My second basic age - an island

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My second basic age - an island

Postby Rabenschwinge » Wed Sep 01, 2010 5:10 am

Hi, everybody!

Work on my first age is coming along well, and I´ve started to work on a second one. This time I wanted to up the stakes, and started with another concept. (My first age is simple, its rooms have straight walls, every angle is 90 degrees, and so on.)

Now I´ve tried to model an island in Blender, and a lot of problems have occurred.


My first try was a failure, because I made a plane with a lot of faces for the entire age, so I could make several islands of it and add a waveset. But it had way to many faces and caused an error, when trying to export it.

Then I tried to do the terrain and the waveset-object seperately - and the result was, that the waveset came out really weird: there were reflections on it of things that don´t even exist in the age (a very strong lightsource, but my sun wasn´t set that strong). I´ve read in several tutorials, that I have to use the faces of the ground itself, copy them, and make THEM to a waveset. But what, if the faces of the ground are to complicated, or to distorted to use them as a waveset?

What would you suggest, how should I start to model an island (with the option of adding one or two other islands in the near future), so I can make a waveset without too many problems? Should I start from a plane? a cube? a circle? a UV-sphere?

Should I make different objects for, lets say, the ground, a mountain, some rocks, etc.? Or is it better to do all of them in one single object?

Do you have any other hints for me that would make building "realistic" landscapes easier?

Thanks in advance for your help!
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Re: My second basic age - an island

Postby J'Kla » Wed Sep 01, 2010 5:40 am

Have a look through this thread theres a rar file on one of the posts which you might find useful :D

Island Sea Sky
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Re: My second basic age - an island

Postby Rabenschwinge » Wed Sep 01, 2010 6:23 am

J'Kla wrote:Have a look through this thread theres a rar file on one of the posts which you might find useful :D

Island Sea Sky


The link to the thread isn´t working :)


(edited for clarity)
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Re: My second basic age - an island

Postby dendwaler » Mon Sep 06, 2010 10:06 am

I had the same question not long ago and have overthought this.

I think the optimal "plane" to start sculping an island is a triangle with corners of exactly 60 degrees.
I have tested this a while ago and am convinced there is no better way.
Make a closed cylinder with 6 vertices.
Delete all,except 1 "bottom" triangle .
Then subdivide this triangle a few times .
Scale it up.
Now you have in my opinion the ideal plane shape to start with.
When finished sculpting delete the not used triangles.

For the waveset, make a cylinder.
make a cone from it , of course again about 60 degrees shaping , but do not merge the top.
Make 20 rings in the cone/cilinder.
Now flatten it, scale it to zero by using scale "Z" , "0"
You should have a circle shaped plane now with concentric circles.
Most important , without edges of 90 degrees, you have avoid 90 degrees angles against "flickering" issues.
Eventually move these circles to the most import areas.
Place this plane below your Island.
Scale it up to get the right measurements.
Set the center of the waveset on the desired waterlevel to fil the holes in your isle, by moving up the objectcenter only .
If you need a second waveset on another water level , simply split it from the first and change the center of the new object.
Maybe you have to subdivide it a few times because you have not enough vertices inside a small visible area.
After finishing your project delete the not visible area of the wave set, but in most cases you will not gain much with it.

So, you don't have to follow the shape of the isle. its the objectcenter only which counts for the waterlevel.

I hope this is a clear explanation.
if you want a blend file, i will post it .


Edit.: As always altered it a bit after " rereading "




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Re: My second basic age - an island

Postby dendwaler » Tue Sep 07, 2010 11:43 pm

Because a blend file tells more then thousend words.
here is a little blendfile of an example.age.
It is build up inthe way i described above.
Its very basic and simple and has an ocean and a pool, both uses the same waveset.
the Isle itself consist of 60 degrees triangles and can be altered very easy.
pull some vertices down and you have an extra "pool"
Pull some up or better "sculpt" to create a mountain.
Attachments
example.blend
(983.9 KiB) Downloaded 337 times
Those wonderfull Worlds are called " Ages" , because that is what it takes to build one.



