Ah. Personally I prefer the second image. Less flat IMO. But yes, also darker. Not what I would call "too dark" though.

I guess it also has a lot to do with monitors and such. My monitor is slowly losing brightness (as they do when they get older sigh  so I'm used to lightening things up in Photoshop. When they look a little too bright here, they're usually good on other computers :)

I agree. I like the second one much better.  The contrast is higher.

Trekkie, to parent an infinite light you just change it to a spot/point light, parent it and then change it back to an infinite.

I just bought Terra Dome. For some reason I didn't get a coupon from RDNA, but it was already 30% off, or about $21. In response to the person who thought there should be more "for the price," I was surprised because I thought he or she had paid $100 or something!!

I agree that the tutorials are too skimpy and basic. But they do get you started.

One problem I noticed is that the ground displaces far up into a figure's feet, even when using the DD (Displacement Damper) materials as instructed. I had to make several trials and errors before I could get Vicky to stand on the ground in the render. In order to do so, she had to float several inches above ground in the preview. This process seems to be necessary for each scene, though I suppose you could jot down exactly how high a figure must float above a particular terrain in order to be above-ground in the render.

I really like the sky textures. The grass and ground textures, as always are a bit too low-res in the interests of keeping the texture maps reasonable. Looks fine as long as you're not focused in too closely on the ground.

Quote - I just bought Terra Dome. For some reason I didn't get a coupon from RDNA, but it was already 30% off, or about $21. In response to the person who thought there should be more "for the price," I was surprised because I thought he or she had paid $100 or something!!

I agree that the tutorials are too skimpy and basic. But they do get you started.

One problem I noticed is that the ground displaces far up into a figure's feet, even when using the DD (Displacement Damper) materials as instructed. I had to make several trials and errors before I could get Vicky to stand on the ground in the render. In order to do so, she had to float several inches above ground in the preview. This process seems to be necessary for each scene, though I suppose you could jot down exactly how high a figure must float above a particular terrain in order to be above-ground in the render.

I really like the sky textures. The grass and ground textures, as always are a bit too low-res in the interests of keeping the texture maps reasonable. Looks fine as long as you're not focused in too closely on the ground.

Yeah Im getting that problem too All my renders so far have her feet in the ground still though each one gets better but it is a bit of a pain sine I would like to use the rough ground and I have to use it flat to easily get V4's feet closer to aboe ground without getting a suprise hill where none was before.

Why not put a placeholder prop or figure in the scene while you are building it so that you know how hig on the Y Translate axis you need to position you character?

LMK

For the displacement problem you can try adding a subtraction math node to the displacement. This will make the displacement go down instead of up.   As long as the displacement map was made with pure white as the maximum displacement it should work with no problem.  If however the maximum displacement is represented by a shade gray you  need to change the subtraction value to account for this.  For example if the maximum displacement, or lightest shade, is only 50% gray the you would only subtract 0.5

In the picture I'm attaching the plane on the right is using a typical displacement setting while the one on the left uses a subtraction math node.

lkendall said and I quote:

Quote - Why not put a placeholder prop or figure in the scene while you are building it so that you know how hig on the Y Translate axis you need to position you character?

LMK

What an excellent suggestion for any project.

Quote - Why not put a placeholder prop or figure in the scene while you are building it so that you know how hig on the Y Translate axis you need to position you character?

LMK

Hmmm that still would require several test renders to figure out just how high and where the character's feet would have to be placed to keep them above the ground.

Or we could just use the DD set of materials that was supplied with the set. THAT actually solved my problem.

Quote - > Quote - Or we could just use the DD set of materials that was supplied with the set. THAT actually solved my problem.

As I said in my post, the problem exists WITH the supplied DD materials. I haven't even tried to see how high the ground would rise into Vicky using the non-DD materials. Up to her hips?

The issue can be alleviated by flattening out the rough terrain, as someone above did. But that still requires several test renders to get Vicky's feet planted on the ground... and defeats the purpose of having rough terrain to begin with.

Why wouldn't the roughness of the terrain be totally generated by morphing the plane (the effects of which could be seen in preview) instead of being created through displacement (which can't be seen until render)? I would have thought displacement would be used to give a 3D effect to grass and rocks, etc, not to lift the ground entirely.

Quote - For the displacement problem you can try adding a subtraction math node to the displacement. This will make the displacement go down instead of up. 

ChrisCox -- The would probably work, but I don't want to turn the whole Zone 1 ground plane into a bowl with ruts instead of bumps, just to get the figure walking ON the earth instead of THROUGH it.

