FTerrains - Reconstruct heightfield?

[Sigurd]

This problem is driving me to extreme measures. I even read the manual!

Now I have to look at some real world examples to see what I should be aiming for - all I see is options and random elements. I'm really excited by how detailed this can be but I'm just stewed from looking at too many possibilities!


- Good manual, as manuals go, I can recommend it.

This is the Wilbur Height Map:



This is a height based contour line. I don't know how to calibrate it (other than it was set to '10' in the program menu). Still very interesting to keep an 'accurate' contour.




These are the two together, just because:




Sigurd

Thank you Joe Slayton!

[Sigurd]

Things are beginning to come into place. To demonstrate why I'm happy about this here are two pictures. A regional map and a local map.

The first is 575x407miles. Its the larger region of the one I've been working on.




The Second is a portion of the first. Its the one I've been working from for the rest of the thread. The second map is 115x82miles. This is not simply a scaled zoom of the first, its a new map.



You can see that most everything is consistent between the two maps.


Now I just have to make the layers more realistic.


Sigurd

[ravells]

That's looking really pretty!

[töff]

Nice! Are you planning to render it back up to 3D, or keep it flat?

[Sigurd]

I'm all ears for methods to render it into 3d.

What I'm trying to do really is go as far as I can with whatever accuracy I can maintain.

Right now I'm investigating patterns that might work with the heightfield. I'm happy with whats beneath me now I have to bring it to life.

Sigurd

[su_liam]

If you want to get rid of those swirly bits, increase the octaves on your noise. Each time you scale up the resolution(or zoom in) by an amount equal to the lacunarity add one to the octaves.

Let's say 8 octaves looks good on a 1024 by 1024 image of a 300mi by 300mi area and your lacunarity is 2, then you will need 9 octaves for a 2048^2 image or an image covering 150mi^2 with the same resolution. If you zoom in to 75mi^2 or increase resolution to 4096^2, you would need 10 octaves for approximately the same quality.

Lower lacunarities will rack up octaves a lot faster on zooming, but often look a lot better with fewer unpleasant artifacts. Remember that octaves cost time so there is a compromise involved.

Noising and smudging the HF can be very useful, though and gives it a human touch and control.