Help with Terradome 2 inside Carrara
Mosk the Scribe
Posts: 888
Has anyone used TerraDome 2 inside of Carrara? I'm trying now but not having much luck. Would appreciate any suggestions.
Thanks
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If I'm not mistaken, the Terradomes are, at least mechanically, a series of skydome spheres and morphing planes that can all be adjusted to suit a 'shot'. They're also poser-only.
I'm curious if you've been able to get the mesh's and their controls into Carrara yet?
Over in the Carrara sale thread, Dart mentioned the materials may need conversion, and in another thread Eddi has a utility for poser material conversions over on sharecg. Maybe see if Dart has had any better luck.
--ms
I haven't got very far yet. The Poser 8 Presets don't open at all and the only Material presets it has are the mc6 files that Carrara doesn't use (Poser's Material Room presets). So we'd need to use EddyMI's MC6 to PZ2 Batch Converter to convert them to Pose-style presets. I haven't got the mc6 converter working on my Win 10 craptop - haven't tried it on my main Carrara machine yet, but Wendy has reported that some RDNA files don't work even in that.
So if we have Poser (I have Poser 7 which should work fine) we should be able to do some setups in that and save them to the runtime library as full preset CR2 files. I've never actually made a Pose-style material applying file - not sure how to do that.
At the very least, I want to see how the textures are applied to it so I can build my own shaders.
Skydomes
I've used skydomes a quite a bit in my earlier days in Carrara and have figured out how to make them sing without being a total pain in the sphincter.
What we need to do is to use their color Texture map in the glow channel and set the brightness accordingly, then make sure that they don't cast or receive shadows. Even then, I still also set any Distant lights to ignore them too.
It's very simple to set up, but to avoid having to do it all the time, what I've done is to make a single Skydome scene that I've saved to my browser in my My Objects folder. In that one scene file, I store ALL of my sky domes, all set up and ready to go.
So every time I get a new Sky Dome that I want to use, I open that file, add the dome, set up the shaders and cast/receive settings, give it a good name and add it to the group that the lights all ignore, and save the scene again.
These domes (so far) have been taking up very little space in memory. I turn their visibility off except for one before I save. When I make a scene that uses these sky domes, I pick a few that I will be using with the scene I'm working on and delete the rest. Some scenes I've actually left all of the domes in.
====================================
Yeah, I picked TerraDome 2 as my free pick so I'm not hugely upset that it's not working. Not sure how soon it'll be that I dig into it - but when I do I'll certainly report back here and provide some notes
it has mt5 files so out of luck there
are all proceedurals
I got it for Poser a while back and no it does not work in Carrara
actually I am only half right
if I save it with morphs injected in Poser as a pz3 and import with the skinning etc options checked the morphs do actually work and some of the maps load but need tiling, others need adding but it is useable just needs the shaders redone but you can use those maps in Carrara terrain shaders I did a quickie the cbr should find your maps if lucky.
Thanks Wendy for the tips.. a quickie to see
same file with one of the TD2 textures applied
another quickie using TD2 with Stonemason's after the war
that works! nicely done.
--ms
I have poser (Game Devl version) but have practically never used it.
Could you please describe the individual steps needed to get this working (or mostly working) inside of Carrara. If I can get it where it's pretty functional, may buy some TerraDome related products while on sale.
Thank you.
as 3Ddigit says above all I did was
Open Poser ( mine is PoserPro 2012 ) and load the default TD2 ( I didn't load the skydome )
applied or injected all the morphs ( I have also just selected one injection file but that is all you will get even though many more show in Carrara )
saved the file to a friendly place
opened Carrara 8.5 Pro
Started a new blank scene
imported the Poser file from its friendly place ( I didn't select the lights/cameras )
start moving the morph dials to see what happens
add tiled textures/bump maps to it in the texture room
render
then post result.
Most excellent, I will have to try this. Provided I can figure out how to work in Poser first lol. I think I have opened it maybe 4 times now and still am not sure about much of anything over there but I think this explanation is simple enough that I can figure it out. Thank you!
FYI: For those that have/got this package (terradome2 base), there are two Poser script-based expansion tools over at runtimedna that aren't coming over to DAZ and will only be available for 1.9 more days:
http://www.runtimedna.com/Eco-for-TerraDome2.html
http://www.runtimedna.com/Elevation-for-TerraDome2.html
By a vendor who did not migrate (semidieu). Both are on final blowout sale (60%) and may never be available again, although some of his stuff is popping up at hivewire and rendo...
