GeoControl vs Terragen why the difference.

[mike3121]

I have two links to terrain I've created. One was created with Terragen and the other GeoControl. I must note I had "Terracing" turned off. Every terrain created by GeoControl has this terraced look and no rounding. Terrain produced by Bryce also shows rounding.

Am I missing something here? When I go to use smoothing groups in Maya it crashes.

Terragen terrain:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v713/mike_w123/terragencreated.jpg

GeoControl:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v713/mike_w123/geocontrolterrain.jpg

[cajomi]

How did you export the GeoControl terrain?

[mike3121]

In both cases I saved as .obj at 512 scale. Well actually Terragen is 513 scale.

[cajomi]

If you had used the obj export, the terrain is exported with a 32bit heigth resolution. How did you import the obj file?
That stairs are produced by using a greyscale bmp.

[mike3121]

The terracing effect is only produced on the 512 or lower sizes. I just do a random "generate" then export the result as a .obj mesh. Both with GenControl and the newer GenControl 2 the results are the same - terracing. Yet, with Terragen (output is an .obj mesh)or Terragen 2 (output is a .lwo mesh) the results from a random generation have no terracing.

[cajomi]

I have just tested it: There are no terraces in the GeoControl obj export.
Please try it again. May be you had used the natural terrace filter, or you had used a preset, which did use terraces. The shape filters have a terrace option!

[mike3121]

You were right it was some setting within the project that caused the problem. When you ask for sharp edging you get terracing. I just had to reduce the sharp edging settings. Now to get the color .bmp map to fit the terrain after its been UV mapped. Ultimate Unwrap can't handle even a 512 size map with too many polygons. Maya works but it takes about 2 hours to UV map.

[cajomi]

For terrian maps you need a simple projection form top. No need for UVs.

[mike3121]

Thanks for all of the help Cajomi. Well it seems that this is all for nothing. I wanted to use the trees from Maya. You see the trees in Maya only snap to a nurbs surface or the drawing plain. If I convert them to polygon trees then I get about 20,000 polygons PER TREE! 2D Sprite trees in animation turn with the movement so that's not an option. I'll have to make the terrain in Maya using its terrain manipulators and deformers.

I want to do a screen saver of some Bf109's flying down the Rhine, past the Heidelburg castle. Also a flight of He177A5's. See links. Maybe the German aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin will sail again. I'm working on it for another screen saver. See links:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v713/mike_w123/bf-109P3.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v713/mike_w123/bf-109P1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v713/mike_w123/RB-2PIC.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v713/mike_w123/He177A5PICTURE-7.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v713/mike_w123/He177A5Picture-4.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v713/mike_w123/GZ-SIDE.jpg

[cajomi]

There is in general a problem with the so called high end allround tools like 3DSmax, Maya, XSI or Cinema. They all have no really terrain capacity and fail working with high resolution terrains.
They should be able to handle some 4096*4096 terrains without problems, but they aren't.

[monks]

I agree- forget polygon modellers for terrain. Horses for courses I guess.

monks