Procedural terrains

lapx

I guess as I was thinking, a powerful use for 3d would be using it to actually displace difficult to model textures i.e. frieze detail on ancient structures. But this may be overmodeling depending on how close you are to the model.

pichuneke

Does someone have a quick way to convert the generated list of coordinates in the page:

(www.zonums.com)

to UTM?

It is not related to sketchup, I need it for my work. (I have the tools to convert it, but just one point at time).

mirjman

like this?

LatLon to UTM

Online coordinates conversion

(www.zonums.com)

thanks to rsw

pichuneke

mirjman, you saved my life today

Just a size limit of 500 points in:

(www.zonums.com)

matteo

hi, according to me, if you can get a grayscale height map of your terrain, you'll do some magic with Bryce.
For those who don't know it, Bryce is s landscape renderer and you can download a legal copy of version 5.5 for free - just check the webpage of Daz, who now owns it. The render engine is a bit outdated, but the terrain editor still rocks.

Start with a grayscale map like this beneath (found at http://www.photoshoproadmap.com/)

matteo

load this image into the terrain editor, and it will automatically converted to a 3D mesh: you can set the grid resolution of the mesh. In this case I've chosen a 640x640 units grid, and set a color gradient that helps me understand better the terrain morphology.

matteo

now there comes the best part: you can export the terrain as .dxf or .3ds file. In the export panel there is a slider that will optimize the poly count of your terrain. This function is perfect for exporting to sketchup, since a low poly mesh will be handled much better. The algorithm to decimate the mesh is really fair and it offers you two ways to do it.

matteo

The terrain editor offers you the chance easily modify some part of the mesh by "repainting" it or by applying erosion filters.
It's useless to say that Bryce's Terrain Editor is a great organic modeler and you can create many more shapes than terrains. There is plenty of tutorials in the web.

pichuneke

My first approach to 3D was Terragen 1.0.

(www.planetside.co.uk)

I enjoyed a lot that software. Personally I think that even the new version is a bit old today. It's a terrain editor with raytracing. But I learned some interesting things.

tomislavm

Thank You, nice program!

haynesc

how can i do this ...

whats a displacement map ? which rubies do i need to download and how to i go about creating these terrains like solo has done?