Large River Landscape

# 1 12-11-2012 , 02:18 PM

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Join Date: Apr 2012

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I have tried this numerous ways, but can't quite figure this out! How would you go about creating a large landscape with a river running down from a mountain with enough detail for close ups on areas and also aerial shots without using DEM data?

I have tried with creating multiple planes some with more density then others but I get horrible overlaps and it is a pain getting the river to line up nicely with the other segments.

Also any links or tips on displacement in maya or plugins/scripts so it is visible in viewport would be nice, as I can never seem to get enough displacement and also how to go about sub polygon displacement in maya if possible?

This is all in the name of research for an idea I have for an image where I want multiple Rivers leading into a large lake with a floating city in the lake...

But I have to do some more research and learning before I tackle this one!

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# 2 12-11-2012 , 02:51 PM

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You cant and wont IMHO. Take a look at Swatsnipes enviros...hard yakka and lots of work. As a Surveyor...I map these things and they are not easy to replicate, hence my intense interest on what Swatsnipe does. DEM....or DTM in my lingo are great BUT they have a resolution limit. You CANNOT get a great res from the sky...I dont care what anyone tells you...you CANT. The best DTM I have EVER had from any design consultant was a 0.3m on a flat plane surface. This was achieved with aerial photography etc etc .

IF you want realism...its going to hurt. ALL rivers have fall etc towards a lower point...getting that right is a bitch. Personally I could show you the math but you probably already know it. Then you would have to use something like Realflow I suppose to make it work.

I have asked this question...I since stopped. This is not easy and will be very hard to do and complete. Once you add liquid to the equation, things change dramatically. Most people use an ocean shader etc...try a dynamic sim of a river...mate good luck. Im not being critical in any way...but if you pull this off I want to come and buy you a beer.

Lanscapes are easy...I build them....liquid? apart from the Rum I drink...simulation on an active hardscape is hard.

Cheers bullet

bullet1968

"A Darkness at Sethanon", a book I aspire to model some of the charcters and scenes

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# 3 12-11-2012 , 03:02 PM

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I made error...not you cant and wont...just bloody hard, sorry mate. I can make a DTM in minutes....easy as...water runoff, not easy.

Cheers bullet

bullet1968

"A Darkness at Sethanon", a book I aspire to model some of the charcters and scenes

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# 4 12-11-2012 , 04:12 PM

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Cheers Bullet, You have filled me with sooo much hope user added image

It is the creating of the environment geometry that I am worried about for the time being, not simulating the river flow. I still have a lot to learn before I dare attempt that. I am also unsure how to determine the overall scale of each section of the terrain (mountains, flat land, lake etc..) and then a consistent depth of the river, for it entire length!

There seems to be very little tutorials on this subject on the net, unless you have access to something like Vue? My only other train of thought is going down the game route and and installing UDK or CryEngine3 SKD on my windows partition (im glad I still have that) as I believe they both have easier ways of creating large landscapes, but I am unsure if you can export the landscape meshes out once created...

Doesn't look like it will be very easy at all.

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# 5 12-11-2012 , 07:46 PM

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Have a look at this tutorial has some good stuff in it for a large maintain scene just use the smooth brush and push brush to create a river...............dave

https://www.creativecrash.com/tutoria...aders-video--2

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# 6 12-11-2012 , 10:48 PM

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LOL just making you aware of what lays ahead my friend. I too wanted to do this but after what was pointed out in regards to water, I gave up. Yeh you can use the sculpt tool as dave suggested. It depends on how much power your PC has too, I prefer to make mine in PS with clouds difference or similar. I can get a landscape out in 5 mins or less now.

Scale etc arent really that hard. First determine how big you actually want the scene. TBH if its an animation this will be big, if its just for render shots it doesnt have to be big at all, again depends on what you want. The ones I make in PS and use displacement usually end up a few kilometres across, depending on the effect. Sometimes I use both methods together, a displace from PS then sculpt in Maya or Zbrush to add details etc etc.

I will be watching user added image