I'm trying to come up with a way of modelling a vertical mine shaft in the terrain editor.

So far nothing very convincing has turned up. I'm thinking that a terrain turned vertical is the likely solution, and I know the camera only has to show part of the shaft (looking down), but getting that sense of a section of a hollow cylinder is not proving to be easy.

Anybody else tried to do this?

I haven't tried it, but what about making a cylinder and doing a Boolean difference with the terrain?  I'm not sure if that would give you sides or just punch a hole, but if no sides then you could build them using another hollowed out cylinder or cube?

Are you just trying to make a deep hole in the ground and dont want the straight, smooth sides that a cube or cylinder gives you if you boolean cut it?

Gary,

Yes, I'm after a raggedy rough hewn underground shaft (think the mines of Moria) with lots of precarious ledges and treacherous walkways.

When I've done cliff/ledge stuff, I tend to use a combination of lots of small terrains, symm lattices and rocks to get the shapes I'm after. Essentially I just build up what I want out of all these small elements - this works in bryce, so I reckon it will work fine in Vue when I get around to making a cavern or two later on. Its a lot of work to build things up this way, but it gives the best results/greatest control of any technique that I've tried.

Wow, that looks really good.

I've been fiddling about with nodes and functions in the terrain editor and got nothing like this.

Is it deep? I'm after a sense of scale, vertigo inducing if possible !

It is as deep as I want to stretcht he terrain to be......so yes.  I will do a tutorial after lunch and upload it shortly after that.  Give geekatplay a day or so to review and post it ok?
I will try to ask Vladimir if he can rush this in case you are needing this for client work.

Many thanks.

Obviously I am eager to see how it was done, but there is no need to hurry, as I am in the planning stages of a personal project.

The terrain element was just the first and most important part of the scene structure, and needed to be right before contemplating any of the other scene elements.

How would you stop the surface from looking stretched?

All my efforts have the effect of depth, but the features and bumps are drawn out and thin, meaning there are no nooks and crannies, ledges or other horizontal features.

Done with the video.  I am uploading it to our fileshare site and I sent an email to Vladimir to see if he will be able to review and post it tonight.

Thanks again.

Looking forward to seeing it !

The hole pictures brings back bad memories.  Out in the desert here around San Diego are lots of abondonded mine shafts.  About 20 years ago on a Boy Scout campout, my son came across one and was peaking over the edge.  Of course he fell in.  Lucky he landed about 20 feet down onto a platform - or else it would have been about a 100 foot fall.  Took us hours to get him out because the sides of the shaft kept collapsing on him...  He ended up with bumps, bruises, and scrapes, but no broken bones.  

Quote - The hole pictures brings back bad memories.  Out in the desert here around San Diego are lots of abondonded mine shafts.  About 20 years ago on a Boy Scout campout, my son came across one and was peaking over the edge.  Of course he fell in.  Lucky he landed about 20 feet down onto a platform - or else it would have been about a 100 foot fall.  Took us hours to get him out because the sides of the shaft kept collapsing on him...  He ended up with bumps, bruises, and scrapes, but no broken bones.  

If you read italian, just google for Alfredino Rampi.

He was a boy who "fell" (later I will elaborate on the quotes) in an artesian well in Vermicino, near Rome, in 1981. After 3 days of attempts to free him, he died of cold, suffocation and exhaustion.

The quotes? well, during the autopsy, the experts found 1) parts of a rope which had NOT been used during rescue operations and 2) marks on his skin consistent with him having been wrapped up and lowered DELIBERATELY inside the well. Unfortunately, Grissom and co. exist only in fiction and no further evidence was available so the inquiry had to end with a verdict of accidental death, but this theses does not explain autopsy evidence...

Bye

P.S.: not all demons have horns and roam the night...

Quite fortunate

I should mention that my son climbed over a fence (well, more like a waist high wire rope) to look into the mine.   Kids...  All the gray hair I have is because of this one. 

That's a sad story about Alfredino Rampi.  I still get goosebumps when I think about my son's fall - the platform he landed on was very unstable and looked like something large had fallen through it before.  My son thought is was a great adventure and wanted a rope so he could explore deeper into the mine.  Ahhhh!