GC 2 Build 16 - Thins Flows sediment, displacment filters

[cajomi]

The next build is uploaded. I decided to first make some urgent needed improvements to the filters, before the I do the "road tool".


Thins Flows Sediment:
It replaces the Thins flows 2, because it is a improvement of that algorithm. This is using now a semi-scientific algorithm, which simulates sedimentation, caused by fluvial erosion (including small fans). This erosion is a very good pre-erosion for the river tool. It fills many lakes and smooths the river valleys. But it is also a very strong erosion, with impressive results. (Try a power of 100, starting point 5, more sediments 400, sharpness 8, and only in last level with 100 on a standard start terrain!).
With low values of "slope dependence", the sedimentation is mostly flat (typical for long time process), a higher value tend to produce fans (small fans), typical for younger fluvial sedimentation, with higher amount of sediments.
Snow and sand (with large fans) are not really simulated, will follow in one of the next builds.

Displacement filters:

Height displacement
This simply rises or lowers the terrain, based on the value of an selection. You can use it for some more experimental terrain, or with a flowmap to deepen or rise the flows, which will not be the same than to increase the erosion power. It will be more comfortable, when the pw section is implemented, where many filters can be applied as postwork, so the terrain will not be generated again by changing a pw erosion. Will make work on imported terrains also much more comfortable. Back to the height displacement -

Selection: You must use a selection, else the filter is not enabled
Power develope: The power develope sets the way, the values of the selection are used, low value = linear, high value= squared funtion (more power for lower values)
Add - subtract : simply changes from add to subtract mode
Shift displacement
This is good for simulating wind erosion. It can produce nice dunes when used with a "ridged" shape filter.

Orientation: Sets the orientation of the shift
Radius: How far the material is shifted
Asymetrie: Lets the shift decrease after the highest point (best try it)
Iterations: How often the shift is repeated (higher values with lower radius give better results).

Improvements:

Normal map export - Improved the algorithm, works now also with Cinema 4D

For Cinema use the "object" mode (not tangential), check "swap z" and "swap y z")


Smoothing of the rivers now also smoothes the border of the rivers. Hope it is now usable in games.


Bug fixes:

Drop Down list "Rivertyp" did not show on Windows 2000
Springs did not work correct on old presets
No more artefacts when an isoline is deleted (use the menu "View - Redraw" to clean the preview at all)
Thins flows erosion did produce peaks on the left and right border
Filter "mask mode" did only work on "selective noise"
The levels in the level controls for the noise power were shifted, so that the power of level 16 was for level 8 and so on.
With the noise filters the string gadgets for w1 to w4 and the general strength did not work, when the value was typed in.
A typo in the language file caused the open dialog with images (for example to set another gradient in the shader) only to show icons
Downloadlink: www.cajomi.de/UP/GeoControlAlpha_Build16_Setup.exe (http://www.cajomi.de/UP/GeoControlAlpha_Build16_Setup.exe)

Have fun

Johannes Rosenberg

[Seven-D.]

New build, new luck :D

Thanks, Cajomi.

I will give it a try tonight.
I am really anxious to test the smoothed rivers for our game.

[Criss]

Thank You sir. :)

[monks]

Awesome! The new stuff looks extremely cool :)

monks

[Seven-D.]

Respect.
Very nice stuff in the new build.
The new Thins Flows sediment filter looks awesome.

But the smoothed borders of the rivers don't work as expected.
I can hardly see a difference to the borders from build 1.15.
Especially for really deep rivers it is nearly impossible to smooth the borders correctly to use them in a game.

I attached a little scribble to show what I mean.
On the left side is a profile of a pretty deep riverbed, how it comes out of geocontrol.
Even with smoothing the rivers, the borders are too steep to walk through the river.
On the right is a profile of a riverbed with the same deepness but with borders that can be used inside a game terrain.

I would like to see a slider in the river tool, where the artist is able to adjust the smoothenes of the riverborders independent from smoothing the whole river. This way the deepness persists and the artist could only smooth the borders.

[cajomi]

Well, that will not be possible.
If you compare you images, you can see, that the water surface in the right image has grown, and that is the problem. This would change the water in and out of an lake. A smoothing would narrow the river, it must do it, what would have the same effect than simply lowering the deepness.
What you want is a defined profil for a natural river. And that is not possible with this algorithm.
This will be possible with the vector tool, but of course, there you have to draw the river by hand.

To explain it a bit:
A river is not a single line or flow, but very many flows, each is a small river. The addition of the rivers form the entire river. So it is not possible to give a river a special profil, because there is not one river, but hundreds of them in one river bed.

[Seven-D.]

Ok, I see what you mean.
Then I will have to experiment with the settings of the spring tools until I get the aspired results.

Thank you anyway.