UltraSceneryXT - large terrain/landscape generator

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Comments

  • beulahdroyds said:

    Does the product come with a tutorial at all? Or a guide. I bought it, but couldn't see one, and for some reason I'm really really struggling to use it. No matter what I seem to do it is just a plain displacement mapped plane with what looks like it could be the bedrock texture on it. Nothing else, no trees, no grass or sand, nothing except height and bedrock. And looking at the renders y'all have done i know 8 could really love this product.

    Scroll up a bit to here

    https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/7424606/#Comment_7424606

  • barbultbarbult Posts: 24,244

    DoctorJellybean said:

    beulahdroyds said:

    Does the product come with a tutorial at all? Or a guide. I bought it, but couldn't see one, and for some reason I'm really really struggling to use it. No matter what I seem to do it is just a plain displacement mapped plane with what looks like it could be the bedrock texture on it. Nothing else, no trees, no grass or sand, nothing except height and bedrock. And looking at the renders y'all have done i know 8 could really love this product.

    Scroll up a bit to here

    https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/7424606/#Comment_7424606

    Also look back at this: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/7400081/#Comment_7400081

    It's always a good idea to look though the commercial thread on a new product for tips, to avoid struggling with questions that have already been asked and answered.

  • TugpsxTugpsx Posts: 738
    edited April 2022

    As Barb pointed out earlier Press F1 and then expand plug-ins in the side bar to get access to the document

     

    USXTHint.JPG
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    USXT start location.JPG
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    Post edited by Tugpsx on
  • JOdelJOdel Posts: 6,286

    HowieFarkes said:

    JOdel said:

    Purchased it. But didn't get around to installing my last few weeks of purchased content until yesterday.

    The installer, for Mac 64bit refuses to run.It launches, but I never get a splash screen or anything beyond the program name in my menubar. 

    There was additional content, like most of the rest of the UltraScenery modules which I installed manually like the rest of them. But whatever is in that installer doesn't seem to want to come out.

    Are you using an M1 Mac? - because unfortunately UltraSceneryXT does not yet work on that platform.

    No, it's an Intel iMac running Mojave. Which was the OS that shipped in 2018. Is that likely to be the issue? It wants Catalina or newer? 

  • TotteTotte Posts: 13,967

    JOdel said:

    HowieFarkes said:

    JOdel said:

    Purchased it. But didn't get around to installing my last few weeks of purchased content until yesterday.

    The installer, for Mac 64bit refuses to run.It launches, but I never get a splash screen or anything beyond the program name in my menubar. 

    There was additional content, like most of the rest of the UltraScenery modules which I installed manually like the rest of them. But whatever is in that installer doesn't seem to want to come out.

    Are you using an M1 Mac? - because unfortunately UltraSceneryXT does not yet work on that platform.

    No, it's an Intel iMac running Mojave. Which was the OS that shipped in 2018. Is that likely to be the issue? It wants Catalina or newer? 

    I installed on MacOS 10.13 & 10.14 using DIM with no problems. I guess the issue is the stand alone installers. Check the log output to the console by the stand alone installer to find out more, they usually are pretty good at shoing why they fail.

     

  • sandmanmaxsandmanmax Posts: 992

    HowieFarkes said:

    sandmanmax said:

    Are there any snow-capped mountains in USX somewhere?  I could have sworn I've seen images like that. Every time I click on something that I think is such, it ends up just being grey rocks.  There's nothing in the Terrain Properties Material list that looks like snow.  Have I missed some more materials or settings somewhere? Or is my mind playing tricks on me and making me think the grey rocks are snow because they're so far away?

    Just getting grey rocks usually indicates that the Save Location for the Terrain Maps has been incorrectly set or not been set at all. The material requires a flow map and a cavity map that are generated by the plugin and if it can't find them then it defaults to just grey rock.

    Which presets have snow in them?

  • MelanieLMelanieL Posts: 7,384
    edited April 2022

    The "obviously" snowy ones are 06 (Chilko) and 07 (Fairweather), and to a lesser extent 01 (Vernon), 11 (Engadine), 16 (Tornetrask) and 17 (Lakeland) - but the snow is actually generated from the parameters in the terrain shader. So you can add snow to any of them by adjusting the Snowline Altitude in the shader. Here's an example of 03 (Tassili) which is normally a rocky desert, but by reducing the snowline altitude from 1000 (where it loads) to 5 I got this (maybe not a very geographically realistic scene, but snowy at least).

    (Edit to correct the list of snowy presets.)

    If you mean the Materials Presets (rather than the full presets) then none of them load with automatic snow - they just change the grass, sand and rock colours I think. Again you can make snow happen by adjust the Snow parameters.

    Snowy Tassili.jpg
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    Post edited by MelanieL on
  • barbult said:

    DoctorJellybean said:

    beulahdroyds said:

    Does the product come with a tutorial at all? Or a guide. I bought it, but couldn't see one, and for some reason I'm really really struggling to use it. No matter what I seem to do it is just a plain displacement mapped plane with what looks like it could be the bedrock texture on it. Nothing else, no trees, no grass or sand, nothing except height and bedrock. And looking at the renders y'all have done i know 8 could really love this product.

