UltraSceneryXT - large terrain/landscape generator

barbult

echristopherclark said:

I've been playing with the product a lot over the past few days and what it can do is super-impressive. That said, I'm wondering if it can do what I'm looking for, or if I need to use something else.

All I seem to be able to produce with it are big mountain ranges with very few bits of level terrain. Is that all it's meant for, or could I use it to create a full-on landscape with a valley, a major river running through it (as opposed to the streams I can get out of the non-XT UltraScenery), and so on? If so, how do you do that? I can't figure it out.

Yes, you can do that. I'm not sure how steep of a "valley" you are looking for.
You don't have to start with one of the presets. You can specify a terrain map. Black is low and white is high. You can control the overall attitude with the Terrain Properties. The Mixing will control how much of each of the height map, erosion and noise are used to generate the terrain shape. You can use Displace with a map file to additionally control the height in certain specific areas. You can use Zero Edge to make the terrain slope down to flat at the outer edges, or as far in from the edge as you want. Sometimes you just need to experiment to get the feel for what each control does and how they combine. There is a user manual that can help. Have your found it and read it already?
I borrowed USC_River_01_512.png from UltraScenery and checked the invert box for the maps in these UltraSceneryXT renders.

daveso

the river looks really nice. 

echristopherclark

barbult said:

echristopherclark said:

I've been playing with the product a lot over the past few days and what it can do is super-impressive. That said, I'm wondering if it can do what I'm looking for, or if I need to use something else.

All I seem to be able to produce with it are big mountain ranges with very few bits of level terrain. Is that all it's meant for, or could I use it to create a full-on landscape with a valley, a major river running through it (as opposed to the streams I can get out of the non-XT UltraScenery), and so on? If so, how do you do that? I can't figure it out.

Yes, you can do that. I'm not sure how steep of a "valley" you are looking for.
You don't have to start with one of the presets. You can specify a terrain map. Black is low and white is high. You can control the overall attitude with the Terrain Properties. The Mixing will control how much of each of the height map, erosion and noise are used to generate the terrain shape. You can use Displace with a map file to additionally control the height in certain specific areas. You can use Zero Edge to make the terrain slope down to flat at the outer edges, or as far in from the edge as you want. Sometimes you just need to experiment to get the feel for what each control does and how they combine. There is a user manual that can help. Have your found it and read it already?
I borrowed USC_River_01_512.png from UltraScenery and checked the invert box for the maps in these UltraSceneryXT renders.

This is amazing. You've blown my mind here. So many things to try, especially borrowing the River png from UltraScenery. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

echristopherclark

I'm trying out Barbult's awesome ideas above and things are looking great, but I'm getting trees in the water and I'm not sure why.

Damn, I need to read the manual more carefully. Sorry!

barbult

echristopherclark said:

I'm trying out Barbult's awesome ideas above and things are looking great, but I'm getting trees in the water and I'm not sure why.

Damn, I need to read the manual more carefully. Sorry!

To keep the trees out of the water, set the Min Altitude (m) in the Biome section to the same value as the water level, or higher.

echristopherclark

If I have a piece of terrain I've created elsewhere (in, say, Blender), is it possible to use Ultrascenery XT's Biome generation on top of that piece of terrain, or would that be a job for Ultra Scatter Pro instead? I'm guessing it would be a job Ultra Scatter Pro, which I don't own yet, but I wanted to make sure before I make the purchase.

barbult

If you can get Blender to output a height map for the terrain, you should be able to use that as a height map in UltraSceneryXT, but if you want complete control of the terrain shape and materials, UltraScatterPro is probably what you want. I've never tried to use a terrain from Blender in either one, so I am making educated guesses here.

echristopherclark

Okay. Thanks! I plan to get Ultra Scatter Pro anyway, so even if it doesn't work, I'll have other uses for it.

druc

Just thought I would make a comment on what I have, recently, been using US-XT for. I use the dry lake preset to creat a back drop with a large flat surface to build my actual scene. I am currently rendering an initial scene using several of the Carnival sets (there is an Iray add-on) and with the desert material, and conifer trees it is looking good. I need more props etc. The ground looks like light coloured sand and fitting for a carnival scene.

DreamWeever

It been a while since I had time to play with anything but managed to do this one recently

Please click to see

MoreTN

DreamWeever said:

It been a while since I had time to play with anything but managed to do this one recently

Please click to see

Beautiful, especially if embiggened to see the details

DreamWeever

MoreTN said:

DreamWeever said:

It been a while since I had time to play with anything but managed to do this one recently

Please click to see

Beautiful, especially if embiggened to see the details

Thank you 

MBCphoto

I recently purchased UltraScenery XT and I haven’t been able to get it to work. I installed it using Daz Install Manager. Everything except the plugin to use the application seems to have installed correctly. When I go to the Window/Panes (tabs) dropdown menu, there is no option for UltraSceneryXT. There is no UltraSceneryXT subdirectory in my plugins folder. I searched all my drives for the libUltraSceneryXT.dll plugin driver and it cannot be found anywhere. I do keep my Daz source directory in a separate hard drive than the one where the program is installed. In DIM, when I click to “show installed files”, the plugin .dll files don't appear to be included. What am I missing, what am I doing wrong?

 

DoctorJellybean

MBCphoto said:

I recently purchased UltraScenery XT and I haven’t been able to get it to work. I installed it using Daz Install Manager. Everything except the plugin to use the application seems to have installed correctly. When I go to the Window/Panes (tabs) dropdown menu, there is no option for UltraSceneryXT. There is no UltraSceneryXT subdirectory in my plugins folder. I searched all my drives for the libUltraSceneryXT.dll plugin driver and it cannot be found anywhere. I do keep my Daz source directory in a separate hard drive than the one where the program is installed. In DIM, when I click to “show installed files”, the plugin .dll files don't appear to be included. What am I missing, what am I doing wrong?

 There are 2 packages which needs to be installed. The 1st one is the content, the 2nd contains the plugin.

MBCphoto

DoctorJellybean said:

MBCphoto said:

I recently purchased UltraScenery XT and I haven’t been able to get it to work. I installed it using Daz Install Manager. Everything except the plugin to use the application seems to have installed correctly. When I go to the Window/Panes (tabs) dropdown menu, there is no option for UltraSceneryXT. There is no UltraSceneryXT subdirectory in my plugins folder. I searched all my drives for the libUltraSceneryXT.dll plugin driver and it cannot be found anywhere. I do keep my Daz source directory in a separate hard drive than the one where the program is installed. In DIM, when I click to “show installed files”, the plugin .dll files don't appear to be included. What am I missing, what am I doing wrong?

 There are 2 packages which needs to be installed. The 1st one is the content, the 2nd contains the plugin.

MBCphoto

Well, that explains it. That package was never included when I tried to download and install the application. It's not even included when I try downloading the files manually. Looks like it's time to contact Daz.

barbult

MBCphoto said:

Well, that explains it. That package was never included when I tried to download and install the application. It's not even included when I try downloading the files manually. Looks like it's time to contact Daz.

Do you have Plugins enabled in the DIM Download filters?