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UltraScenery [Commercial]

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  • barbultbarbult Posts: 23,155

    Here's another with the moose. I call it "Blending in".

     

    UltraScenery Oaks with Moose.jpg
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  • DaventakiDaventaki Posts: 1,621
    edited July 2020

    US with the Upland 1 Feature and Willows 9 Ecology generated just a random terrain and seed. I liked that from the side the Upland features looked like paths so thats how I used it.  I was originallying going to change the rocks to closer match the ground then decided I liked the look because it looks to me like melting snow that has melted off the rocks, grass, trees and along the edges.  Had to throw in Fury to make it even more interesting. Lights came from an old set by DM and converted to iray. Sky is from a DimensionTheory set. Also used Tonal Rage on it playing around with the different settings.  I did turn the headlamp on at an intensity of 0.03 just enough to provide a little extra light because the lamps just were not cooperating.  Edited in Topaz Studio 2.  See the gallery image for list of products used.

     

     

    IntheParkTm2020-studio.jpg
    2500 x 1354 - 3M
    Post edited by Daventaki on
  • DoctorJellybeanDoctorJellybean Posts: 7,909
    Daventaki said:

    US with the Upland 1 Feature and Willows 9 Ecology generated just a random terrain and seed. I liked that from the side the Upland features looked like paths so thats how I used it.  I was originallying going to change the rocks to closer match the ground then decided I liked the look because it looks to me like melting snow that has melted off the rocks, grass, trees and along the edges.  Had to throw in Fury to make it even more interesting. Lights came from an old set by DM and converted to iray. Sky is from a DimensionTheory set. Also used Tonal Rage on it playing around with the different settings.  I did turn the headlamp on at an intensity of 0.03 just enough to provide a little extra light because the lamps just were cooperating.  Edited in Topaz Studio 2.  See the gallery image for list of products used.

     

     

    That is very interesting, I like it.

  • DoctorJellybeanDoctorJellybean Posts: 7,909
    barbult said:

    Here's another with the moose. I call it "Blending in".

    Another one of your fab renders.

  • dawnbladedawnblade Posts: 1,723

    DIM has an update for UltraScenery. yes From the readme:


    2020-07-15 Updated

    • New water materials and settings tab
    • New ecology layers section on the build tab - users can now specify masks per layer
    • Slightly updated look'n'feel to the UI
    • Woodland 4 typo fix (previously uploaded as an update but not in store yet)
    • Instances are now grouped by layer instead of all being dumped together
  • DaventakiDaventaki Posts: 1,621
    edited July 2020

    Update looks great!!! but the masks are not working for me.  I have attached an image of the US scene and the mask used.  I put the mask in the Oaks, Oaks (young) and Oaks (seedlings) also used extended forest and that isn't working now either.  Ignore me evidently I am sleep deprived and did not realize this ecology had 2 different tree types in it......

    Image1.jpg
    1024 x 1024 - 154K
    Post edited by Daventaki on
  • dawnbladedawnblade Posts: 1,723

    I haven't tried masks, but I'm getting extended background instances with Lake 2/Oaks 11. Maybe they were there and then you ran mCasual's camera script? Truly guessing here.

     

    ExtendedForest.jpg
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  • DaventakiDaventaki Posts: 1,621

    Nope, all user error on my part.  Thanks for taking a look though.  I do like the new features!!!   Turned off the extended forest in this so i could better see.  Put the mask in ALL trees so it would clear right LOL.  Now im going to go play with some water features.  Have I said lately how AWESOME HowieFarkes is!!

    masksnotincluded.jpg
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    Image1.jpg
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  • dawnbladedawnblade Posts: 1,723
    Daventaki said:

    Nope, all user error on my part.  Thanks for taking a look though.  I do like the new features!!!   Turned off the extended forest in this so i could better see.  Put the mask in ALL trees so it would clear right LOL.  Now im going to go play with some water features.  Have I said lately how AWESOME HowieFarkes is!!

    Nice! Glad you got it sorted. I'm rendering now using the new water features, ocean with lake 2...

  • DaventakiDaventaki Posts: 1,621
    edited July 2020

    Love! Heres two quick renders with the new Ocean Blue water with different ripple strengths.  FYI-If you are only changing water settings on your US scene click the Ultrascene in the scene pane then rerun US go to the Water tab/settings and change the settings to whatever you like then hit apply and close!  You do not have to recreate the US scene!

    RippleLess.jpg
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    RippleMore.jpg
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    Post edited by Daventaki on
  • dawnbladedawnblade Posts: 1,723

    Nice! Can you put that water settings tip in your list?

    This is Lake 2, Oaks 11, Ocean Blue, with extended BG. Also ran mCasual's script. I used an HDRI from Denki Gaka's Clear Skies.

