation. On a rough rich detailed terrain, this is nearly impossible.
So I created first a terrain, which had a mountain in the edge, to see, how the maps have to be orientated in general. This is then always the same for every map.
After that, I tried to find the normal map import mode. This of course with a rich detailed terrain.

[vimutti]

I believe that I know what you are saying - all is in the correct corner without any manipulation or re-orientation in the horizontal plane when brought into C4D. The "flipping" needed is only the vectors of the normal map colors/faces - not the map itself. I'm sure I'm not explaining it well here. On about half the normal maps i try, the x and y vectors or normal faces are pointing to the back and it reverses the shadow - or maybe Im just looking into a "hole" into blackness behind. It isnt hard to figure out because the shadows are either correct or exactly backwards from the light source. That is not too big a problem.

I had time to try out another terain and I did get the normal map to come out of GeoControl without crashing at 8192 res. It has really nice detail in Cinema - shown below with a slope map on it. I may be gatting a little closer to making a little tutorial for Cinema users. I would appreciate your help when I begin that tutorial.

Again your comments would be gretly appreciated.

Thanks,
vim

[cajomi]

On the one hand, it really looks fantastic, but on the other hand, something is going wrong with the light.
I have just downloaded the cinema demo and will look, what is going wrong. Perhaps I have to export a Cinema optimized normal map. Here it seems, as if the shadows are on some parts to dark, and some parts have to much light. Such wrong lightning would be caused by to much normal map influence.
As I said, I will test that, this weekend, and if it is the normal map, next build will have a better one for cinema.

[cajomi]

Ok, I have just found following:

You must always swap y and z. That is because Cinema defines the z-axis as horizontal and the y-axis as vertical. The normals of GC uses a swapped coordinate system, z vertical.
The normal map of GC is not tangential (tangential normal map is needed, if the object is animated, the zBrush way). So you must use the "object" mode, very important.
And the power should be between 25 and 50 %.
Hope that helps to improve it.

[vimutti]

Thanks very much for checking into this. Yes, Cinema uses Y as vertical and I should have thought of that earlier. where all other software I use the z is vertical!

Best,

And later edit:

OK, now I have found that to be consistent - the swap of Z for Y. I had tried that as well but it seemed most often that the lighting I was using was "too dramatic" and I thought that the swap was turning the normal map compleltely backwards but incorrectly so that I had no light at all. Yes, it was turning them appropriately "backwards" and I only just needed to boost the light quite a bit. There are still a few smallish black spots - too black - in the shadow side but that may be related to the strength of the normal map. I've been using 90 to 100% and am trimming that down progessively.

Thanks again for your help here.

vim

Edit again:

Here it is with the lighting really punched up.