    Scroll up a bit to here

    https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/7424606/#Comment_7424606

    Also look back at this: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/7400081/#Comment_7400081

    It's always a good idea to look though the commercial thread on a new product for tips, to avoid struggling with questions that have already been asked and answered.

    Yes sorry, I have been checking in on this thread since the product was released.  I have something of a learning disability that makes sifting through large chunks of information quite difficult for me, which was making finding the right info impossible. Unfortunately when I commented I had only managed to read through to page 11 when I decided that maybe it was an issue only I was having. It turned out that the documentation section wasn't loading for me, and that's why I thought there was no guide that I could find. But after everyone's comments, I just left it up while I worked and eventually it loaded. Thank you for everyones help, I managed to get it to work and its just as great as I imagined!

  • JOdelJOdel Posts: 6,286

    Re downloded it. No problems with the replacement file. Evidently i got a wonky download the first time.

  • MelanieL said:

    The "obviously" snowy ones are 06 (Chilko) and 07 (Fairweather), and to a lesser extent 01 (Vernon), 11 (Engadine), 16 (Tornetrask) and 17 (Lakeland) - but the snow is actually generated from the parameters in the terrain shader. So you can add snow to any of them by adjusting the Snowline Altitude in the shader. Here's an example of 03 (Tassili) which is normally a rocky desert, but by reducing the snowline altitude from 1000 (where it loads) to 5 I got this (maybe not a very geographically realistic scene, but snowy at least).

    (Edit to correct the list of snowy presets.)

    If you mean the Materials Presets (rather than the full presets) then none of them load with automatic snow - they just change the grass, sand and rock colours I think. Again you can make snow happen by adjust the Snow parameters.

    Very useful tip, thank you.

    I wonder what the setting would be for snow capped mountains. I must experiment.

  • Hello folks,

    look for this: Quadspinners GAEA. Another very good landscape generator.

    QuadSpinner | Home of Gaea

    I have bought it in the Indi-Version for 99 Dollars. So: Much cheaper than world creator.

     

     

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,213
    edited April 2022

    nm
    leaving and taking my free suggested alternatives to World Builder, Gaea etc etc with me, sorry I bothered you all

    Post edited by WendyLuvsCatz on
  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,213
    edited April 2022

    blush

    Post edited by WendyLuvsCatz on
  • This started as an experiment with custom material for the Bedrock Bump Map and Bedrock Base Color Tint surface settings for the Terrain. I used Filter Forge to create them. I attached them below. You can use them for your own projects. Commercial use is OK.

    See in the gallery for all the used assets.

    Rocks03b-bump.png
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    Rocks03b-diffuse.png
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  • alexhcowleyalexhcowley Posts: 2,386

    markusmatern said:

    This started as an experiment with custom material for the Bedrock Bump Map and Bedrock Base Color Tint surface settings for the Terrain. I used Filter Forge to create them. I attached them below. You can use them for your own projects. Commercial use is OK.

    See in the gallery for all the used assets.

    Brilliant! Stunning background and a great foreground, too. 

    Cheers,

    Alex. 

  • sandmanmaxsandmanmax Posts: 992
    edited April 2022

    MelanieL said:

    The "obviously" snowy ones are 06 (Chilko) and 07 (Fairweather), and to a lesser extent 01 (Vernon), 11 (Engadine), 16 (Tornetrask) and 17 (Lakeland) - but the snow is actually generated from the parameters in the terrain shader. So you can add snow to any of them by adjusting the Snowline Altitude in the shader. Here's an example of 03 (Tassili) which is normally a rocky desert, but by reducing the snowline altitude from 1000 (where it loads) to 5 I got this (maybe not a very geographically realistic scene, but snowy at least).

    (Edit to correct the list of snowy presets.)

    If you mean the Materials Presets (rather than the full presets) then none of them load with automatic snow - they just change the grass, sand and rock colours I think. Again you can make snow happen by adjust the Snow parameters.

    Cool!!  That's what I was missing.  My Vernon now has a dusting...

    Thanks!

    Vernon with snow.png
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    Post edited by sandmanmax on
  • MelanieLMelanieL Posts: 7,384

    Looking good, sandmanmax!

  • mcorrmcorr Posts: 1,084

    WendyLuvsCatz said:

    I am an outsider looking in but it's actually DAZ you should be getting angry at not Howie for not having legacy versions of DAZ studio hosted somewhere for download since they keep breaking stuff, (for owners of hardware they don't care to support)

    I as a Windows user I need 4.11 for my GTX card to not be throttled so feel your pain, fortunately they did actually give me a download back in the day.

    Very helpful comments ... as they always are. Let me know when you are finished testing this on an M1. Thanks!

  • mcorrmcorr Posts: 1,084
    edited April 2022

    WendyLuvsCatz said:

    I am an outsider looking in but it's actually DAZ you should be getting angry at not Howie for not having legacy versions of DAZ studio hosted somewhere for download since they keep breaking stuff, (for owners of hardware they don't care to support)

    I as a Windows user I need 4.11 for my GTX card to not be throttled so feel your pain, fortunately they did actually give me a download back in the day.

