UltraScenery - new(er) territory [Commercial]

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  • memcneil70memcneil70 Posts: 4,113
    edited July 11

    I put both items for USC II immediately into my cart, added three other products and with my 2 tokens I bought them up. I loved the promos and my experience with the PAs' work quality and response when an issue pops up, sells their products for me every time. My biggest issue is I am busy on two computers' projects and I need to finish. Both time sucks, but necessary. So all new products are waiting me to look at them since late June.

    I will continue to add to my product library anything that is from all the PAs who work on USC II. I thank them for such excellent work and care they put into this wonderful system.

    Edit to clean up my poor spelling and editing a line.

    Post edited by memcneil70 on
  • I love the density slider. From forest to wood to park in just a few clicks.

  • davesodaveso Posts: 7,003
    edited July 12

    pyayed around a bit with USC2 today ...What am I missing that everyone googoo gaga ... and I'm kinda thinking its pretty much the same as USC1 ..other than the interface maybe. I'm asking again for someone to explain the differences and what I'm missing. 

    Anyway, here's a scene I made today ... some foreboding sky from Colm Jackson' skiis for terradome 3. I use those a lot. I think it looks pretty lush overall. Bare oaks and aspen. added some daisies. 

    Again, I think its the paths that give it the same look as USC1..its always a slope, curve, and the end.... How do I get a straight stretch? The path in that little square in setup would seem to indicate there's straight, but it never comes out that way. 

    oaks aspen and daisies exp2 no fog jpg.jpg
    1800 x 1012 - 3M
    Post edited by daveso on
  • TotteTotte Posts: 13,959

    daveso said:

    pyayed around a bit with USC2 today ...What am I missing that everyone googoo gaga ... and I'm kinda thinking its pretty much the same as USC1 ..other than the interface maybe. I'm asking again for someone to explain the differences and what I'm missing. 

    Anyway, here's a scene I made today ... some foreboding sky from Colm Jackson' skiis for terradome 3. I use those a lot. I think it looks pretty lush overall. Bare oaks and aspen. added some daisies. 

    Again, I think its the paths that give it the same look as USC1..its always a slope, curve, and the end.... How do I get a straight stretch? The path in that little square in setup would seem to indicate there's straight, but it never comes out that way. 

    The biggest things are:
    (a) - No wait to generate, change and the scene updates
    (b) - Add Biome layers (like making your own ecologies by mixing Biomes) without using UST  Ecology Engineer 
    (c) -  Larger ground areas 

     

  • ZiconZicon Posts: 310

    daveso said:

    I'm asking again for someone to explain the differences and what I'm missing.

    Create a USc2 landscape and a apply a native USc2 ecology, not a legacy ecology. Go to Ecology > Biome and open up the Layer Settings and Distribution sections. Select one of the layers in the biome, and play with the settings now available in the aforementioned sections.

    Now go back to USc1 and see how long it would take you to do similar changes to any of the ecologies, if you can do them at all.

  • tsroemitsroemi Posts: 2,742

    daveso said:

    pyayed around a bit with USC2 today ...What am I missing that everyone googoo gaga ... and I'm kinda thinking its pretty much the same as USC1 ..other than the interface maybe. I'm asking again for someone to explain the differences and what I'm missing. 

    Anyway, here's a scene I made today ... some foreboding sky from Colm Jackson' skiis for terradome 3. I use those a lot. I think it looks pretty lush overall. Bare oaks and aspen. added some daisies. 

    Again, I think its the paths that give it the same look as USC1..its always a slope, curve, and the end.... How do I get a straight stretch? The path in that little square in setup would seem to indicate there's straight, but it never comes out that way. 

    Wooooow, I do love fhe effect you're achieving here with this sky! I have Terradome 3 but have never used it much. Will def take a second look at it now! 

  • SilverGirlSilverGirl Posts: 837

    daveso said:

    Anyway, here's a scene I made today ... some foreboding sky from Colm Jackson' skiis for terradome 3. I use those a lot. I think it looks pretty lush overall. Bare oaks and aspen. added some daisies. 
     