The first package (eco @ $7.00) is an instancing tool (not true instances, but replication and distribution of objects (like trees) in a terradome2 environment. Poser only), but I imagine anything you create/save there can be exported as a standard Poser scene and imported into Carrara. It looks like this tool is pretty capable and uses distribution maps the like. I know Carrara does this natively, but there may be a reason for terradome2 users (or poser users...) to consider this tool.
The second package (elevation @ $4.80) is an elevation creation tool for the terraradome2 environment (creates terrain environments and supplies them as morphs to the base TD2 system). Like above, there may be value for someone who uses both Poser and/or Carrara (or possibly DS users too).
TIme is ticking on these.
cheers,
--ms
Ok - Inside of Poser Game Devl, i loaded Terradome, Craggy Valley Scene. I then went to the Poses Tab >Terradome 2> and dragged Inject All Base Morphs onto the Scene.
i then Saved in standard .pz3 format (as opposed to exporting as object, which i could try next)
When I import into Carrara, it asks me for CraggyValleyScene.pmd (which I don't think I have)
I'm then presented with a box that says 'Missing files' Make sure that the Runtime paths are correct - and there are about 30 runtimes listsed. At bottom is option 'Do not look for missing files from now on which you can check or uncheck) - and option to Continuue import or cancel. The correct path (to MyDaz 3d Library is in the list)
I select don't search for missig files because I don't want to go through 30 rounds of this.
It does import Terradome 2 - and I can see all of the morphs (Craggy Valley, Soft Glan, Steep Cliffs etc) - but changing those numbers (even up to high ones) does not seem to have any effect- no geometry is changed / distorted.
Suggestions?
Thanks
I think use external binary morph targets has to be unchecked in preferences in Poser under edit
as they do for exporting dyn2morph cloth sims
Wow! Thanks so much. Unticking binary morph targets suddenly made this a very interesting product.
Can anyone provide more detailed advice regarding texturing? Things look great in Poser - but substantially different inside of Carrara.
Can always start using other shaders - but would like to know if there's a systematic way to approximate what I'm seeing in Poser.
And suggestions for the Skydome? Sun?
Dartanbeck - do you modify these or just delete and use your own?
try the zip I have in the other post putting the grass, rock and for snow sand diffuse and in bump displacement textures in the maps
can fiddle around with parameters try diff ones
Will try - though not sure I can get to that today. Another question - when buying add on packs for TerraDome2 - do those morphs all get rolled into the base Terradome 2 package (so you have more morphs available to change the terrain with) - and do most of those include additional shaders that can be made to work with Carrara? [I'm unfortunately in the middle of other work that will devour my next few days, but might want ot grab terradome products wihile on sale]
And does it make sense to buy Terradome 2 products - or does TerraDome 3 offer something much better? Are they compatible or totally separate products?
3 is a different product made for DAZ studio only and I have a feeling it will not work in Carrara as most new stuff does not very well especially morphs.
I do not know as do not own.
I got TD2 for Poser, finding how to use it in Carrara was a bonus.
Actually - just looked now and appears i missed the window of opportunity. no longer see those Terradome / Renderosity items on sale. Oh well . . .
They'll be back... heh. I'd expect new-years or march-madness.
The stuff at RDNA-proper probably won't tho' - last day for the things that don't migrate over, as I understand it.
Poser users looking for the PASS shaders, older RenderStudioPro (RSP), or the non-migrated terradome products might want to take a final look. Some of it's a little dated, but still kind of unique. Most of the other stuff over there seems to have equivalent options at hivewire and rendo (Dawn-specific, or more generic poser stuff).
cheers,
--ms
Can you animate between morphs when using Terradome Elevation? (so you could animate mountains or hill rising?)
They also have a note in the produt description at the bottom saying "requires Advanced Shaders (Free))" and clicking that link says product unavailable or temporarily disabled
I would think that if the output is a morph/slider, once created and saved in poser, it's generic enough to use in any normal manner, so unless the morph is somehow special, I'd think it a safe bet that you can create multiple morphs and animate between them.
Per the other comments, I'm personally betting that the output is portable to Carrara, and the poser tool(s)/interfaces are used to easily create and save the terrains, but once saved they can be used in any poser-file capable application.
