my sincere thanks go out to Jason Bevins and his 'libnoise' library,
which is a portable open source, coherent noise generating library for C++
scrolling this page, the initial idea was born
I am only going to give brief descriptions here of what you can do with this application
as I feel the interface is highly intuitive and self explaining
- drag a generator from the list and drop it on the canvas
- drag/drop an exporter onto the canvas
- connect the 2 components by "draging" a line from the generators yellow output to the exporters green input
- click the "none"-button in exporter to select a output-name and format (export a terragen-terrain)
- open the terrain in terragen and render
if any value of the generator is changed, the terrain is saved for you automatically
all you have to do is to play with the sliders and spinners
for more complex terrains, you "only" have to create more complex networks
creating textures works exact the same way: colorize the export with a color-component and save as tga
... but please keep in mind, that this application isn't meant to be a texture-generator
to generate a normalmap, click the Normalmap-Checkbox and save as tga
for better results with normalmaps generate a terrain with octaves set to ~6,
then generate a normalmap with same settings, but octaves set to maximum
the higher the octave-values the higher the details, don't confuse this with the quality-slider!
below a sample of using a normalmap
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all generators generate noise-values in 3D-space, with values below and above zero
the resulting heightmap is viewed in black/white, where black is -1.0 and white is +1.0
values above +1.0 are also white - but not "whiter" :)
the exported terrain will not be cut off here
try to stay near this -1.0/1.0 borders to have more visual control what happens
the 3 output-types (cylinder/sphere/plane) are not mapping-types,
it's more like cutting out a 3D-surface from the generated 3d-noise
to adjust where this "cut-out" should happen, use the transform-rollouts
here you can set how a tg-terrain file will be exported, most important are the Min/Max values, the lowest generated value will get the Min-elevation the highest generated value will get the Max-elevation default-values of are ok for 512x512 terrains, adjust them to get not too "spiky" terrains min/max values also influence the generation of normalmaps Targa-settings don't need explanations... split alpha doesn't do anything :) |
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| - snap to grid: snaps components to grid - grid spacing: sets grid-spacing of camvas - selection radius: if you have problems selecting control-points of curve components - autoload exit-file: if you quit TerraNoise it will exit... :) without asking to save your work, TerraNoise writes a file named "saved_on_exit.nnn" load it on startup or not - that's the question... so you can continue with your work later, exactly where you stopped to have a coffee-break - disable exporters on load: after loading a network file, exporters will overwrite existing files, leave it checked to prevent overwriting |
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LED: shows render activity
threads: number of rederthreads to use
size: the output size used by exporters
lock-button: locks with & height (square output)
cylinder-button: renders output for cylindrical mapping
sphere-button: renders output for spherical mapping, for generating whole planets
plane-button: renders output for planar mapping, for heightfields
T-button: for generating seamless terrain tiles or textures
CTRL+O - open
CTRL+S - save
CTRL+SHIFT+S - save as
CTRL+N - new, clears the canvas without any warning
CTRL+P - preferences
- use TAB-key to hide/show the component treeview
- every mouse-drag action can be undone/canceled by pressing right mouse-button while left mouse-button is still down
- while spinning or paning mouse leaves screen an appears on opposite side of screen
- pan: drag with middle mouse button (canvas, generator-previews, curve-components, export)
- zoom: hold down CTRL+ALT and drag with middle mouse button (generator-previews and curve-components)
paning with middle mouse-button (undo with right mouse-button)
if you cant find you components anymore, a doubleclick with middle mouse-button will bring them back into view
they have no scollbars, "scroll" by draging with middle mouse-button, mouse-wheel
they work like the spinners in Max
holding down CTRL while spinning - speed-up by 10
holding down ALT while spinning - slow-down by 10
right-click on arrows sets a default value
undo with right mouse-button
component-type can be changed at any time by choosing from the dropdown-list
all component-types share the component-params of a component
all components have max-like rollouts
they can be opened/closed (click on titles of rollouts, or context-menu)
componnet adjusts its size, depending on rollout-states
re-arrange rollouts by drag rollout-title
re-arraging rollouts will change the way generators work, rendering is done "top-down"
eq. translate then scale will give a different result when scaled first and the translated
only some components can be resized (curve-modifiers, exporters and color-component)
zoom/pan works for curve-components
controlpoints of curve-components are deleted by DEL-key (the only question my testers asked)
- create: drag/drop from treeview
- move: by draging on titlebar, or CTRL+drag anywhere on a component
- clone: SHIFT-drag existing component, or contextmenu of component
- delete: by using contextmenu
- minimize/restore: doubleclick on titlebar, or via contextmenu
- enable/disable: click on the green "led" in top-left corner of a component
a disabled component gets rendered, but it delivers no output, no output means a value of 0.0
when enabling a component, dependant components are re-rendered
preview (of generators) can be paned and zoomed, all connected components should update in realtime
contains component specific params
when using a spinner only the components preview is rendered
when releasing the spinner the final noise-map is rendered then dependant components
if you're interested in what exactly all these parameters do, Jason Bevins libnoise has very good documentation included
translate/rotate/scale and turbulence
rollout-titles are colored different to indicate their effect is position-dependent
rendering is done "top-down", eq. scale-rotate vs. rotate-scale will give different results
all outputs have a yellow-ish color
input colors depend on component-type
components without inputs deliver a outputvalue of 0.0
connections can be created from output to input, or from input to output
outputs can have more than one connection, inputs can only have one
a cursor change indicates where it's possible to make a connection
endless-loops are detected, such connections shouldn't be possible, a future version may support feedback-loops
input-connections can be swaped by using ALT-key, also between different components
components can be inserted between 2 connected components by using the contextmenu of the connection-line
Future plans:
3D-preview of generated terrain (textured)
set camera and sun positions and export a terragen world file
flight-path editor for camera animation and export a terragen animation-script
some more components..., craters, image and tg-terrain inputs, etc.
masking to define where to apply modifications
terrain erosions
generating slope-dependant materials to use with Max
hdri-sky generation ?
all should stay 100% procedural
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..
...
feel free to request anything you can think of in the forum
