Alright,I have jumped onto the GC bandwagon,and so far so good,but man I gota know why Vue being as marvelous as it is STILL cannot give us the detail we so desperately desire.I made this terrain on GC and the loaded it as a .tga into Vue and...well you see the difference.Can someone dumb it down for me and explain why Vue in all its wisdom cannot give this detail to me.

I always forget which is which but I think it's .tif and not .tga that Vue cna bring in as a 16 bit heightfield!!
THAT'S what makes the difference. 16 bit allows vastly more detail.
You may also need to tuse a procedural terain or high resolution one as well?
:)

targa is recommended by the program for Vue and there is no option for tiff. And the .raw(16bit) format comes in blank.

hm, I've used 16 bit tif in Vue form Photoshop.

uses his Leet Ninja googlefu skills! :P

http://www.cajomi.de/Forum/showthread.php?t=266

http://www.geekatplay.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?p=963&sid=caa386e57e24d2265bb30df4ea6bb54a

http://www.cornucopia3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3998&sid=da2f0c037931caef6d08fdb9c9a1e317

There have been discussions on GC forum about this; the canonical way is to export a 16 bit .TIFF and use it to drive a procedural terrain. I am investigating other avenues but currently have nothing to show.

Anyway, I recently realized that this sharpeness thing is somewhat pointless: as soon as you add a realistic texture to the terrain, all tiny heightfield details are drown by the texture fine details.

Bye!!!

P.S.: for any further info, ask Cajomi on GC forum, he is the guru on this (and others ;-)) subject.

I have noticed a big difference between bringing in a CG2 as a targa and as a tiff. Also, I have not found that the materials get rid of all the details. perhaps try scaling your materials differenetly. Just an idea.

Below is the link to how to bring in a tiff and use the proceduaral command if anyone is interested.
http://cajomi.de/Forum/showthread.php?t=532&page=2

Silverblade33 - Thanks for the link on heightmaps. I missed that one.

Paula,

NPB! :)

I'll need to get GeoControl 2, me thinks, I have world mahcine but not used it in ages.
ponders

Quote - Also, I have not found that the materials get rid of all the details. perhaps try scaling your materials differenetly. Just an idea.

If you are looking (as I do) to single pixel details (very thin erosions on 2048x2048 terrains rendered 1600x1000) even the most subtle texture/bump variation hides details. Anyway, I understand that this quest of mine for super sharp details is becoming a pointless obsession...

Bye!!!

I have uploaded 2 recent Vue images with the terrain done in GeoControl,and the setail is pretty good i think,better now that i play more..but i am just not happy that Vue seems to put a "roundness" to the edges.I have always been flummoxed over this.Since Vue is a wonderful prog i think they should rethink there terrain editor a bit more like Terragen which is still FREE:D And in capable hands can rendr out some amazingly stunning and detailed terrains.

I finally got time to look at these links,thanks alot there all very helpful(;

Trepz, Perhaps this will help:

Well,the thing that is confusing me the most(and i have read the GC forum over at  cajomi.ne) is the 16bit part.How am i supposed to get a 16bit tiff working with GeoControl? It does not export a tiff format only targa for Vue.There is a bitmap option,is that 16bit? I tried to save it out of photoshop as a tiff,but it only seen the colors,not the hightfield that GC created...I am doing ok faking the details with bump and displace,but beyond that i really am lost! This is exactly why i gave up terragen for Bryce forever ago:P Not that i would give up Vue,but ya know what i mean(;

I don't have GC, but I would imagine you can export a 16-bit TGA, open it up in Photoshop, make sure it is set to 16-bit grayscale, then save it as a 16-bit TIFF, then follow the directions above. See if that doesn't work for you.

I think GC has some 'other' way of using 16-bit TGAs in Vue, using an import bitmap tile in the filter editor. Anyway, try the above and see if it works for you.

The other option is to export as RAW, and import into Pshop, and export as 16-bit Grayscale TIFF.

Yeah,I tried raw direct and it came in invisible.It imported,but there wasnt anything there...No clue why.I will try it with PS though.Thanks for dumbing it down for me:D

See the lowest export choice

Ah yes,ok then.I do remember seeing that.I bought it last wek and downloaded the GC2 demo then realised that it was a waste of time since i do not know the first one yet:D

GC2 is not a waste of time to start using. It is different enough from CG1 that I would start with it and the tutorials on GC. My advice is to just jump in and use GC2. One reason is that the height brushes are not in GC2, isolines are used to map hights, etc. Cajomi's tutes are great and should having you use CG2 comfortably in no time using the basics. Like any complicated program, there is tons to learn, but a lot is new in GC2 so start there. My opinion is you wouldn't gain by using GC1 first if you already have the CG2 demo. GC2 is really great. 

