Here's some rolling waves generated in Vistapro 4.1 (Done about two years ago I think). While I know that VistaPro is very fast because it has a simplified (Phong- I think)fractal rendering system- I can't see why Vue 5 Pro couldn't come up with rolling waves- and NOT having to use an imported mesh.

Basically- why can't Vue's ocean water be like a Terrain?
But unlike a terrain- stretch to infinity like water does...

Here's what the new Terragen Version 1 says they will have (when it comes out end of this year- early next year):

Comprehensive water system---
"Terragen's water system will be extended so that you can create all the kinds of things you'd expect. At a basic level this will include multiple water levels. The water will become full 3D so that things like overturning (barrelling) waves can be created. You'll be able to create waterfalls, along with spray and rain. Everything will be animatable."

Here's some "rough seas" generated in VistaPro 4.1...

Why can't Vue's new Materials be able to create a fractal type surface water like this? Obviously VistaPro water is not transparent- which is fine if you are doing renderings of sea-going ships, etc. It would render MUCH faster too if these fractal type materials did NOT have any transparency.

One final post- the effect of white caps- not great but VistaPro water does respond to a degree of aggitation and a height effect- creating to some degree a look of "white water" on the waves...

VistaPro is a really OLD program- I can't see why Vue 5 Pro
couldn't do these things?...

Those are amazing! Pondering VP is only 50.00...can these be exported out in any type of format Vue could handle?

You have not seen the beginning of what can be done with procedural terrains. I am sure this could be done in Vue 5, with the right functions and materials.

I guess I'll be able to start with Vue5 in week or so once I get all my items converted >:(.(around 1000)...Can you tell I'm snitty about this LOL

Man oh man, that water is terrific! Wouldn't it be nice to be able to do it in Vue! Me and my beach scenes - and I still can't do decent waves. This would be a nice feature. -Lin

No, unfortunately you can't export the water out of VP, nor can you import 3D models. VP is really good at a narrow range of things- terrains and water. And because it uses either fractal trees or 2-D trees, VP's "forest" effects are pretty good and render very fast. But close-up the trees are not good... And, yes, Agiel, I cannot see why this could not be done NOW in Vue 5- at least the fractal materials. The "infinite" fractal water terrain apparently is not possible in Vue 5 now however. But since I am among a FEW people probably who really think ocean water and waves are important- is why I am campaigning for this in Vue 5 Pro. This does not seem to be a major technical issue- unlike Particle Weather Systems (which I am not against)- but which will slow done rendering quite a bit and be more of a programming challenge. Personally- I wouldn't mind seeing the Post Effect's panel expanded to allow the saving and loading of filter effects, including 2D simulations of Rain, Snow, etc. This would cut weather effect rendering time tremendously and probably look just as good for most people's needs...

The waves look terrific indeed. There is a little program out called caustics generator. Makes excellent maps for waves that you can use on terrains already now. Try it out - i think this is an option for the existing Vue copies that is worth to be tried out. The link should be in the backroom!

as agiel said i believe that you can do water like this thanks to procedural terrains, its just a question of the functions. with that said, i as alot of other people like you hope for a real weather system(which of course would include a water engine of some sort). but until e.on comes up with something like that im confident that we can create better water on our own thanks to the procedural terrains, which would make them "infinite"

I like to play with the procedurals so I can give it a try ;)

Some first impressions using procedural terrain for water.

First I would like to say that I think it would be possible to get really god result.

But, it wont be easy.
Editing the procedural for the terrain is a pain as updates are slow and Vue5 got really unstable and crashed several times.

The difference in scale between the function preview and the terrain preview is huge so its hard to predict what you will get.

The differense between what you see in the terrain preview and what you get when you render is also huge so it's much of a trail and error process.

Renders using basic materials (to better see the surface as well as faster ) in preview mode came out so corrupt that I hardly could guess what it was supposed to look like.

Rendering in final using water material took long time.

The vertical scaling of the terrain effects the result.

HellBorn- That's a great looking start! It really does look like Vue 5 can deliver some great looking water once the other issues you mentioned can be resolved. One reason why VistaPro water renders so FAST is because there is NO TRANSPARENCY in the water. VistaPro is a Phong type renderer- so I would suggest that you NOT use Vue's water materials- they will take FOREVER to render. Instead--- try using something like a dull, flat metallic blue-gray material that has NO transparency at all. In fact, something like a texture map might really work well as the light will only bounce off the map and there will be much less render calculation time. ---But the peaking wave's look really GREAT!

I did some renders using a non transparent material as well in order to do a'preview' as the ordinare preview not worked very well. For a final render I would probably use a transparent material as I suppose it do look better. Now I'm of to play a little with the scale...

Attached Link: Seascapes

The caustics generator wabe speaks of does indeed make some convincing water. Also, you can take a random perlin noise grayscale and take it into World Machine (only works in the registered version) and apply the expander to it with the sliders set to 'min' and about 30 on the bottom one.

I use both all the time. You can see the progress I've made in Vue seascapes by cruising my Vue collected works at the commune. Below is a link to get you started. Also if you look up Monsoon in the Commune free stuff, there are wave maps available for you to play with.

Vue is definitely sea worthy...by nature or by force.

Yours,

Monsoon

Message edited on: 10/16/2004 08:37

Message edited on: 10/16/2004 08:39