Hi, Im still a beginner learning this program and looking for ideas on how to make a realistic shoreline where water meets the earth. Usually there is considerable difference of color and texture where this happens which indicates a high and low waterline, as well as change of vegetation, etc. Sometimes the earth is darker, sometimes lighter. Even stone river banks show up a darker band where the surface is wet. How can this be done? Thanks so much for all the help here. MUD

The best person to explain that would be Guitta. She's also made a custom texture for ocean waves. She's done some dynamite scenes of the ocean too :) Laurie

Your best bet here is to concentrate seriously on the altitude-dependant materials. You can arrange them all and mix them any way you'd like and have darker materials at the bottom, in layers, slowly getting lighter as the material reaches the top of the terrain. It's really pretty complex at first, but if you look in the material editor after mixing two materials, there's a check box for altitude. From there on it's a matter of going through each material and determining how it interacts with the others, by adjusting the percentages slider, as well as the other controls. The good thing is, it's pretty easy to catcj on as to how this all works, so just experiment with it and you'll see. if you have any specific questions about it, please ask. Also, I made a material called "Real Shoreline", which is pretty much what it says... I could send it to you if you'd like to see it.

MikeJ, I'd love to see the material as well, if it's not a hassle. I'm a newcomer to Vue and this was one of the first things I'm trying to pull off :) -Brian bhitney@lonewolf.tierranet.com

OK Brian, no problem. It'll be a little while, but I'll stick a few of them in Free Stuff as soon as I can get it all zipped up and ready, and let everyone know. Shouldn't be more than a couple hours from now, but I have to do a few things first. I do have a few different versions of the same idea.

You mean, something like this? It's looking as though I will hav eto upload them as Vue 3.1 materials though, because vue 4's little "quirk" about wanting to deselect "Object Space" (Object-Standard) is really screwing with me, and thes materials are *totally* dependant upon that setting. They're also highly affected according to the vertical height of the terrains/objects they're applied to. In other words, it might take me a little longer than I had expected, since I have to Vue 4-ize them. This is a pic of one of them converted to Vue 4, but when you open the material editor, even if you DON'T change a thing, it loses all it's altitude dependance. REALLY weird, I tell ya! So, I have to work on that a little first, and see if there's something I can do about it. I'd like to upload both Vue 3 and Vue 4 versions of these.

The changes are made with the materials, most usually. (There are many methods, of course.) If you look in your material selection, there is a material called "Wet Sand" (I think). Try it out on a terrain, and you'll see how the lower edges have a wet appearance while higher altitudes are dry. Examining that material will probably answer most of your questions. :)

Oh, nice job on that, Mike! :) Whether Object Space/Standard is or isn't selected shouldn't really affect the material when it's altitude dependant, applied to a terrain. Unless you're using the terrain tilted or sideways. Since terrains normally lie "flat", up is always up and down is always down. Well, I guess with the advent of symmetrical terrains and such, that is always true anymore.

I would agree, and you would think so, but nevertheless, something is going wrong....

hey mike... the wet sand by the water is dark, the dry sand by the dunes is light. ;) mud, look for a material in.... its either landscapes or rocks, it is mixed sand and wet sand. play with that a bit. the other thing i ended up doing for my last beach scen (which won't render, but that's another story) is cutting out little semi-circles in the edge of the terrain so that my groundplane water looked as if it were flowing up the beach in different sections, instead of mostly straight. actually, you can draw incoming waves in the terrain editor and clip off the ends, then put those on your beach.

OK and many thanks. This seems to be working out. Appreciate the help.

Erm...I need a spellchecker that understands what I intend to be saying. I guess most everyone understood okay, but just in case I confused anyone by saying: Since terrains normally lie "flat", up is always up and down is always down. Well, I guess with the advent of symmetrical terrains and such, that is always true anymore. What I meant to say was: Since terrains normally lie "flat", up is always up and down is always down. Well, I guess with the advent of symmetrical terrains and such, that ISN'T always true anymore. I now return you to your wavy beaches. :)