    USCOceanBlueLake2Oaks11.jpg
    1920 x 1080 - 2M
  • DaventakiDaventaki Posts: 1,621

    I sure will.  Very pretty render!!

  • Jason GalterioJason Galterio Posts: 2,562

    Oh man...  The update is out?

    I can see I won't be getting much sleep tonight.

  • blosseblosse Posts: 46
    HowieFarkes said:
    blosse said:

    My "Grassland 2" and "Grassland 3" ecologies look the same in a scene? Does anyone else have this?

    Grassland 3 will look pretty much the same as Grassland 2 if your scene doesn't contain any waterways such as lakes or streams.

    Okay thank you.

  • ArtiniArtini Posts: 8,837
    edited July 2020

    Wow, a great update.

    Just a scene with the new Ocean blue water.

    image

    island1001sc05pic01.jpg
    1920 x 1200 - 950K
    Post edited by Artini on
  • ArtiniArtini Posts: 8,837
    edited July 2020

    The masks are very neat feature - just need to experiment more.

    Custom height map and the mask.

    image

    mask01sc05pic01.jpg
    1920 x 1200 - 1M
    Post edited by Artini on
  • ArtiniArtini Posts: 8,837
    edited July 2020

    With inverted mask, extended forest and swamp water.

    image

    mask02sc01pic04m500.jpg
    1920 x 1200 - 760K
    Post edited by Artini on
  • barbultbarbult Posts: 23,155

    @Artini looking good!

    Does the mask feature ease your disappointment about the fix to the bald flat areas bug? I think the mask is so much more flexible. It isn't limited to perfectly flat areas. You can put a mask on any terrain slope.

    One trick I like is to take a top view screenshot of the terrain area that has a feature like water or trail. Then crop that screenshot to the square terrain area and use that a a basis for creating your mask, because you can see where the feature is. Be sure to use the built in orthographic Top View and not just position your perspective camera looking down. You will get a more accurate view for mask purposed with the Top View.

    You can also use the feature masks that come with UltraScenery and its addons as masks.

    Masks don't have to be black and white. A grayscale map can be used the thin out the vegetation in an area without completely removing it.

  • dawnbladedawnblade Posts: 1,723
    barbult said:

    Does the mask feature ease your disappointment about the fix to the bald flat areas bug? I think the mask is so much more flexible. It isn't limited to perfectly flat areas. You can put a mask on any terrain slope.

    One trick I like is to take a top view screenshot of the terrain area that has a feature like water or trail. Then crop that screenshot to the square terrain area and use that a a basis for creating your mask, because you can see where the feature is. Be sure to use the built in orthographic Top View and not just position your perspective camera looking down. You will get a more accurate view for mask purposed with the Top View.

    You can also use the feature masks that come with UltraScenery and its addons as masks.

    Masks don't have to be black and white. A grayscale map can be used the thin out the vegetation in an area without completely removing it.

    I'm so confused on this mask feature. I'm still unsure how to shape the mask to clear an area for a building. That is what I was thinking we were going to get. The masks seem all or nothing, meaning that when you add a mask to a tree, it appears that mask is affecting that tree all over the terrain, and not just a specific area of the terrain. Especially when there are multiple types of trees, how do you know which trees to mask before you build?

     

  • Jason GalterioJason Galterio Posts: 2,562
    edited July 2020
    barbult said:

    @Artini looking good!

    Does the mask feature ease your disappointment about the fix to the bald flat areas bug? I think the mask is so much more flexible. It isn't limited to perfectly flat areas. You can put a mask on any terrain slope.

    One trick I like is to take a top view screenshot of the terrain area that has a feature like water or trail. Then crop that screenshot to the square terrain area and use that a a basis for creating your mask, because you can see where the feature is. Be sure to use the built in orthographic Top View and not just position your perspective camera looking down. You will get a more accurate view for mask purposed with the Top View.

    You can also use the feature masks that come with UltraScenery and its addons as masks.

    Masks don't have to be black and white. A grayscale map can be used the thin out the vegetation in an area without completely removing it.

    You can also put the mask as the "preview material" in the shader for the terrain. This will let you see where each mask will fall, without having to render and / or guess.

    I know I have said this before, but I can't stress how useful it is. It's a quick switch that will let you immediately see what should be happening.

    I also realized that a bunch of the feature masks are located in runtime\textures\TangoAlpha\US

    Post edited by Jason Galterio on
  • barbultbarbult Posts: 23,155
    edited July 2020
    dawnblade said:
    barbult said:

    Does the mask feature ease your disappointment about the fix to the bald flat areas bug? I think the mask is so much more flexible. It isn't limited to perfectly flat areas. You can put a mask on any terrain slope.

