[Award Winner] Mountain Technique using Wilbur and the Gimp

[waldronate]

Hey, alright...glad there's more. I spent all night last night messing around with stuff just based on the first post and a post on Wilbur rivers in the overchuck tut. If waldronate happens to stop by and read this...is Wilbur going to support more import formats? I'd like to be able to do up some clouds, tweak them, and then import them into Wilbur but I can't output to any of the formats with PS.

Use PNG. In Photoshop, work with 16 bits per channel and save as PNG. In Wilbur, read this as a PNG Surface (File>>Open, select PNG Surface as the file type and your PS PNG under File name). If you get an error message along the lines of "attempt to read a PNG with 16 bits per channel" then you didn't select PNG Surface as the file type. Save the PNG data from Wilbur as PNG SUrface to get it back into Photoshop.

Unless you really want some other format, of course...

[Ascension]

Gotcha, simple. Thanks, man.

[Torq]

Step 5: The Mountain layer and the heightfield

Hide all the layers except the heightfield layer and select it. (See Screen shot 2)
Choose the select by colour tool. Set the feather edges slider to about 20 and the threshold slider to 50.(See Screen shot 3)
Choose the lightest point on the layer and select it. An area smaller than the higher ground selection should be highlighted.(See Screen Shot 4)
Unhide the hidden layers and add another one called "Mountain" on the top.
Select Bucket fill and add a light grey texture. Once again the lighter the texture the more effectively it will pick up the bump map. (See Screen shot 5)

Torq

[ravells]

At bloody last!!! Thank you for sharing your secrets, Torq!!!!

[Steel General]

Very cool - thanks for posting.

[waldronate]

Beveling? Example, please.

[Ascension]

OK here's what I mean...the rivers seem to have an outer bevel on them, like in Photoshop. One side of the bank is shadowed while the other is highlighted...as if the sun were in the top left corner. The first screenie is straight from me following the tut (Fun with Wilbur 1), the second is the grayscale, the third is the grayscale (set to overlay) applied to the screenshot. The fourth is from torq's map. The fifth is torq's method (erosion cycles) where it is more pronounced. Is there a way to soften the effect when using incise flow or erosion cycles?

[waldronate]

The apparent bevel is the result of the step crfeated when excavating the river channel straight down. The lighting models in Wilbur and image editors then give the light/shadow effect as they would on any other kind of step. You can reduce the effect on the surface by using the Effect Blend setting on the Incise Flow Process dialog. You can smooth out hard edge on the step by using a blur operation on it. A combination of effect and blur can be very effective.

[Korash]

Well here it is. Like Ascension said, the rivers are a little "beveled" in the highlands. I will have to try waldronate's suggestion the next time.

I do have a question though: It seems to me that there are maybe a bit too many rivers for my taste. Is there a way to lower the instance of river generation in Wilbur, or is it a question of painting them out in either Wilbur or Gimp?

Also, for some reason, I seem to have a few places where either the water is showing through the land or the land is blurred on the water. What did I do wrong?

Repped if I can, and 5 rated for the help learning something with Wilbur.

[waldronate]

Well here it is. Like Ascension said, the rivers are a little "beveled" in the highlands. I will have to try waldronate's suggestion the next time.

I do have a question though: It seems to me that there are maybe a bit too many rivers for my taste. Is there a way to lower the instance of river generation in Wilbur, or is it a question of painting them out in either Wilbur or Gimp?

Also, for some reason, I seem to have a few places where either the water is showing through the land or the land is blurred on the water. What did I do wrong?

Flow Exponent is approximately equal to number of rivers (smaller exponent = more rivers)

Amount is clipped when it would go below 0, which is what gives the wide steep-walled valleys. To prevent this amount from actually going to 0, use effect with a value like 0.75, which uses 75% of the result.

The features in that user interface are a leetle peculiar. They are a direct control over parameters in the underlying model rather than more user-friendly values. I guess I'm just that sort of guy.