Attached Link: http://gray.ballarat.net.au/bryce/tutes/sea_foam/

Hi guys, I was looking at someone's tutorial (see link) and he mentions running a Perl script on a terrain to create waves. He supplies the script but doesn't mention how to use it. I've never run a perl script in Bryce before and I was wondering if anyone knew how to do it? I'd really appreciate any help.

Attached Link: http://gray.ballarat.net.au/cgi-bin/make_waves.pl

His program generates the same terrain map unless you want to play around with his settings. But he gives you the gray scale map itself at the link in his tutorial. It's the one I posted on top of this message. Download the map, save it and load it into the terrain editor. You don't actually run the perl script in Bryce, just use the image it created.

You cannot run a Perl script within Bryce. If you read carefully you will see that the Perl script generates a "map" or picture which you import as a heightmap into the terrain/lattice editor.

Thanks, but how do you run the make_waves.pl in the first place? (Sorry, not good with this stuff!) You say "load it into the terrain editor" but I don't know how. I tried to load it in the "Picture" area but it doesn't show up unless I select . and even then it gives an error...

I wonder why you're getting an error. What format is the picture in that you're trying to load? jpeg or bmp both work OK. And I've just tried PhotoShop format and it worked fine.

It says right there- "You cannot cut and past it as bryce doesnt understand png (portable network graphic) format graphic files"... You have to convert the png into a bitmap. Do you have an image editor such as PhotoShop or PSP? If not, Google for Irfanview. It is a very useful app and will convert almost any image file from one format to another.

I couldn't get it to work but it doesn't matter because I hunted around his folders and found the *.png image. Thanks for your help.

Sorry when I click on the link using IE it creates a png image for me. I save this as a bmp image somewhere on my hard drive and then load the image into the terrain editor in Bryce. There are dozens of paintshop, photoshop, or other drawing programs that can make the same image dozens of ways. Maybe you could tell us if you have an image drawing program then one of us can give a better answer.

Message edited on: 09/15/2004 15:12

I'm a fool. I didn't actually click on the *.pl ! I just assuemed it wouldn't do anything and I needed to run the file on my local hdd. Yes indeed, clicking on the file does indeed generate the required image. You may all kick me now! (And thanks again!)

No worries - all but the brainiest few have asked dopey questions here lol. Incidentally, I love your 'Noir' picture - very cool effect :o) Did you render it through rippled glass that had a downlight or something? Or was that effect postworked?

Thanks, man! It was postworked in Photoshop. It's a detail from "Bob's Diner" that I just turned black and white and enlarged to give a grainy, newspaper picture effect.

Attached Link: http://www.bsmooth.de/BSolutions/#TerrainEditor

Here is a nice tutorial that shows how to setup photoshop as a plugin for the Bryce terrain editor.

That's excellent! There's some really great stuff in that link, thanks!!!