Could any one offer me some tips on using bitmap images to create terrain objects ? so far I haven't had much luck getting anything that looks good . I either have them come out all jagged or to smooth . Any tips would be appreciated .

Well that's easy. Import your picture then well in Vue 4 anyway click on options them right click and change your Noise and altitude functions to something more to your liking. I just tried it will a real blocky skin pattern for a plane and just by changing those two funtions I was able to get a nice desert rocky kind of terrain.

If you have a paint program and you're using like clip art or something, put just a tiny bit of blur on it. Also, it should be relatively high res to look really nice. And it helps if it's square..that way the terrain editor won't stretch it. Laurie

I understand your question in a different way, that may be because my english is not so good. But I will try to answer to what I understoud. To create a terrain object from a bitmap, the bitmap is best to create outside Vue in a paint program. I use 512x512 px and a grey scale. Take care, because all what is white in your drawing will be high on the terrain. The smallest white spot will give jagged parts. Paint with an airbrush and choose only very soft greys. If you use colored bitmaps in the terrain editor, beware the pics every where, because you have no control over it. If you want to create other objects as terrains in using bitmaps in the terrain editor, have a look at the "samples" in Vue 4. You can see that many objects were made from terrains, I even created a fisher net from it. Mostly you have to flatten the terrain in Vue, when it should become an object and not a terrain. In Vue's terrain editor, you can as well add a bitmap to an existing terrain or reset the existing terrain and use the bitmap alone. Guitta

Thanks for the tips . I ran into another problem while experimenting last night . As you can see , the the material on the symetrical terrain is very grainy . Both objects were created from the same image and use the same material . I believe the noise is caused by the reflection because if I turn the relections off it is smooth . Has anyone else had this problem ?

Can't say I've seen that, but I've not really used the terrain editor as an object creator. It's definitely worth experimenting with, though. Strange the way that the reflection from the grainy one doesn't seem noisy as seen on the non-symmetrical one. Does it look the same on the other side of it? Nice gears, BTW.

Hey Mike,

If you're curious about what can be done
with symmetrical terrain have a look at this :

http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=115191&Start=1&Artist=audity&ByArtist=Yes

the stone walls, the entrance, the little pool
in the back, everything was modeled with the
terrain editor.

It's faster than doing it the "hard" way.
Create your object first as a bitmap, load
it in the editor, adjust it with the paint
tool, add erosion, cracks, stairs, etc...
and it's done !

Eric

Well, you did an exceptional job, Eric, really, and I even voted for your pic for the Hot 20. :) I just never got into using Vue for modelling, since I use other programs for that, but I can see how it would be easier to get the effects of the walls, for example, with Vue and a bitmap. :)

Hey Eric, that definitely looks great... I"m a fan of bitmaps and terrains...