As far as the advanced shaders, is it possible that migrated to DAZ? I think http://www.daz3d.com/advanced-shaders-1-5 is the product being mentioned. And it's free!
--ms
Thanks for all of the feedback mindsong. Just purchased the elevation script and will see how it works. Thanks for the shader tip - says "Install the shader in your Poser main runtime... and just forget it! Everything will then be loaded as usual. You won't have to take care to launch the script or make special steps. You will load your materials as usual, from either the Pose library or the Material library. It's hard to make a script easier to use" - so will give that a shot as well. (and will keep fingers crossed for sale on terradome plugins over the holidays)
Great!
I'm to the point I have to at least install and get 'the base' of any systems I buy working before I buy expansions these days (unless they're *reeaallly* cheap!)... I can't afford my own optimism/intentions anymore! So many plans/tools/tests, so few final renders!
The RDNA stuff had the 'going away forever' factor at play, so I went with it... lol!
We'll have to compare notes on our TD2 explorations in the mean-time (before the TD2 expansion sales re-occur!). The tidbits and renders above by the3Ddigit, stezza, and others give me room for optimism/motivation!
cheers,
--ms
Sorry for my lack of replies. I haven't tried this product further - since that initial post
..and no, TerrraDome3 is not only just for DS, but also is Only for Iray in DS. so definitely won't be something to expect Carrara to work with without some serious surgery.
I do hope to try these more - certainly don't want to go buying any script-related stuff for it though. I'll just be likely opening it in Poser and seeing if I can save some working versions of it. If it works... cool. If not... oh well... it was free.
Not sure how to try and deal with the Sky Dome. I was expecting to see that it uses maps, but I haven't seen a texture map folder for this yet. Is there a texture folder for TerraDomes 2? It really is all procedural?
I must admit that I used to really like this sort of thing. But once I've gotten used to working in Carrara with its wonderful terrain tools, I haven't gone back.
Some products (like some of petipet's environment scenes for example) that come with scenery props - I still like using these. I find that Carrara's Terrain shaders even work on them! Like "New Colony", I started tweaking the shaders... tweaking... tweaking... finally just tossed my Badlands shader on both the ground and the mountains and it worked great!
I also love when products come with sky domes. I like collecting them even though I still prefer using the Realistic Sky - especially if the sun is to be involved.
That "Eco" expansion (poser script) looks pretty cool for folks that don't have Carrara and it's wonderful replicators!
So, is there anyway to get Terradome 2 to work in Carrara if you don't have access to any versions of Poser to save it as this .pz2 file? I picked it up on the slim chance it would work in Carrara as one of my free items as there wasn't really anything else I wanted. It would be nice if I could get it to work inside Carrara. I'm guessing from what you guys are saying is that you have to load it into Poser first and inject the morphs and then save it as something that Carrara can read. Anyway of doing that without Poser?
Mosk the Scribe,
It looks like there's an RDNA coupon code for the next two days that can get you the base system *free*, or at least a texture pack if you were already able to get the base! "DAZ-TOUCHUP". The reference is on the front-page billboard.
Hey Dart! glad you could sneak back in for a few! Hopefully the season will open up and give you some catch-up time! Yeah, the mentioned poser scripts are a bit redundant in Carrara, but I keep finding workflow contexts where doing something makes sense in another tool, so if the price is right, having the tools is a win. The hidden cost is figuring out how to use it all well enough to warrant the effort. Not sure I'm winning that battle, but I like the adventure...
@knittingmommy - I can't answer that, but it's a good question. Someone could probably rte-encode a carrara capable 'injected' version for you without raising eyebrows. I haven't loaded it up yet so I can't make that offer yet.
cheers,
--ms
sadly no as the scene file contains vertex information that may constitute redistribution
Only the PA could make that available through DAZ, it might be worth asking as not a big task to save, more an administrative one of knowing which packages you own.
That said Poser often on sale and a handy app to have.
11 pro base and upgrade are onsale now at SM and probably their partners. upgrade is $69.99 so I may bite. Through the 19th.
Kind of a lot of money to convert a free terradome package that probably isn't as good as the built-in Carrara capabilities... heh
--ms
there is the Superfly engine, I have PP12 and considered upgrading a few times for that
the new toon one is also supposed to be better than sketch which I also like