Exporting terrain height maps...
MatCreator
Posts: 215
hello all. i was using bryces terrain generator to make landscapes in ue5. process was going great and i was getting good results, but then all of a sudden it started exporting the maps at 8 bits. or was it always exporting in 8 bits and something happened in ue5? i only noticed that on import i started getting warnings that the terrain maps were not greyscale, and just prior everything was going fine, no warning on import. ive always exported at the gigantic resolution setting, no clue why the way the maps are generated changed, there arent any settings or options that could have been adjusted to make this happen.
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MatCreator - nice to see you here. Yes, Bryce 7 seems to have an intermittent bug of exporting a terrain image (PNG/TIFF) as 8/24 bit colour instead 16 bit monochrome. Drove me once more crazy as I am already. This is what helps: load a true 16-bit monochrome TIF into the TE, then usually exporting as PNG/TIFF works. If you have a nice terrain you worked a while to get it as you wish, save it to the Object library first, then load a true 16 bit file. Then get the saved terrain object back, open the TE and export. I have a 16 bit TIF as an image so I have always one ready to load. You can create them also in Photoshop. By the way, Bryce 6 does not have this darn random "feature".
HOLY CRAP! dead on center with that awesome quick fix, MANY thanks...
talk about something that was driving me nuts... i got so upset too just after seeing brinnen use the dte in the te, that makes bryce a serious terrain generator. and they come out so nice for unreal engine...
im still new w/ ue5, so my lighting and application of materials not the best, but you can see the scope of the terrain and the detail generated by bryce. very awesome... it can then be further edited in ue5 with its landscape tools, but a great start. im happy i can use what i have, the other tools are nice but bryce can get the job done.
all in anticipation of bryce 8 release, lol
Don't forget to check Horo's document on TE
https://horo.ch/docs/mine/pdf/TE-TerrainEditor.pdf
Glad it worked for you MatCreator. If you use the DTE to create a terrain, start with a small 512 or so. Once you are happy, just move the resolution up as desired and go back in the DTE. The texture is then generated anew in the higher resolution. Such tricks and many others are covered in the PDF Past as Future mentioned. And yes, nice terrain example.
went thru the entire doc, again, many thanks... im curious what version the doc was made with. i remember kpt working with or being included in bryce 4, but nothing past that. is it available in 6.3 or 7?
also Irfanview can convert image to greyscale
MatCreator - the PDF was made with the latest Bryce 7.1. Of course, there is no KPT. I have all Bryce versions from 4 to 7.1 still installed. I found the KPT3 tools in Bryce 4 and just copied it to the same place in Bryce 7.1: <Bryce main Folder>\MetaOS\Plugins\KPT3\. It's only 8/24 bit but it can come in handy.
yes... unfortunately once they decided to stop putting cd drives in newer systems, ive been unable to make use of my 1998 metacreations bryce4 cd =(
i just went w/ the gimp wendy... ill prolly need something that can edit and make use of filters to them too. my main 2d editor sadly is photoshop elements 2019. i do so little w/ 2d images, so it does the job for the most part...
and whoever said the gimp can turn heightmaps to normals is lying, lol...
I use Bounding Box Materialize for that
Yeah , also Krita _
https://docs.krita.org/en/general_concepts/colors/color_models.html
Thanx
KPT plugins are just photoshop plugins, right? So perhaps there are more replacements. I just don't know what are requirements for Bryce to "understand" them. 32-bit?
with older versions you could simply point bryce to your photoshop plug-ins filter, and they would be available. i "think" kpt was included with bryce 4?!?
Yes, it came with Bryce 4, maybe even earlier, but was not anymore included in Bryce 5 and newer. Sent you a PM MatCreator.
https://archive.org/details/software?query=bryce
Interesting link, Wendy.
You still can. In the picture library click the down arrow. Select your plug-in Folder. (I made one just for Bryce) Apply a filter to the image you loaded. Copy the window then go to the terrain editor & paste it in the picture window. I to am learning Unreal & find the terrain tools & brushes less than satisfying. I was thinking of exporting terrain meshes out of Bryce, But using height maps would probably be better.
MatCreator - I got you email and sent you the promised bit back the same day Sept. 15. Unfortunately, my email service reported it undeliverable. I therefore sent you a PM with a link to the set.
i dont suppose you guys know of any tips or tricks to extract masks or alpha/depth information from terrains generated by bryce?
the terrain itself is an alpha image, but what if i wanted to mask off areas like slopes, ridges, flat surfaces or recesses in the terrain?
Hi MatCreator,
> i dont suppose you guys know of any tips or tricks to extract masks or alpha/depth information from terrains generated by bryce?
