I need some help here. I was trying to create a terrain with rivulets running down and over it, but to my own pattern rather than procedural. based on a tutorial here, I did the following 1) CREATE "RIVULETS" IN TERRAIN EDITOR ON THE TERRAIN BY DIGGING 1) EXPORT TERRAIN AS BITMAP 2) OPEN BITMAP IN PAINT PROGRAM...CREATE "RIVULETS" WHERE I WANTED THEM AS ABSSOLUTE WHITE 3) BLOCK OUT ALL OTHER AREAS IN BITMAP AS ABSOLUTE BLACK 4) SAVE BITMAP AS RIVULETS.BMP 5) RE-OPEN VUE, LOAD SCENE, AND SELECT TERRAIN (TERRAIN ORIENTED NORTH) 6) CHOOSE TWO MATERIALS (EG GRASS AND WATER, or ROCK AND LAVA) TO HAVE LAND AND RIVULETS RESPECTIVELY 7) UNDER "DISTRIBUTION OF MATERIAL 1 and 2" RIGHYT CLICK AND CHOOSE "MAPPED VALYES".....LOAD THE IMAGE "RIVULETS.BMP". 8) BUT!!!! I GET NOTHING LIKE A LANDSCAPE WITH RIVER OR LAVA FLOWS!, AND I HAVE PLAYED AROUND WITH SCALE AND RELATIVE MIXTURE OF MATERIALS. ALSO, THE MATERIAL FOR THE RIVULETS SEEMS TO APPLY ITSELF OVER THE WHOLE LANDSCAPE. Any suggestions (or outright revelations) as to where I am going wrong here will be much appreciated. PANTHER

You first neeed to set the camera to north or it dont work regards seeklight

"orking"??? no! working.

Guitta, (hi :) ) Yes, that's approximately what I'm after! But whether I have camera north or terrain north or both north seems to make no difference. I don't get the rivulets. P

Hi Guitta, How do I post an image directly into this page like you did above? I will display the problem. P

note: although the scale of distribution is shown as "5"; it was tried with several values, including "1", all without significant difference to the result shown P

There is something wrong in your rivulets bitmap. Start again from scratch. Open Vue, create a terrain, give it a better resolution. Don't add any thing else. Create the rivulets bitmap in your paint program, at least in 512x512 but better in 1024x1024 or highter. Use a middle gray background and less or more light grey to white for the rivulets. When you paint the rivulets, consider the altitude of your terrain. best is you have a copy of it beside to see where you paint. When you apply this function in the material distribution, do NOT scale it there, but in the Distribution Function window under "PICTURE SCALE" (x and y). Do not use Influence of environment, uncheck it. Do not use a "Peak" for the material distribution, but some softer function. Does it work now? You will to have try several times before you get it right. Guitta

If you tell me what exactly you want to obtain?? A road? a river? Each thing has its own technic.

Hi LP, I cant be suprised at anyone being confused with this subject. I am the one that posted the tutorial you read, and I myself have had problems using my own tecnique!! What your aiming for is not easy, but what I suggest you do to make life easier is something that I may well add to the tutorial one day, goes like this... Make yourself another camera (just up the camera save slot to 2) so that you can move it completely away from your scene. (make sure to save first!!!) Create a terrain with NOTHING on it, just a flat terrain and position your camera directly above it looking down. Now add your distribution map, and use two completely contrasting materials (I use plain red, and plain yellow) and play with the scale until its placed where you want it to be on the terrain in question (of course the new terrain and the one you want the map on have to be the same size!) I have battled this forever, and I cant find any total continuity between how Vue behaves, this is one of the only ways I can find to get the effect you want each time. Place it as explained above, and then use the same scale etc on the terrain you want it on. This will at least put it in the right area... Hope this helps, Kutter.

Guitta, ok I will try this and report back when I have. How do I change the "peak" thing? The bitmap is also enormous. Maybe this is a problem? Kutter, hi! Yes, it was your tute (very good one by the way). It actually worked fine for the tutorial. Of course, that is a massive path right through middle of a terrain. Perhaps part of the problem is that my "rivulets" only occupy down at one small corner of a large terrain? What baffles me completely is why the material for the lava is appearing all over the landscape. I'm just not aware of having done anything fundamentally wrong (not that this means I haven't LOL) P

Peak thing: double-click the small peak window and select something like above in my previous image. Guitta

Attached Link: http://sittingblue.50megs.com/tutorials/terrainmap/index.htm

Change your distribution function to a 50% step filter.

In your photo-editor, save your picture as 2-bit color (black and white).

In the function editor, set the mapping to flat (vertical).

In the material editor, set the mapping mode to object-oriented.

The correct mapped picture function scale for a '256 x 256' terrain is 5.689.

You may want to read my tutorial on terrain mapping (which was inspired by Kutter's tutorial).

Charles

Looking at your settings, a factor in why you are getting the lava everywhere is that the mixing proportions are waaaay to much in favour of material 2 ( the lava). The setting should be less than 50%. It only takes slight adjustments (1-2% to completely change the mix) I would suggest starting at 50% and work down in small decrements. Nick