    Yes, Wendy, you are an outsider looking in. Howie tested all the way back to 4.08.

    Post edited by mcorr on
  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,213
    edited April 2022

    yeah I have always felt unwelcome in these threads even though I am only looking with interest in buying it in future angry

    I best just go back to the Carrara forum and let you all be, it still works in spite of DAZ no longer supporting it

    my future will probably not be with DAZ studio anyway, it's only for people with high end hardware 

    deleted all my previous posts here

    for daveso, just the body and put NM, in this thread for a product I don't have yet, not others, and not adding another post replying wink

    I don't always follow protocol and post renders using the products in their threads, in fact I do the opposite, I rarely post renders of products in their threads

    I ask about products in their threads, once I buy them I don't usually post on them at all unless there is an issue, my platform is YouTube not this forum

    Post edited by WendyLuvsCatz on
  • davesodaveso Posts: 7,009

    WendyLuvsCatz said:

    yeah I have always felt unwelcome in these threads even though I am only looking with interest in buying it in future angry

    I best just go back to the Carrara forum and let you all be, it still works in spite of DAZ no longer supporting it

    my future will probably not be with DAZ studio anyway, it's only for people with high end hardware 

    deleted all my previous posts here

    how did you delete them all. I tried and had to delete each body of text but the post was still there with a dot in the body as it demanded something be in it. Sorry to see you leave here though as I like what you say.  

  • AnEye4ArtAnEye4Art Posts: 766
    edited April 2022

    It took a while to get fair and honest feedback from other Worldcreator users and it's been determained that the heightmap banding is on Daz3D's side. Other worldcreator users are not getting banding from heightmaps in other 3D apps. I don't use other 3D apps besides Daz but I'm guessing a 16 bit 4098x4098 heightmap, in another 3D app, is not compressed before use. So I hope soon to see an option to use higher resolution heightmaps and, an option for higher resolution terrains won't hurt either..

    Post edited by AnEye4Art on
  • @AnEye4Art

    For me your problem with the banding seems to occur if

    your heightmap is not 16 bit. Or 24bit.

    In this case there are only 256 steps of height. Which is not enough.

    Its not a problem of the resolution of the heightmap. Or DAZ3D. Or Ultrascenery.

     

     

     

     

  • TotteTotte Posts: 13,967
    edited April 2022

    As DAZ Studio does not support 16 bit greyscale images, only 8 bit, bandit is an issue.

    Post edited by Totte on
  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 100,902
    edited April 2022

    Totte said:

    As DAZ Studio does not support 16 bit greyscale images, only 8 bit, bandit is an issue.

    Daz Studio itself imports 16 bit images - most displacement maps are 16 bit. Daz Studio has been able to import 16 bit images from the outset, as far as I can recall.

    Post edited by Richard Haseltine on
  • AnEye4ArtAnEye4Art Posts: 766

    Totte said:

    As DAZ Studio does not support 16 bit greyscale images, only 8 bit, bandit is an issue.

    Daz Studio itself imports 16 bit images - most displacement maps are 16 bit. Daz Studio has been able to import 16 bit images from the outset, as far as I can recall.

    Yeah. But the issue that I'm having is with USXT not Daz.
  • HowieFarkesHowieFarkes Posts: 607
    edited April 2022

    Richard Haseltine said:

    Totte said:

    As DAZ Studio does not support 16 bit greyscale images, only 8 bit, bandit is an issue.

    Daz Studio itself imports 16 bit images - most displacement maps are 16 bit. Daz Studio has been able to import 16 bit images from the outset, as far as I can recall.

    Daz Studio may be able to - but I haven’t yet found anything exposed in the SDK API that enables a plug-in to access this so I have to use the image and file loading capabilities of QT 4.8 - which does not support 16bit images

    Post edited by HowieFarkes on
  • AnEye4ArtAnEye4Art Posts: 766
    edited April 2022
    This is disappointing. I had no idea Daz was so far behind in development. Using heightmaps in USXT worked well and was the main draw for me. I just can't accept the banding.
    Post edited by AnEye4Art on
  • Oso3DOso3D Posts: 15,011

    I used heightmaps from World Creator without problems.

    I just made sure to reduce them to 1024 8 bit png first.

  • HowieFarkes said:

    Richard Haseltine said:

    Totte said:

    As DAZ Studio does not support 16 bit greyscale images, only 8 bit, bandit is an issue.

    Daz Studio itself imports 16 bit images - most displacement maps are 16 bit. Daz Studio has been able to import 16 bit images from the outset, as far as I can recall.

    Daz Studio may be able to - but I haven’t yet found anything exposed in the SDK API that enables a plug-in to access this so I have to use the image and file loading capabilities of QT 4.8 - which does not support 16bit images

     

    Hmm... but if i load one of the three png-pictures ultrascenery generates in a graficprogram

    it shows me, that the pictures are in 24bit !!!  The heightmap in 1024 resolution, the cavity and

    flowmap in 2048 resolution.

     

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