    Lovely render! And really loving on that sky. Thank you for citing which one it is... I've been needing some more variety, but when things say "for (other product system)" I admit I overlook them because I assume they wouldn't be compatible. Definitely going in the WL.

  • RandomRandom Posts: 205

    Just looking at this very nice picture by Daveso and wondering if you can use mesh grabber on a USC 2 landscape, like here the road is way too even and might do with a bit of jiggering.

  • felisfelis Posts: 4,318
    edited July 13

    Random said:

    Just looking at this very nice picture by Daveso and wondering if you can use mesh grabber on a USC 2 landscape, like here the road is way too even and might do with a bit of jiggering.

    You have to remember that default UC2 has 128 resulution and 64 meter width, so 0,5 m between each vertex.

    You could increase resolution, but you might probably have better luck, by adding a displacement, e.g. a noise texture, and set displacement subdivision to 2. 

    Just be aware of that it increases to base map from 16.4 k verteces, to 262 k verteces, used for displacement.

    Edit: realised that US2 shader doesn't have displacement.

    Post edited by felis on
  • davesodaveso Posts: 7,003

    Random said:

    Just looking at this very nice picture by Daveso and wondering if you can use mesh grabber on a USC 2 landscape, like here the road is way too even and might do with a bit of jiggering.

    its things like this that lend more to the realism. potholes, and all that, maybe a log or some fallen trees along the way, some of that can be added I would assume with Alienator Pro 2? Or even by prop placement manually.  

  • TotteTotte Posts: 13,959

    daveso said:

    Random said:

    Just looking at this very nice picture by Daveso and wondering if you can use mesh grabber on a USC 2 landscape, like here the road is way too even and might do with a bit of jiggering.

    its things like this that lend more to the realism. potholes, and all that, maybe a log or some fallen trees along the way, some of that can be added I would assume with Alienator Pro 2? Or even by prop placement manually.  

    With USC2 and Biome layers, were you can add any Biome layer to you scene, you could first lower the density of that later, then use AP2 to replace those props with something else, or mulitple other props, one prop for each of the different versions of the plants in the Biome.  This way you can create rather cool scenes.

     

  • LinwellyLinwelly Posts: 5,945

    both products will prove their worth soon enough.

    I don't need the umpteenth female in sexy clothing, I need places I can form to my needs and place my charater in them, and this provides exaclty that

  • TotteTotte Posts: 13,959

    Random said:

    Just looking at this very nice picture by Daveso and wondering if you can use mesh grabber on a USC 2 landscape, like here the road is way too even and might do with a bit of jiggering.

    Mask Builder II for USC2 will be available Daz soon,  to easy mask things, and add heights.

  • barbultbarbult Posts: 24,240

    Straight path:
    Nothing fancy here. I didn't create a new terrain preset or anything. I just drew a straight black line on a white background in Photoshop, blurred the edge a bit. I left Terrain Preset set to None and played around with the Generators and Modifiers settings. I made the terrain resolution 512 but left the size 64. I started with an Oaks Ecology. I used that Photoshop file as a layer mask for the oaks, flowers, and grass, to keep them off of the "path". I added a biome layer of road pebbles and added the the mask but inverted it, to put the road pebbles only on the "path". For fun, I added a clover layer from Biomes 1 and added the mask to keep the clover off the "path". I also used the inverted mask in the Displacement section to raise the path a few CM to set it off, but it is hard to see that here.
    You can create lots of landscapes with USC2. I didn't even bring out Alienator Pro 2 here. You just need to experiment. There is also a tutorial video available in the store.

