Since the displacement feature is broken in Bryce, does anyone know a way to map a terrain onto another Bryce object?   Example:  Map a rugged terrain over a very large sphere or stone to simulate the surface of an astroid where a curved horizon is visible;  or,  map a detailed terrain over a larger terrain to simulate wind swept water surface on rolling waves. 

I'm always looking for new ways to crash my computer.

some 10 or so years ago I did that forgot what program it was i was working for Dept of Energy and needed to put a real map into a 3d setting for a simulation. and got a program that worked with Bryce to put a tetonics USGS satellite map on a globe. I'll have to look it up I think I got it from USGS for free I'll ask I'm wanting to do that now for educational moviesusing global earth for flyby's so if anyone knows what i'm talking abotu please speak up. I'll contact USGS and see what they say. seams like I saw something recently in a research article that NASA or the smithsonian had something available too your tax dollars at work. 

that should be google earh. found out that camptasia movie capture will allow me to still use my mouse to manuver in google earth so you can make neet little movie flybies of locaitons and record it in camptasia usually your mouse is controlled byt he screen capture program. 

Willie, which version of bryce are you using ???

I just applied a terrain mat to a rock then added some displacement using B7pro version 7.1.0.109. It was slow and I had to wait in the mat lab for the preview to stop rendering but it did work.

Cheers

GG

You CAN apply a DEM from the usgs to a terrain. I harvested all the DEMs because there was talk of them not being available for much longer.

@ Chris, you don't by any chance have a link to those DEM's??

Cheers

GG

Here is the program dem3 I was using looks like it has gotten  a lot bigger I’d like to know hwere those maps are too, I’ll check this page for any address

http://www.visualizationsoftware.com/3dem

your mars sene looks like what they did here

http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/40870-Real-satelite-image-to-High-defenition-terrain-in-Unity3d

Attached Link: Here is the gallery post

I have B7.1 Pro on a Win XP 64 machine.  I went back and checked.  I can add displacement to a stone or bryce boolean object if I wait for the preview to render like you described.  But even the preview would crash my machine if I tried it on an imported object.  See my recent gallery post that I wanted to add displacement to enhance the cracks.  Maybe it has something to do with procedural mats vs picture based mats or how more complex objects are rendered.

@Bryster

I would like to add a displacement map (or something like that) made from a Bryce terrain onto a second Bryce terrain.  Say a 'mordor' fractal terrain mapped onto a 'zorch' to simulate wind ripples on an ocean wave.  This is what I mean by terrain on a terrain.

Maybe this all can be done and I haven't figured it out yet.

@ Kiwi - USGS.gov/ned/historic

Willie - I have no clue. sorry. ;-(

Create whatever Terrain you want.
Then go to the "Pictures" tab.
Over the left of the 3 little Terrain previews, click "Load>Current Terrain"
(It might actually already be in there by default but check all the same)
Stop there and go create a 2nd Terrain.
(it will overwrite the 1st Terrain in the main, large window and that is okay)
After 2nd Terrain is created
Over the middle of the 3 little Terrain previews, click "Load>Current Terrain"
Click "Apply to see the blending affect.

Also;
Click, hold and drag left and right the "Blend" button.
This will change the how much opacity each Terrai nhas or doesn't have.

Also;
Check out the little Arrow underneath the last window and try using those Opacity effects.

But, if you want total, precise control over this process, you'll need to create the Terrains and then export them out as images and do this same kind of ritual in either Gimp or Photoshop.

AS

Now...as far as your original, first question;
"Example:  Map a rugged terrain over a very large sphere or stone to simulate the surface of an astroid where a curved horizon is visible"

Yeah, that is the domain of the Displacment map. You could use a Terrain as a bump map in the Materials Lab, although that obviously will not look the same nor as good/realistic.

It's very unfortunate the Displacement system in Bryce is still so buggy, crash happy and only 8-bit.

The only workaround here would be to use a different program to permanently displace a mesh with a Terrain image, so that the geometry would actually retain that displacement and then import the mesh into Bryce for rendering. I've done this before with ZBrush. Perhaps the free Blender program can do this?

AS

and  "OHMYGOSH"  OR "EURIKA"  I found another way in the mean time.

1. I generated terrain A in massive scale and found a fractal I liked for the waves

2. went to pictures tab and copied it, pasted it in Paint Shop Pro (PhotoShop has similar controls)

3. back to Bryce where I generated a busier terrain B for the ripples, copied the picture

4. pasted the second image as a layer set to "lighten" in the paint program, adjusted its transparency so not to overwhelm the base terrain, merged it, copied it and back to Bryce I go

5. I pasted the merged image as a new terrain in pictures, smoothed it once and tahdah!

This image has a smooth colored glass mat (no bump) so you can see the resulting terrain

I promise I didn't see AS's posting until I had the paint program method figured out.  All I need to do now is get a really good terrain for the ripples that have a sharper edges on the peaks then save it for use over and over. 

Kirk, you should write the next Kitchen book.

Lol, awesome deduction!
Ah...Kitchen NEEDS to write the next Kitchen book, lol.

Yeah, I've been playing around with Terrain mixing in Bryce for the last decade or so, lol. First with 8-bit, stair-stepped Terrains and then (before Bryce caught up) with bikermouses "Tiffer" utility so I could get full, 16-bit images out of Bryce, into Photoshop and then back into Bryce. Nowadays, Bryce can eat and spit 16-bit tiffs, no problem.

But, 8-bit or 16-bit...Photoshop or Paint shop Pro or Gimp, one can make some crazy opacity combos with Terrains.

Willie, kirk, awesome stuff!!, but it's just as well the bryster is having a nana nap or you would both be in the comfy chair for all that talk about other apps.

Cheers

GG

PS. Chris, thanks heaps for that link, will work on that to-morrow.

PS &PSP are ok proggies. ;-)

I'm kinda excited for Gimp. I've read where they are planning to have 16-bit tiff support by version 3.0 (they are on v2.8 right now)

Wail, everybody does fascinating things just when I can't join in!

I'm looking forward to trying this stuff out as soon as I can, so don't stop now - keep going (you could at least write a chapter of the next Bryce Bible)

I wanna see more of this explained and shown more.

(I'd use C4D to do the displacement bit, it works well for that, adding sub poly displacement to a nicely controlable degree - but I'd imagine Blender might well be able to do it as well.)