    One trick I like is to take a top view screenshot of the terrain area that has a feature like water or trail. Then crop that screenshot to the square terrain area and use that a a basis for creating your mask, because you can see where the feature is. Be sure to use the built in orthographic Top View and not just position your perspective camera looking down. You will get a more accurate view for mask purposed with the Top View.

    You can also use the feature masks that come with UltraScenery and its addons as masks.

    Masks don't have to be black and white. A grayscale map can be used the thin out the vegetation in an area without completely removing it.

    I'm so confused on this mask feature. I'm still unsure how to shape the mask to clear an area for a building. That is what I was thinking we were going to get. The masks seem all or nothing, meaning that when you add a mask to a tree, it appears that mask is affecting that tree all over the terrain, and not just a specific area of the terrain. Especially when there are multiple types of trees, how do you know which trees to mask before you build?

    Just to be clear, we are talking about the new layer mask feature on the Build tab, right? To completely clear an area for a building, you would put the same mask on mutliple layers, like all of the tree layers, the grass layers, etc. For a building on land, you probably don't have to mask river pebbles, river logs, etc,, but it may be easiest to just right click on the little mask preview square and select to add the mask to all layers. White in the mask will let the vegetation be placed there. Black in the mask will prevent the vegatation from being placed there. So, a mask with a black square in the middle of a white image, will make a clearing in the center where that black square is in the mask. 

    If you still have questions, just ask again.

    Layer Mask in use.jpg
    2594 x 1881 - 674K
    Post edited by barbult on
  • AnEye4ArtAnEye4Art Posts: 702

    Is it possible for there to be some pre-made masks already built in Untra-Scenery to start with in conjuction with the ability to make our own? 

  • DaventakiDaventaki Posts: 1,621
    creationz8 said:

    Is it possible for there to be some pre-made masks already built in Untra-Scenery to start with in conjuction with the ability to make our own? 

    I will make some masks and share them.  Cant say they will be great but anyone will be more than welcome to use them.  I will also show some of them with previews so everyone can get an idea how they work.

  • Jason GalterioJason Galterio Posts: 2,562
    edited July 2020

    Here is my contribution for today:

    I am using a custom height map (more on that below), Features: Pond 1, Ecology: Harpwood 3, Water: Ocean Blue.

    The house is the Autumn Cottage, which also included the bench and the bench swing. The reeds came from Ecology 1, and scattered using UltraScatterPro.

    The skydome is from High Peaks.

    Straight render, no post processing.

    Attached is an example of the height map and masks. I didn't include the originals because they are 5000x5000 each.

    Clockwise from upper left hand corner:
    Base height map. I purposefully made this fairly chaotic and warped. I wanted some extremes on the elevation changes because I knew the Pond feature would even it out.
    Coastline mask. This was initially planned for use use to populate items along the waters edge. However, the Pond format changed where there water fell. So I used it for the placement of some of the bushes.
    Medium and high elevation mask. I wanted the larger trees to be isolated to the rises.
    Overall surface mask. For everything else. Very simply put, all the places land would be if I hadn't imposed the Pond format.

    I made the masks using Photoshop by using the color select function and varying the tolerance (with the continuous function off). This allowed me to pick specific elevations and either delete them or fill them in with a solid color. Duplicating the original height map as different layers allowed me to switch between the selections to fine tune the affect.Other programs should have very similar functionality.

    The height map itself was created using Filter Forge.

    hmexample.jpg
    1000 x 1000 - 288K
    Post edited by Jason Galterio on
  • dawnbladedawnblade Posts: 1,723
    Jason Galterio said:
    barbult said:

    @Artini looking good!

    Does the mask feature ease your disappointment about the fix to the bald flat areas bug? I think the mask is so much more flexible. It isn't limited to perfectly flat areas. You can put a mask on any terrain slope.

    One trick I like is to take a top view screenshot of the terrain area that has a feature like water or trail. Then crop that screenshot to the square terrain area and use that a a basis for creating your mask, because you can see where the feature is. Be sure to use the built in orthographic Top View and not just position your perspective camera looking down. You will get a more accurate view for mask purposed with the Top View.

    You can also use the feature masks that come with UltraScenery and its addons as masks.

    Masks don't have to be black and white. A grayscale map can be used the thin out the vegetation in an area without completely removing it.

    You can also put the mask as the "preview material" in the shader for the terrain. This will let you see where each mask will fall, without having to render and / or guess.

    I know I have said this before, but I can't stress how useful it is. It's a quick switch that will let you immediately see what should be happening.