GC2 is not a waste of time to start using. It is different enough from CG1 that I would start with it and the tutorials on GC. My advice is to just jump in and use GC2. One reason is that the height brushes are not in GC2, isolines are used to map heights, etc. Cajomi's tutes are great and should having you use CG2 comfortably in no time using the basics. Like any complicated program, there is tons to learn, but a lot is new in GC2 so start there. My opinion is you wouldn't gain by using GC1 first if you already have the CG2 demo. GC2 is really great. 

No,I do not think CeoControl is a waste of time,not at all.I am just frustrated as always when i try to relearn something(;I know it is a wonderful program,asi see alot of it around the web.I will get GeoControl when it comes out,consitering i just bought GC1 it'll be up to how much it costs(;

Quote - Well,the thing that is confusing me the most(and i have read the GC forum over at  cajomi.ne) is the 16bit part.How am i supposed to get a 16bit tiff working with GeoControl? It does not export a tiff format only targa for Vue.There is a bitmap option,is that 16bit? I tried to save it out of photoshop as a tiff,but it only seen the colors,not the hightfield that GC created...I am doing ok faking the details with bump and displace,but beyond that i really am lost! This is exactly why i gave up terragen for Bryce forever ago:P Not that i would give up Vue,but ya know what i mean(;

Only GC2 exports 16 bit TIFFs - if you have a GC1 license you can try out (and if bought recently get a free upgrade I think) to GC2.

Well,a free upgrade would totally rock of course:D I was confused in the beginning of the thread as it wasnt mentioned at first that GeoControl 2 was needed for the 16bit jazz.I have it working now and all is well.I love it really,and since being turned on to CrazyBump,and getting FilterForge AND ImageSynth.I am in terraforming heaven as it were(; Seems whenever i think i have gotten all the software i will ever need someone else gets a bright idea >:(

Hello everyone.

The same problem was adressed in Cajomi's own GC² forum.

From Cajomi himself, he suggest using a 16 Bit TIFF from a texture map! That should bring you excellent results!

Are you guys actually using flowmaps? I have very bad results with flowmaps from GC² when i'm not using distant looks for terrains. Gets really washed when zoomed in.

No,I havent delved into the flow maps yet myself.Getting there though(;

A hint for the demo of GC1:
First export as 16bit raw. Then import and convert that in PS or another image software into 16bit tif.

About GeoControl2:
GeoControl2 is in developement. The next step will be to enable GeoControl to create close up "terrains", means cuts of the basic terrain, which fits seamlesssly into the basic terrain.
This will make it possible to get ultrarealistic details in the foreground, even sharp flows from a flowmap.
At time xpleet is correct, for close ups the details of only one 4096*4096 terrain are not enough and you get more or less smoothed and washed out details.

I am playing with the GeoControl 2 BETA right now and am quite inpressed with the detail the 16bit gives you.If you can get it better than that then WOW is all i can say(;

Quote - I am playing with the GeoControl 2 BETA right now and am quite inpressed with the detail the 16bit gives you.If you can get it better than that then WOW is all i can say(;

Don't quite all Terraingen have 16bit by now ? :D

GeoControl2 can export 32 bit raws ( I heard that it isn't much of a difference tho unless you want to re-import stuff )

What I am really looking forward to is the 8192 size terrain.
GeoControl builds terrains much faser than the other Gens that I have used and exporting 4000er Terrains atleast for my midrange dualcore and 2gig ram is not a bit of a problem.

I don't know about the coding but If it goes like this on 4096 I wouldn't see a problem with exporting 16k terrains as far as Vue is concerned.

What is the difference between project Texture Maps and normal texture maps. I noticed that an UV node can't be linked to a projected map. I yet have only used normal texture maps with an UV node.
Also I never had that terrain border messing up as reported by many people.

I believe projected texture maps already have embedded UV coords, so it's not necessary to link to a UV tile.

Oh, and good luck importing a 16-bit 8192 terrain into Vue! That's 67,108,864 non-instanced polys. Most programs will have a hard time opening that many polys.

Quote - I believe projected texture maps already have embedded UV coords, so it's not necessary to link to a UV tile.

Oh, and good luck importing a 16-bit 8192 terrain into Vue! That's 67,108,864 non-instanced polys. Most programs will have a hard time opening that many polys.

Didn't I say I'd be a noob hehe

Can we estimate the x amount of times a 8192 terrain takes more resources than a 4096?

Atleast for me a 4096 terrain does import really really fast.

But it's definatly a lot smarter to have a closeup + 4096 terrain. :P
In  a few cases I could definatly have usage for a 8000 terrain tho.