Every once in a while, when I can, I put a LOT of detail into a mesh (Terrain, Lattice). Usually it's the floors, which is always the easiest since they are somewhat flat in nature. A Terrain with major detail will render more life-like than a plain Terrain with a bump cranked to the ceiling. I use this fact when I have an object that is going to be close to the camera. I keep hi-res terrains to a minimum, since they will inflate your Bryce scene file faster than a texture at the same size will. Most of the time I still use a subtle bump map on the Terrain, but in some cases, I load no bump map at all. This is the basics, no absolute step by step, or this would be l o n g... As you will see this involves Photoshop, but this can be done in most any of the 2D editors. Don't have a 2D editor? There are free ones out there that will do this, so read on.

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=264249&Start=1&Artist=AgentSmith&ByArtist=Yes

Very convincing. Thanks for the mini tut. Tom

Thanks for sharing! It's a very good technique!

Thanks a lot! You've just given me some good ideas ;)

Ok so how about tile North, South, East, or West how heck does that work? Can I create a large terrain map made of multiple terrains that are continuous and have continuity? I played with this once but never got it to work right any tips, since we are on Terrains. Hows this too we could post some tips and tricks on terrains in this post if AgentS doesnt mind.Great tut BTW AgentS! I am going to do something with this tonight.

Attached Link: http://calyxa.best.vwh.net/pearl/terraintut/fractaltile.html

No, go for it! Post anything that will help in here. Unfortunately, the tile north, south, east, west thing does not work with this, since I would need also the "next" texture to keep tiling. With the way I go about it, I start with the texture first and make the terrain fit the texture. With floors, as in the vase pic, there are 4 terrains, all the same. You just don't see the entirety of all the terrains and their textures, so you can't see any pattern. In textures like the floor, I first make the texture tilable in Photoshop, so later not are only the terrains tilable but so are the terrains. Also, in the vase picture, you are actually looking at the grouped terrains from a corner. The front most terrain has no smoothing to make it really stand out. The other 3 terrains (left, right, and back) have all been smoothed twice in the terrain editor. I did this because the extreme rockiness of it kept the reflection of the window from showing up. AgentSmith

Calyxa's? .D'OH! Thanks madmax! I must have over looked this the last time I was at this site. I will slowly slink off to my corner to play with terrains...

Attached Link: Tile Terrains

oooo...thanks...:)

Definately paying attention. Bookmarked and thanks, TJ

Thanks AgentS ! Two last questions: what are the size of the terrains? do you use exactly the same resolution between the photography and the terrain? Stef

Dowt! Ya know, I knew there was something I was forgetting to mention... These in particular were 1024x1024, and yes, the textures and the terrains map itself and the size alloted in Bryce are all that same size. Sometimes I will work at 512x512, depending on how close to the camera they are, if there really is no visual difference, or if I just want to keep my scene file size down. AgentSmith

Thanks for the infos! Stef

Wow, I've just been schooled big time. I knew I had a lot to learn but MAN, I didn't know I had THAT much to learn! Thanks for the tips AS. Tell me though, how often do you use your camera in conjunction with bryce work?

I don't actually have a digital camera myself, or I would be putting it to use a LOT! The wooden gate was taken after I grabbed my brothers camera out of his hands, lol. I have a couple dozen more I have to "process", thought I would just put them up for you guys after I'm finished with them. But, I have a 35 mm SLR myself, so I can always still use that and just scan them. But, I'm considering getting a cheap digital. You can get 1.3 megapixels for $80 now. My working with photo textures vs. Bryce DTE textures is about 50-50. AgentSmith

Agent Smith, An example of 640x480 resolution - not anywhere near 1.3MP to give you a general idea. the haystack. Hey, How'd I get into the picture? - TJ

oops Forgot to say it's post 8 on the thread

Yeah, I bought a little "keychain" camera for the girlfriend, which anything under $80 seems to fall into the 0.3 megapixel range. It's horrible indoors (has no flash), but for 640x480 outdoor pics & at only $40, it's cool as snow. AgentSmith

Kewl! Roobol has a simillair tutorial on using terrains like this at: http://users.pandora.be/roobol/tutorials/framestutorials.html It uses the same principal as this mini tut.

How did I miss this Great Informative Post?? :P Thanks All for sharing tips!

You know? there are times when I have absolutely no idea of what you guys are talking about.....all of the above? = a complete mystery to me.....I guess I missed a few dozen chapters.... Sigh The Bryster

It's justa more complicated/exacting way of using a picture as a terrain is all really. (with the help of Photoshop) AS

Thanx, AS. :~?

How do you pick out all the different levels of the floor like in post #11? Or is there a different method for a flat surface like that? TMG

Same exact technique. AS

Interesting thread, but how exactly do you use the polygon tool?  All I got when I tried it was a white hexagon.