    I also realized that a bunch of the feature masks are located in runtime\textures\TangoAlpha\US

    Thank you Jason for that Preview surface tip. That really helps visualize it! smiley

    barbult said:
    dawnblade said:
    barbult said:

    Does the mask feature ease your disappointment about the fix to the bald flat areas bug? I think the mask is so much more flexible. It isn't limited to perfectly flat areas. You can put a mask on any terrain slope.

    One trick I like is to take a top view screenshot of the terrain area that has a feature like water or trail. Then crop that screenshot to the square terrain area and use that a a basis for creating your mask, because you can see where the feature is. Be sure to use the built in orthographic Top View and not just position your perspective camera looking down. You will get a more accurate view for mask purposed with the Top View.

    You can also use the feature masks that come with UltraScenery and its addons as masks.

    Masks don't have to be black and white. A grayscale map can be used the thin out the vegetation in an area without completely removing it.

    I'm so confused on this mask feature. I'm still unsure how to shape the mask to clear an area for a building. That is what I was thinking we were going to get. The masks seem all or nothing, meaning that when you add a mask to a tree, it appears that mask is affecting that tree all over the terrain, and not just a specific area of the terrain. Especially when there are multiple types of trees, how do you know which trees to mask before you build?

    Just to be clear, we are talking about the new layer mask feature on the Build tab, right? To completely clear an area for a building, you would put the same mask on mutliple layers, like all of the tree layers, the grass layers, etc. For a building on land, you probably don't have to mask river pebbles, river logs, etc,, but it may be easiest to just right click on the little mask preview square and select to add the mask to all layers. White in the mask will let the vegetation be placed there. Black in the mask will prevent the vegatation from being placed there. So, a mask with a black square in the middle of a white image, will make a clearing in the center where that black square is in the mask. 

    If you still have questions, just ask again.

    Thank you @barbult for the mask lesson! Yes, I was referring to the new feature. I used it here! Still need to add animals, etc. smiley

     

    USCv2Mask.jpg
    1920 x 1080 - 2M
  • DaventakiDaventaki Posts: 1,621
    edited July 2020

    Ok so I just did a few test runs with the masks in the build section.  I selected Default settings, No Feature and Oaks 9-because I wanted to see the effect with lots of trees.  I applied the masks to ALL Layers in the build section.  Looks to me like the masking is less forgiving of color in the grey areas will have to do more masks with solid colors instead of softened edges too.

    I have uploaded them in order first the mask used, next a side view and then a top view.  I will do more tomorrow it is time for bed.  The last one is pretty extreme just to see what happens.

     

    Gradtopbottom.jpg
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    Gradtopbottomsideview.jpg
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    Gradtopbottomtopview.jpg
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    random6.jpg
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    Random6sideview.jpg
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    Random6topview.jpg
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    extreme1.jpg
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    Extreme1sideview.jpg
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    Extreme1topview.jpg
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    Post edited by Daventaki on
  • dawnbladedawnblade Posts: 1,723

    Thank you for all the masks, @Daventaki! Regarding the greyscale mask, try making one as a .png to see if you get better results.

  • richardandtracyrichardandtracy Posts: 5,065

    I ran a render last night and got comments on it from my eldest daughter which was interesting.

    Her first impression was how realistic everything was. Then she started noticing details and slightly revised her opinion after a couple of minutes of close inspection, her comments were to the effect that:

    1. On a macro scale it was impressive.
    2. The balance between trees, grasses general plants etc was impressive with a lovely graduation between them. The understorey of bushes was a nice touch under the edges of the trees.
    3. In grassland 3 (which is what I was using) there was a rather limited range of plants. All of which seemed to be in perfect health.
    4. The rendering was much better than Flowscape (which she uses occasionally).
    5. The presence of leaf litter was good, but didn't seem to go as far as she thought it might.
    6. The stream is very, very, very clean. Even the murky water was cleanly murky - an even murk rather than swirls of sludge/leaf litter floating along the surface etc.
    7. Overall it was beautifully fresh as if just after light rain rather than the sort of vaguely dusty plants you get after a day or two without rain.
    8. It was a lot more realistic than the V3 based model sitting in the grass.

    Now, they are observations & make of them what you will. She has never used DS and never even seen US before so they were comments uncontaminated by preconceptions. 

  • GoggerGogger Posts: 2,308
    edited July 2020

    Man, every time I use UltraScenery, I think it is the best thing EVER, then I use it again and think it is even better than before.  Howie knocked this one out of the park!  

    This is today's peaceful rendering with UltraScenery.



     

    DS_Peaceful_Stream_3D_Erik_Pedersen.jpg
    3440 x 1440 - 979K
    Post edited by Gogger on
  • ArtiniArtini Posts: 8,837

    Thanks a lot for all of the tips.

    Yes, masks are very useful feature - I explore them more and more.

     

This discussion has been closed.