understanding Geocontrol2

[vwhite3343]

I just purchased Geocontol2 and am trying to understand anything about it. I haven't used version 1 of Geocontrol, so I don't have any background in it.

First of all, I can't find the row of buttons that are supposed to be at the top of the page- all I have is Generate, Presetbrowser, and 2D/3D. Are those supposed to be there?

Second, anything I do to change a terrain results in 5-10 minutes of wait while green bars go across the bottom of the screen. Then when they're done, nothing seems to have changed. This makes it hard to play with the program to see what each feature does to a terrain. Is this supposed to be so slow? Also, I get lots of crashes.
I'm using vista 64bit on an 8 GB computer.

Is there is tutorial for rank beginners that starts from scratch, using Geocontrol2? All of the tuts I've found are either using version 1 and thus don't have the same controls, or are using version 2 and assume you already know version 1.

I'm so impressed with the things other users have done with this program, and really want to learn to use it.

[cajomi]

Hi,

that are a lot of questions. At the moment I am a bit stressed, I am in moving stress.
In a few days, when all is done, I will look to answer you.

Johannes

P.S.
May be someone else will answer you first :-)

[vwhite3343]

Thanks Johannes. I did finally figure out how to download your tutorials and am finding answers to at least some of my questions. When I seen them all and have had a chance to play with the program, I'll post some of my remaining questions. I appreciate your help- have fun moving!

[Plotinus]

Just a few pointers to help out. Do try the tutorials they will give you a very good grounding in the program.

Do play around with it. Once you get a feeling for what the level sliders do (and isolines) you can just play around and create amazing results.
Don't feel the need to use the Project Tab straight away. This is the one area that is prone to crashing (although the program as a whole is very stable). Start playing around just working in the Generation and Selectors Tabs to get a feel for what can be done.
Don't use high resolution until you're ready for a final generation as 4096 can take a while. This is set on the General Tab under the Generation Tab on the right hand side. I tend to use 1024 Terrain size to get things how I want them and then move to 2048 or 4096 before I export to Vue.
Do check the "keep seed"box on the General tab to stop it from changing on each generation. Better still reduce the random noise to 0 and use isolines to build your terrain rather than random noise.
Some erosion filters will take time to generate so keep this in mind as you play around. I tend to try to get the general forming and shape filters sorted out first, then apply erosion.
Do use layers of isolines rather than trying to draw them all on one layer. I find it is easier to manage the interactions.
Do experiment with the settings for the filters (alongside levels) to see how you can achieve different effects. Have look at the filter pre-sets also as good examples.
If you are using another program to render, then use the selectors to help build excellent material distribution maps.


Generally have fun playing around with GC2 and post some results. I've found it amazingly easy to get into and I'm sure you'll find the same. Enjoy.

Regards,

Plotinus

[vwhite3343]

Again, thank you, Plotinus. I'll try your suggestions and see what I can come up with.