    Straight Path Experiment 2_Camera 1.jpg
    2000 x 1125 - 2M
    Screenshot 2024-07-13 182404.jpg
    609 x 496 - 34K
  • Bunyip02Bunyip02 Posts: 8,605

    barbult said:

    Straight path:
    Nothing fancy here. I didn't create a new terrain preset or anything. I just drew a straight black line on a white background in Photoshop, blurred the edge a bit. I left Terrain Preset set to None and played around with the Generators and Modifiers settings. I made the terrain resolution 512 but left the size 64. I started with an Oaks Ecology. I used that Photoshop file as a layer mask for the oaks, flowers, and grass, to keep them off of the "path". I added a biome layer of road pebbles and added the the mask but inverted it, to put the road pebbles only on the "path". For fun, I added a clover layer from Biomes 1 and added the mask to keep the clover off the "path". I also used the inverted mask in the Displacement section to raise the path a few CM to set it off, but it is hard to see that here.
    You can create lots of landscapes with USC2. I didn't even bring out Alienator Pro 2 here. You just need to experiment. There is also a tutorial video available in the store.

    Nice !

  • RandomRandom Posts: 205

    I had a quite a time trying to put a woodpecker on a particular USC 2 scene tree. Took a while rendering over and over until it was placed right.

  • barbultbarbult Posts: 24,240
    Random said:

    I had a quite a time trying to put a woodpecker on a particular USC 2 scene tree. Took a while rendering over and over until it was placed right.

    Did you turn on preview for the trees? Did you check the box for Iray Preview in USC2, and turn on Iray Preview in the viewport? That should have allowed you to place the bird precisely before an actual render.
  • ShimrianShimrian Posts: 533

    Totte said:

    Random said:

    Just looking at this very nice picture by Daveso and wondering if you can use mesh grabber on a USC 2 landscape, like here the road is way too even and might do with a bit of jiggering.

    Mask Builder II for USC2 will be available Daz soon,  to easy mask things, and add heights.

    Yay, I can't wait for this! 

  • LinwellyLinwelly Posts: 5,945

    barbult said:

    Straight path:
    Nothing fancy here. I didn't create a new terrain preset or anything. I just drew a straight black line on a white background in Photoshop, blurred the edge a bit. I left Terrain Preset set to None and played around with the Generators and Modifiers settings. I made the terrain resolution 512 but left the size 64. I started with an Oaks Ecology. I used that Photoshop file as a layer mask for the oaks, flowers, and grass, to keep them off of the "path". I added a biome layer of road pebbles and added the the mask but inverted it, to put the road pebbles only on the "path". For fun, I added a clover layer from Biomes 1 and added the mask to keep the clover off the "path". I also used the inverted mask in the Displacement section to raise the path a few CM to set it off, but it is hard to see that here.
    You can create lots of landscapes with USC2. I didn't even bring out Alienator Pro 2 here. You just need to experiment. There is also a tutorial video available in the store.

    that, very good, I probably will follow this idea soon as well

  • davesodaveso Posts: 7,003

    barbult said:

    Straight path:
    Nothing fancy here. I didn't create a new terrain preset or anything. I just drew a straight black line on a white background in Photoshop, blurred the edge a bit. I left Terrain Preset set to None and played around with the Generators and Modifiers settings. I made the terrain resolution 512 but left the size 64. I started with an Oaks Ecology. I used that Photoshop file as a layer mask for the oaks, flowers, and grass, to keep them off of the "path". I added a biome layer of road pebbles and added the the mask but inverted it, to put the road pebbles only on the "path". For fun, I added a clover layer from Biomes 1 and added the mask to keep the clover off the "path". I also used the inverted mask in the Displacement section to raise the path a few CM to set it off, but it is hard to see that here.
    You can create lots of landscapes with USC2. I didn't even bring out Alienator Pro 2 here. You just need to experiment. There is also a tutorial video available in the store.

    wow...the answer to my question, a height map :) Awesome and thanks. You lost me with all that masking thing, I'm still a rookie after all this time. Masks never made sense to me. Quite a bit doesn;t make sense. I'm always confused and I can't remember anything.  