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Re: My second basic age - an island

Postby Rabenschwinge » Wed Sep 08, 2010 2:49 am

Thanks a lot, I will look into it today evening :)

I understood the first part of what you wrote in your first post, but the second part ... well, I guess, I have to just look into that blend-file :)
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Re: My second basic age - an island

Postby Rabenschwinge » Wed Sep 15, 2010 5:22 am

Sorry for double posting, but I´m afraid that an edit to my post would go unnoticed :oops:


I´ve finally found time to look into this blend-file of yours. I think, I´ve understood, how it is supposed to be used.
There is only one thing that eludes me: The waveset is a seperate object of its own - in the tutorial in the GoW-Wiki it is said, that one shall use the faces of the ground-object beyond the waveset, copy them and then make them into the waveset.

Now, the waveset in the blend file is not connected to the ground, and a plane - does that work like that, or did I misunderstand something?

Thank you for your help!
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Re: My second basic age - an island

Postby dendwaler » Wed Sep 15, 2010 12:39 pm

Yes , it does work like that,
that is what i tried to explain, it has nothing to do with the shape of your Isle object.
(When i did understood that, i experimented with the shape of the waveset itself.
I came out that concentric circles are the best, because every vertice in it is under a different angle from avatar viewpoint.
Even when the vertice itself is hidden under the Isle and invisible for the avatar, it does help the behavior of the waveset.)
When you make it like a plane and move the center of the plane above the object.
The object center will be the waterlevel in the age.
You only need a second waveset if you require another waterlevel and tweak the detection ranges ( as behind the "dam" in yinfara)

I think you have noticed that you can export the "example"age, i have included the textures, but did not verify if they are really inthere.
The id number of the example.age is unique, i did reserve it, so no need to change anything.
But it should work, when not notify me.
You can look to the results after the export, the waveset is near to perfect.
If you want to import it in your own age then that is possible to.
You will also need the alcscript ofcourse and the detection ranges..
Those wonderfull Worlds are called " Ages" , because that is what it takes to build one.



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Re: My second basic age - an island

Postby Rabenschwinge » Wed Sep 15, 2010 2:06 pm

dendwaler wrote:Yes , it does work like that,
that is what i tried to explain, it has nothing to do with the shape of your Isle object.
(When i did understood that, i experimented with the shape of the waveset itself.
I came out that concentric circles are the best, because every vertice in it is under a different angle from avatar viewpoint.
Even when the vertice itself is hidden under the Isle and invisible for the avatar, it does help the behavior of the waveset.)
When you make it like a plane and move the center of the plane above the object.
The object center will be the waterlevel in the age.
You only need a second waveset if you require another waterlevel and tweak the detection ranges ( as behind the "dam" in yinfara)


Ah, I see! Well, that´s handy :)

dendwaler wrote:I think you have noticed that you can export the "example"age, i have included the textures, but did not verify if they are really inthere.
The id number of the example.age is unique, i did reserve it, so no need to change anything.
But it should work, when not notify me.
You can look to the results after the export, the waveset is near to perfect.
If you want to import it in your own age then that is possible to.
You will also need the alcscript ofcourse and the detection ranges..


I didn´t try it out yet, because I didn´t find your name or the name of the blend-file in the Alcugs-list, so I wasn´t sure if the ID was unique.
I will definetely try it!

I know, how to export entire blend-files into another blend file, but is there an easy way to import a single object with its properties out of another blender-agefile?

And... sorry for the dumb question, but what is a "detection range"?
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Re: My second basic age - an island

Postby dendwaler » Wed Sep 15, 2010 11:33 pm

I didn´t try it out yet, because I didn´t find your name or the name of the blend-file in the Alcugs-list


I builded this example age, because of your question about wavesets, and the excisting lag of example blend files.
I wanted to show that wavesets can be set up really easy in a way not yet described.
Although this example is a fully textured working age, it really is ment as an "example" how to set up an age with a simple waveset, not so interesting to explore. In my opinion not worth to "spam" the Alcugs list with it.
After exporting, you can link into the age with the command: /link example

I know, how to export entire blend-files into another blend file, but is there an easy way to import a single object with its properties out of another blender-agefile?


yes, there is.
With the cursor in a view port press "Shift F1"

Now browse in it for the required blend file.
and open the subdir named "object"
click on the desired object name.
finally click on "append library"
that will do it.

what is a "detection range"?

My fault, it is not a range but a "Region"
In this case there are two regions.
RgnSwimArea tells the avatar where he can swim (normally somewhat bigger then the waveset)
RgnSwimDetect. detects the avatar when he enters the area. (normally placed on waterlevel)

You need to make Regions for all special actions. (climbing, sitting, swimming etc.)
Those wonderfull Worlds are called " Ages" , because that is what it takes to build one.



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