Ok all... here's the problem. I'm not sure if it's a bug or what... but do this: 1) Create a standard bump map in a paint program and blur it up. Use blacks and whites. 2) Create a bump map and increase the transparency and reflectiveness. 3) Apply the bump to the ground plane. 4) Render I don't know if I'm doing something wrong or what but it appears as thou something is happening. There is what it appears to be a very grainy procedural effect that I can't seem to make go away. It's fine for distance, but when you get close to the bump, it's there. Any suggestions? -=> Jim! <=-

I've seen something very similar when converting contour-map data into greyscale bitmaps and then into a terrain in Vue. The terrain ends up with lots of little steps, and they vary a bit depending on the bitmap format I use. I get rid of these using a quick 'diffusive erode' in terrain editor, but when you are using it directly to drive bumps, it may not be so easy. Are you exporting as a greyscale image, or in a high-colour mode? Saving your image in 16 million or more colours may help, but I don't know. We may be seeing different things, I don't know, but remember, there are only 256 levels in a greyscale picture.

I've got it at 16k... I was thinking that too, but it didn't help... here's the bump I'm using

Yes, I think I've found in the past that even full colour formats seem to only produce 256 steps in Vue. Maybe vue converts them, or maybe at 16 million you still only have 256 brightness levels, I don't know. I presume you are not using the jpg format - as this will show compression artifacts. I'll have a fiddle tonight, its worth looking in to. Several times in the past I've done stuff like this with loads of resoultion and colour levels, only to get various forms of step effect in Vue.

That could be the culprit... I'll try saving it in a different format and see if that helps any.

I had a graininess problem like that using a picture for creating an object with material editor. The solution I found was to use a terrain with the same resolution (640x480 or other) than your picture. Higher or lower resolution than the picture makes that kind of problem. Hope it can help...

Nope... didn't help... ok... I tried several different file formats BMP, TIF, GIF... I even attempted to increase the image size by a factor of 3 times the original size. NADA! Any more suggestions?

I'm trying to stear clear of using a terrain at all. Want to creat ethe effect completely with a bump map on a plane surface.

Good Morning Jim . . . 8^) I had a similar problem when trying to apply a bitmap to a terrain. When I attempted to apply the bitmap to a terrain, I would get a patterned surface on the terrain, where it should have been smooth, because the bitmap was one solid color in these areas. I sent e-on a message & all the files for this problem, but haven't had any replies, in two weeks now, so I don't know what's going on over there? Have a good one . . . Mark. ;^)

Maybe my post was not clear (excuse me, I'm french...) so, I try again : If your picture is a 640x480 picture, make a terrain with no other size than 640x480. I found for myself that it solves the problem...

OK, here are some tests. The bitmap used to create this bump function was created in 32 bit colour. So that's alright. However, as you can see, you can still see the steps, and I would guess there are 256 of them if you counted. (I'm not going to.) Note also, however, that the anti-aliasing type applied to the bitmap in the bump editor affects the appearance. If you don't have to cover a large area, you could use your bitmap to create a terrain, erode it to remove the steps (several erode clicks), and apply water to your terrain.

Hello, I've had the opposite experience, created my terrain at exactly the same size as the bitmap, and still got the steps. Oh well... erode gets rid of them.

Mark, about the bitmat in terrain editor problem: I got as an answer that this happens only when the image file has a lower resolution as the terrain. But I have tried with the same resolution and also with a very highter resolution. NOPE! same problem. Have already said it to e-on. Will follow this. Guitta

So I did find a bug? :SMILE: Knew I had to be good for something!

My opinion is this problem is the result of the bump map's image resolution.

Jim,
Have you tried using the wavelet function in the Function editor to create your raindrop ripples? I have experimented with the wavelet function with some success.

Charles

Hi, me again !!! I think, that for helping the discuss, we must dinstinguish two problems : - steps caused by the terain editor - graininess in the render Being confronted to both of them, I solved the first one with the trick I suggested in my previous posts, making the terrain the same size as the resolution of the picture used (as far as possible, a big resolution), and for the second one, render your picture at no less quality than broadcast. Hope it can help...