  • barbultbarbult Posts: 24,240

    daveso said:

    barbult said:

    Straight path:
    Nothing fancy here. I didn't create a new terrain preset or anything. I just drew a straight black line on a white background in Photoshop, blurred the edge a bit. I left Terrain Preset set to None and played around with the Generators and Modifiers settings. I made the terrain resolution 512 but left the size 64. I started with an Oaks Ecology. I used that Photoshop file as a layer mask for the oaks, flowers, and grass, to keep them off of the "path". I added a biome layer of road pebbles and added the the mask but inverted it, to put the road pebbles only on the "path". For fun, I added a clover layer from Biomes 1 and added the mask to keep the clover off the "path". I also used the inverted mask in the Displacement section to raise the path a few CM to set it off, but it is hard to see that here.
    You can create lots of landscapes with USC2. I didn't even bring out Alienator Pro 2 here. You just need to experiment. There is also a tutorial video available in the store.

    wow...the answer to my question, a height map :) Awesome and thanks. You lost me with all that masking thing, I'm still a rookie after all this time. Masks never made sense to me. Quite a bit doesn;t make sense. I'm always confused and I can't remember anything.  

    I didn't mention a height map in that discussion, and I didn't use a height map. The masks are integral to creating that path. Without masks, there would be not path there, because grass would be everywhere and the road pebbles would be dispersed throughout the terrain. Masks control where instances are allowed to be placed. Instances are allowed in white mask areas and not allowed in black mask areas.

  • barbultbarbult Posts: 24,240
    edited July 14

    After my quick path experiment above, I made a more elaborate path. I copied the USC2 Track 01 feature folder and renamed the folder and files in it in my copy. Then I edited the info.json and the properties file to change the internal references to the new file and folder name of my copy. (This took me about 6 attempts, because I kept making mistakes and overlooking a critical place to change, but eventually I got it all fixed to reference my new terrain preset files. Then I opened all the map images as a layer stack in Photoshop CS6 and cropped of the top and botton curvy parts of the path. By cropping all the layers together in a stack, I was able to make sure they were all cropped identically. After cropping I was left with a wide short fairly straight diagonal path image. I stretched the image vertically to make it square again. Then I saved the layers as PNG files. I used Bulk Rename Utility to rename the files to remove the prefix and - that Photoshop added to the saved file names (so they would match the names in my edited info file for the new terrain preset).
    I used my new terrain preset with a pasture ecology. Then I added an Aspens biome layer and reduced the density and increased the spacing to get a scattering of a few trees. I used Alienator Pro 2 (AP2) to swap the Aspens for other trees. I used AP2 on a daisies biome layer I added to swap for some pink and purple flowers. Finally I added some LowPi on bikes, some cows, and a wooden cart. I used a clouds image as the Environment pane backdrop. Oh yes, and I added a few subtle decals on the path to break up the monotony.

    USC2 Straightened Track 01_013_Camera.jpg
    2000 x 1125 - 2M
    Post edited by barbult on
  • butterflyfishbutterflyfish Posts: 1,238

    surprise  Holy crap! That is amazing! I feel like you have completely mastered both UltraScenery and LowPi. 

  • barbultbarbult Posts: 24,240

    butterflyfish said:

    surprise  Holy crap! That is amazing! I feel like you have completely mastered both UltraScenery and LowPi. 

    You wouldn't want to imagine the number of hours I have put into both! They are similar, in that you can do most anything with some experimentation.

  • LinwellyLinwelly Posts: 5,945

    I wouldn't dare touching the json, I look at those I can't make heads and tails out of them

  • barbultbarbult Posts: 24,240

    Linwelly said:

    I wouldn't dare touching the json, I look at those I can't make heads and tails out of them

    Figuring them out comes with time and practice and lots of trial and error. Always work on a copy!

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 100,833

    barbult said:

    Linwelly said:

    I wouldn't dare touching the json, I look at those I can't make heads and tails out of them

    Figuring them out comes with time and practice and lots of trial and error. Always work on a copy!

    In principle you could open the file via script, feed it to the JSON parser, use the script to adjust values or add/remove proeprties, then turn it back into a string and write it out to a file (this is what my old fix Dupliate IDs script does).

