Attached Link: http://www.kenmusgrave.com/height_fields

You're completely free to use them for anything you like; no restrictions or permission required. But take care--some are really big files to download!

They illustrate some of the weird and interesting terrains that MojoWorld Generator can crank out. They don't have texture maps associated with them, though they could have been exported (it's just that procedural textures are generally lame when exported as texture maps).

We're considering creating a stand-alone terrain generation program, if response is strong...

-Mo

Isn't MojoWorld already mainly a terrain generation program ? What would you remove ?

Thanks for your generous gift. I see a list of files, such as:

     Volcano_4K_BT.zip       23-Jan-2002 10:23  55.5M  
     Volcano_4K_DEM.zip      23-Jan-2002 03:36  11.2M  
     Volcano_4K_PNG.zip      23-Jan-2002 05:17  18.0M  
     Volcano_4K_TER.zip      23-Jan-2002 02:31  26.4M  

What procedure would we follow, and which file(s) would we use in this example, to create a volcano terrain in Carrara?

Paco: MojoWorld has lots of other functionality, like the real-time navigation, animation and atmospheric effects that could be left out. Just generating greyscale terrain maps would be much simpler, and could have a much simpler UI. -Mo

nyar1ath0tep: The "4K" files are all at 4096 squared resolution. The PNG and DEM files feature 16 bit precision in the heights; far better than 8 bits. (I actually do not know the precision of the TER and BT files, but I doubt that Carrara imports them at any rate.) I'm not familiar with importing terrains to Carrara. Can someone else give us instructions? -Mo

Mo: Well, I see that but animation and atmospheric effects are already lost when one export to another 3D software anuway, or so I suppose. So, to answer your first request for strong response, of course yes, if you propose a simpler program, keeping 90 % of what is interesting in mojoworld (the fractal terrain generation) and cut the price par 90 % ... yes, yes and yes ! Would be nice also to allow export of the corresponding fractal color map, even if that means cuting the price by only 80 % ;-)

Hmm. I'm so produral-texture-oriented, that I've never thought that texture maps were worth exporting with terrains. But that's just me and my personal bias, I guess... Anyway, fixed-size height fields like this are really primitive compared to what MojoWorld does, so it's not really giving out much of MW's key functionality. ;-) -Mo

I think the DEM file may work with software using US Geological Survey Digital Elevation Models. One for Mac OS is called DEMview, and I think Bryce can use greyscale images to generate terrains, as can Amorphium. Ray Dream had a plug-in called Supermesh that would read such an image, but I don't know if it works in Carrara, or if it's still supported.

Supermesh was never ported to Carrara, but you have two options in Carrara. You can use the built in Terrain modeler or you can use Anything Grooves from Digital Carvers Guild.

Eric Winemiller
Digital Carvers Guild
Freeware and commercial 3D extensions
http://digitalcarversguild.com