Hello all,

I'm new to VUE5 but have enjoyed playing with it to get a "feel" for things but I have just one question... for the moment at least...

When editing a terrain in the terrain editor, how do you know where you are relative to a specific object (eg poser figure) placed on the terrain, as you can't see your imported figure...

thanks

Mike

Hmmm... good question. I think you are expected to place your imported Poser figure where you want it AFTER you complete your terrain.

Guess you COULD place a temporary mark on your terrain while in the Terrain Editor (dig a hole or such) and place the figure relative to that mark after you leave the Terrain Editor. Right-click on your terrain to go back into the Terain Editor, then delete your mark.

Anyone got a better idea?

_jc  'Art Head Start' e-book: Learn digital art skills $19.95
'Art Head Start.com Free chapter, Vue tutorials, models, Web Tutorials Directory.

I usually try to look at the moutainous areas and do a quick preview render.

Then spin the terrain till i get it where i want it :)

I am embarrassed by such things, too, so for real terrains, I use an ordinary modeler program. But such terrains are polygon-intensive, are not editable in Vue's terrain editor. The only way I found, to adjust a Vue terrain for example around building or such, was, to take a top-view render of the terrain, with houses, trees and so, load that into Photoshop, so I see who/what is where, crop that and keep only the terrain's representation, paint on a overlaid layer the areas I want to rise, (on an other one those I want to lower,) save those layers each, without the colour image, and then, in Vue's terrain editor, add these images to a duplicata of the existing terrain, using very low percentage. I draw that black/grey on white, so for raising, invert to negative. I never hit the ok-jackpot at the first try... Perhaps there are easier and more exact ways to do that ?

I once tried a quick experiment of exporting a Vue 5i mesh (not procedural) terrain as .obj and modeling it in Silo 3D V1.4, then back into Vue as .obj.

Worked fine. In Silo 3D, i extruded a simple wall from the existing Vue polys, then flattened the top. Could have done much more of course. Back in Vue, i added materials 

_jc  'Art Head Start' e-book: Learn digital art skills $19.95
'Art Head Start.com Free chapter, Vue tutorials, models, Web Tutorials Directory.

Good 'un jc...must try that

 

Once in a while I look around,
I see a sound
and try to write it down
Sometimes they come out very soft
Tinkling light sound
The Sun comes up again

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks, Bobby. I think such methods of using Vue, plus external 3D modelers, leads to some very cool integration of Vue terrain with the Ecosystems + props and other objects. I'm also amazed at some of the work done within Vue, using only Vue's 3D modeling capabilities.

For example, that wall, which i extruded right out of the Vue mesh terrain, i also later broke away from the terrain into its own group. This allowed me to apply a different material to it back in Vue. It would also allow a separate Ecosystem application, like "growing" vines over that wall, adding human figures and traffic along the top, etc., etc. and/or applying various custom functions or Python scripts (big iron gate sliding up & down inside a portal?).

Lots of possibilites for even more Vue creative power here. Maybe this is the 'poor artist's/hobbyist's' way of getting something like the professional integration of Vue + 3D modelers that e-on has begun offering?

I've said it before, and i'll say it again: I've tried lots of 3D programs and Vue gives me more creative power and more creative freedom than any app i've seen. I'm still in awe of this thing, after a couple of years of use - warts and all.    

I know what you mean. I'm primarily attracted by the veg itself andthe ecosystem as well but that's newer,and of course the fine render engine. I haven't had a full ver for a while but even the demo has me saving money for it. I just wish that they'd implement some way, other than booleans, to model as I really like mesh working. It would open up whole new vistas in Vue if they did. Still it does import a number of formats I can export to so it aint that bad. It's just that in the program I use[Imagine3d], you can, within a model, create sub groups of faces[which you can't access in Vue as well] which allow for very detailed applications of procedurals and maps. I have to split my models apart into the relevant face sub groups , and re group as object groups to have that kind of access in Vue....small thing as Vue has fairly robust UV mapping which Imagine lacks[likely the reason for the sub groups workaround originally]

But ultimately you are correct, it certainly is one of the most versatile rendering programs I've tried.

Later

 

Once in a while I look around,
I see a sound
and try to write it down
Sometimes they come out very soft
Tinkling light sound
The Sun comes up again

 

 

 

 

 

I'm all right with jc, that method works fine. But, as I said above, when re-loading such a terrain, one has no longer the possibility to edit it in Vue's terrain editor (or did I miss a feature somewhere ?) What I'm looking for, is a way to take a Vue editable terrain, fine-tune it in some external application, and then re-load it into Vue, editable as a VueTERRAIN inside Vue's terrain editor. So to go back and forth between the two, to finetune. Up to now, the only way to do that I found, is what I wrote higher up (transferring the whole terrain as a bitmap is sufficient for faeriescapes, but isn't precise enough for exact work). The ideal thing would be some external free program, that saves a 3Dmesh as a USGSdem, because Vue loads those as editable terrains... But up to now, I didn't find such a program... :-( Somebody got info on such ?

True, GPFrance, it's a one-way workflow. You can, of course save your work at each step and back up and do over. But you can't re-edit in the Terrain Editor, as far as i can tell.

Sorry, i don't know much about DEMs, or know of any such tool.