I remember a possibly helpful Bryce "Easter Egg" for terrains:
- Select the terrain and open the "Terrain Editor"
- Therein press the following two keys: CTRL D
- This will show a "Save as" dialog. Therein select e.g. the already suggested "3DS" mesh export format and confirm "save". This will now open another Bryce dialog, where you can export that terrain's "Image Maps" channels. Select the desired SIZE and FORMAT. Latter will offer various bitmap graphic formats.
Is this what you are looking for?
Hubert
kind of... im trying to find ways to extract masks specific to the terrain being generated. for instance i need to mask off the slope areas of terrains... to do this, i can apply the slope filter, edit the colors in the dte and then follow as you say to extract the texture. let me list some needs, that may explain better...
1 mask off the flat areas of a terrain - i guess imagine masking off areas where its safe enough for grandma to walk, where its flat and level (altitude does not work).
2 mask off the ridges/edges - i guess i could export the mesh and extract an ao/curve map, but is there an easier way w/i bryce?
3. mask off the recesses - like if a meteor hit a flat area, mask off the crater or cracks that go beneath the surface, like a cavity map ?!?
just hit me to try exporting the mesh out and generating an ao and cavity map in 3d coat, but not sure of that will work. i would think there is a way w/i bryce like the slope material.....
and just for understanding of the goal, im generating terrain maps from bryce for unreal engine and need rgb masks for an automatic landscape material... in aware that there are terrain generators that can do this, but everything looks like utah. and not for nothing but bryce is like a terrain generating gem between painting terrains, the terrain generator itself and then the dte in the mix... besides that i cant freaking stand nodes =/
so here you can see a terrain and the slope mask extracted. ill have to "fix" it, but i can use that... what other types of masks could i extract from the terrain geometry?
Hi MatCreator,
thanks for the detailed explanations.
Sorry, I have no idea. I never worked with Bryce terrains for such purposes.
Maybe: To render the terrain in Bryce "Top View" as a "Distance Mask" or "Altitude Mask". Then save the rendered grayscale image as BMP for further processing (like filtering, selection by color range, solarization effect, or whatever might work) e.g. in PhotoShop.
Hubert
MatCreator - I hate it, but I have no idea how I could help you here.
so here is the update?!? and MANY thanks guys =) just throwing up those little snippets lead to great ideas and further experimentantion, which often enuff unlocks new strategies... you guys are bryce users, giving up is not an option =P sad truth being we are still waiting for that next update, bryce 2023 with direct daz studio content access and fully supports all figures and animations with bryces new updated render engine...
just saying that was weird, anyway =/
bryce has an altitude and slope material preset... basically no movement there, you can adjust and set colors, and export from the terrain editor as an object. bryce seems to crash, but at least the option to increase the resolution on the exported model is there... it will automatically export the maps according to the material applied, and we can choose from a set of standard output sizes... from there ive learned about using channels in the gimp, a little awkward but doable, and i can make/mange my packed channel textures like that. i havent been able to pinch off a viable model from bryce for use in something like 3dcoat or zbrush. you can choose between polys (very "neat" tris?!?) or tris at export, but w/o the "reliable" way to increase density, low is not usable, and if youre lucky to increase w/o a crash, it yields a mesh w/ triangular junk you cant clean or get rid of...
still, the detail the image export provides is amazing and definetely worth investigating...
i tried a lot of different materials, because those can be extracted and "fixed" to pull the needed channels, but they all work globally and dont take the geometry of the terrain into consideration... slope or altitude in some combination, but basically thats it... thats ok, will keep thumbing around...
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Jq0gdggWSspUW_qlUAGOUq1-9DhA1jyM/view?usp=sharing
dont know if thats viewable or not =/ if so, you get to see the scale of a terrain, i think its about 2.5km x 2.5km?!? my automat isnt working, so the grass isnt there, but the channels are supposed to be masks for applying different materials to different areas... this landscape was intentionally flat, but it helps sectioning off where grass grows, where rocks protrude the surface, what material is on the slope, all kinds of possibilities depending on the mask..... dependant on the terrains geometry =/
MatCreator - glad to hear you found solutions, obviously you put great effort into it. I watched the clip and the terrain material is quite diverse and real looking, even without any grass. Keep it up.
MatCreator:
I couldn't view it online in my browser, though download the MP4 file.
An impressive rocky terrain and mat! Great job with your experiments! Please keep us updated.
Hubert
It played fine in my browser, though the resolution wasn't sharp. (I'm sure that's my GeForce Ti card. I never uninstalled the onboard Radeon drivers when I put in my card.)
LOVE, love the material on your terrain...or was that the terrain/rocks/etc.?
The video is cool with this guy running. Made me want to see more. Bryce is hard to get a smooth camera rotation from.
GoogleDrive's video playback might glitch sometimes. It's recommended to play video once, re-set needed quality setting, wait a bit, and play it again.