Quote - > Quote - For the displacement problem you can try adding a subtraction math node to the displacement. This will make the displacement go down instead of up. 

ChrisCox -- The would probably work, but I don't want to turn the whole Zone 1 ground plane into a bowl with ruts instead of bumps, just to get the figure walking ON the earth instead of THROUGH it.

I'm not following you. 
They'll still be bumps, but the top of them will  be at "ground level" instead of above it.

Quote -
One problem I noticed is that the ground displaces far up into a figure's feet, even when using the DD (Displacement Damper) materials as instructed. I had to make several trials and errors before I could get Vicky to stand on the ground in the render. In order to do so, she had to float several inches above ground in the preview. This process seems to be necessary for each scene, though I suppose you could jot down exactly how high a figure must float above a particular terrain in order to be above-ground in the render.

I can't find that problem. I tried and.. the displacement isn't going through the feet of my characters.

Are you CERTAIN you're using the DD materials? It's a bit of work to texture this properly I find (they should have made some materials that applied to all three zones at once, with Zone 1 with DD and the other two without it) - same with the morhps. I REALLY hate injecting the morphs every time. But then.. it's easy to save a pre-injected version ...

Here's a pic I just did of Bong on a beach. Now, the sand texture isn't the most displaced one of them, but.. I put him smack on the surface and rendered - with displacements on of curse. And it isnt going through his feet at all.

OTOH I dont know what those brown squares are supposed to be.. not sure if it's an error or they're supposed to be there - this is the first time I've used the Sand texture...

Displacement isn't going through the characters feet either when I do use the DD materials.

Quote - OTOH I dont know what those brown squares are supposed to be.. not sure if it's an error or they're supposed to be there - this is the first time I've used the Sand texture...

I'm getting the same when I do use IDL in P8, but they're black. I'm assuming you rendered with Indirect Light on? When I switch off IDL the squares are gone. I'm wondering if they are shadows cast from the Skydome, which do not turn up in regular renders, but are visible with the indirect light renders. I've noticed it doesn't appear with every skydome/light set used, only certain ones, but I don't recall which ones.

Trekkie, I followed their, uh, "tutorial" and got the displacing problem I described. I really did use the textures from the DD material folders. Maybe there was something sort of implied in the instructions I failed to do... I'll keep playing.

Another possibility is that it wasn't tested for Mac, which is what I use. Some Poser developers on PCs forget that part, and forget to say that they forgot!

 Ah .. it MIGHT be a Mac problem although.. it shouldn't be.

I read the general PDF to get an idea how to do what but I didn't follow a tutorial per se (I'm so BAD at readmes and tutorials... I'm a hands on - poke this - person L

And Aeilkema.. it might be a shadowing problem. I did indeed render this with indirect lighting - and since this is the first time I've used that blue shky and the sand texture it could be either one that is the culprit. The other three pics I've made so far with the Terra Dome has used other grounds and other skies and I haven't had this problem before.

It's interesting that your squares are black though.

Could you perhaps try to render something with the BlueUV High sky and the sand texture and see if it's the two in conjunction that gives these squares.. if it's a specific combination we can either avoid it, or suggest it to RDNA as a "bug" and PERHAPS it's someting that can be fixed :)

I havne't looked into how the nodes are connected so I don't know if it IS indeed a shadow problem or something else. But  so far I'm REALLY liking the Terra Dome. It has enabled me to do Bryce-like renders in Poser :D
(and I was a Brycer before I ever heard of Poser, so....)

While the product is impressive, I see an annoying tiling artifact. It looks like a grid of lines. It is really obious on distant mountains. I notice I can see it on some of the uploaded pictures in this thread. How disappointing.

lmk

Quote - While the product is impressive, I see an annoying tiling artifact. It looks like a grid of lines. It is really obious on distant mountains. I notice I can see it on some of the uploaded pictures in this thread. How disappointing.

lmk

I just looked at all the pics in this thread and I can't see the lines you're talking about... I can see it a little on the ground on one if the first pictures, but I can't see it on any of the mountains. 

Now.. the textures are indeed tiled, so I'm not saying it isn't so.. just that I can't spot it. Could you please point out where you see it on one of the background mountains. I just got a new monitor yesterday and perhaps I need to adjust it.

(and no I'm not being sarcastic or anything. I'm genuinely curisous because I can't see the grid in question)

Here's another images made with Terradome. The textures are from www.cgtextures.com/ Tiles version, size 1600x1064, works great.