  • barbultbarbult Posts: 24,240

    Richard Haseltine said:

    barbult said:

    Linwelly said:

    I wouldn't dare touching the json, I look at those I can't make heads and tails out of them

    Figuring them out comes with time and practice and lots of trial and error. Always work on a copy!

    In principle you could open the file via script, feed it to the JSON parser, use the script to adjust values or add/remove proeprties, then turn it back into a string and write it out to a file (this is what my old fix Dupliate IDs script does).

    I use Notepad++ to edit the JSON files directly. It is easy to make mistakes, though, if you goof up the syntax. That is where JSONLint comes in handy.

  • davesodaveso Posts: 7,003
    edited July 15

    barbult said:

    daveso said:

    barbult said:

    Straight path:
    Nothing fancy here. I didn't create a new terrain preset or anything. I just drew a straight black line on a white background in Photoshop, blurred the edge a bit. I left Terrain Preset set to None and played around with the Generators and Modifiers settings. I made the terrain resolution 512 but left the size 64. I started with an Oaks Ecology. I used that Photoshop file as a layer mask for the oaks, flowers, and grass, to keep them off of the "path". I added a biome layer of road pebbles and added the the mask but inverted it, to put the road pebbles only on the "path". For fun, I added a clover layer from Biomes 1 and added the mask to keep the clover off the "path". I also used the inverted mask in the Displacement section to raise the path a few CM to set it off, but it is hard to see that here.
    You can create lots of landscapes with USC2. I didn't even bring out Alienator Pro 2 here. You just need to experiment. There is also a tutorial video available in the store.

    wow...the answer to my question, a height map :) Awesome and thanks. You lost me with all that masking thing, I'm still a rookie after all this time. Masks never made sense to me. Quite a bit doesn;t make sense. I'm always confused and I can't remember anything.  

    I didn't mention a height map in that discussion, and I didn't use a height map. The masks are integral to creating that path. Without masks, there would be not path there, because grass would be everywhere and the road pebbles would be dispersed throughout the terrain. Masks control where instances are allowed to be placed. Instances are allowed in white mask areas and not allowed in black mask areas.

    like i said I'm confused.  I'll never get to where you are in your expertise of this product. 

    Post edited by daveso on
  • barbultbarbult Posts: 24,240

    daveso said:

    barbult said:

    daveso said:

    barbult said:

    Straight path:
    Nothing fancy here. I didn't create a new terrain preset or anything. I just drew a straight black line on a white background in Photoshop, blurred the edge a bit. I left Terrain Preset set to None and played around with the Generators and Modifiers settings. I made the terrain resolution 512 but left the size 64. I started with an Oaks Ecology. I used that Photoshop file as a layer mask for the oaks, flowers, and grass, to keep them off of the "path". I added a biome layer of road pebbles and added the the mask but inverted it, to put the road pebbles only on the "path". For fun, I added a clover layer from Biomes 1 and added the mask to keep the clover off the "path". I also used the inverted mask in the Displacement section to raise the path a few CM to set it off, but it is hard to see that here.
    You can create lots of landscapes with USC2. I didn't even bring out Alienator Pro 2 here. You just need to experiment. There is also a tutorial video available in the store.

    wow...the answer to my question, a height map :) Awesome and thanks. You lost me with all that masking thing, I'm still a rookie after all this time. Masks never made sense to me. Quite a bit doesn;t make sense. I'm always confused and I can't remember anything.  

    I didn't mention a height map in that discussion, and I didn't use a height map. The masks are integral to creating that path. Without masks, there would be not path there, because grass would be everywhere and the road pebbles would be dispersed throughout the terrain. Masks control where instances are allowed to be placed. Instances are allowed in white mask areas and not allowed in black mask areas.

    like i said I'm confused.  I'll never get to where you are in your expertise of this product. 

    You are not expected to do what anyone else does, so don't worry about that. Everybody has different interests and different skills. I'm not an artist; I'm an engineer. I tend to enjoy technical challenges and trying to understand the internal guts of products.
    Ask one simple question at a time and work on that, if you want to dig deeper into UltraScenery2. Lots of people here are willing to share tips.

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