Horo's Terrain Editor Filter Recipes

David Brinnen · May 2015

Since Horo has added the facility to record the steps taken with his Terrain Editor filter program. TE-Filters. It seems like the next logical step to share some of the results. This one created these squares, a bit like pixelisation effect, but with better transitions. The starting point was two 4096 x 4096 terrains, one a lava field t3_1 and the second an eroded valley t3_2 the result t3_3 is rendered below to show off the little squares. What follows is the recipe as recorded by Horo's software. Nothing very complicated as you can see, but it suffices as a test.

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Recording started 2015:05:14 09:29:27

Horo · May 2015

Oh I like this "blocky" terrain, very cool. Just a second short of 3 minutes. Thank you for testing.

Fishtales · May 2015

Very nice. The Giants Causeway or Fingals Cave jump to mind on seeing that :-)

CTippetts · May 2015

That reminds me of debris from fallen Basalt pillars created by lava flows, such as these at Sheepeater Cliff in Yellowstone. I took this picture in 2010.

David Brinnen · May 2015

CTippetts said:
That reminds me of debris from fallen Basalt pillars created by lava flows, such as these at Sheepeater Cliff in Yellowstone. I took this picture in 2010.

Impressive. How big were those chunks then? It is a bit difficult to guess the scale.

Here's another little test/recipe. I used t4_1 alpine valleys 4096 x 4096 and t4_2 which was t4_1 eroded once in Bryce.

Here's the first recording then.

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Recording started 2015:05:15 09:26:58

Loading this into Bryce I found I'd accidentally generated a thin wall around the terrain. So I reloaded the result back into Horo's filter program and processed it a bit more.

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Recording started 2015:05:15 09:47:17

mermaid010 · May 2015

These renders are so cool David. Thanks for sharing your recorded text, I will try them.

Rashad Carter · May 2015

Filter program? I'm so behind the times. What are we talking about here?

CTippetts · May 2015

David Brinnen said:

Impressive. How big were those chunks then? It is a bit difficult to guess the scale.

-EDIT-

Here's another shot that shows the scale better. It includes the ground area trampled by gawking tourists, um, which I was one of. The Ponderosa and Fir Pines should help you with the scale, if not the brush on the ground. The pillars are between one and three feet thick. The chunks are about eight to fifteen inches thick. The cliff is about 50 to 70 feet high, but basalt pillars can be hundreds of feet high ... depends on how thick the lava flow was. (Um, I'll let you translate those numbers into your British meters, but I'm posting this hoping they might get translated into BU's.) This lava flow happened about half a million years ago. As the lava cools, and the rock contracts, the mostly hexagonal columns form. Even columns hundreds of feet high are still between one and three feet thick. This cliff got its name from a band of Eastern Shoshone Indians know as the Tukuaduka, which means "those who eat sheep". Oddly, it was not sheep, but Bison they used this cliff to heard to their death for food, clothing, and housing material as recently as 180 years ago.

That new render sure strikes me as an impact crater, (pun intended). Nicely done. Great program, that TE Filter.

@Horo - Nice job. Good work.

Fencepost52 · May 2015

Horo's working on some new terrain filters for Bryce and making us all salivate until they hit the DAZ shop! My adrenaline goes up just thinking about it! LOL

Horo · May 2015

Rashad Carter said:
Filter program? I'm so behind the times. What are we talking about here?
Oh, a simple piece of software that handles 1024, 2048 and 4096 terrains out of Bryce a bit faster than the TE - and it can also tile 16 1024 terrains to a 4096 one, but it's slow, taking almost a second. It might to work for Carrara, too.

Horo's working on some new terrain filters for Bryce and making us all salivate until they hit the DAZ shop! My adrenaline goes up just thinking about it! LOL

Better start saving, man. ;-P

Fencepost52 · May 2015

Horo said:
it can also tile 16 1024 terrains to a 4096 one, but it's slow, taking almost a second.
Yeah, that's too slow. If you can't get it down to less than a second, I'll have to reconsider! LOL

Better start saving, man. ;-P

I've already applied for a loan! :)

Rashad Carter · May 2015

Horo said:
Rashad Carter said:
Filter program? I'm so behind the times. What are we talking about here?
Oh, a simple piece of software that handles 1024, 2048 and 4096 terrains out of Bryce a bit faster than the TE - and it can also tile 16 1024 terrains to a 4096 one, but it's slow, taking almost a second. It might to work for Carrara, too.

Horo's working on some new terrain filters for Bryce and making us all salivate until they hit the DAZ shop! My adrenaline goes up just thinking about it! LOL

Better start saving, man. ;-P

Interesting. Is it a plug-in for Bryce or a fully standalone product?

One of the things I struggle with the most with Bryce is with importing height maps. No matter what bit depth I use I seem to almost always end up with these distracting "steps." The only solution is to soften the terrain but then detail is lost and further the map is indeed changed in pixel ranges. If your app is fully stand alone then I assume you have found a reliable import procedure that gets around the stair step issue?

Either way, this looks very compelling and it could well be one of those tools I've always wished for. Best of luck and I look forward to seeing it in action.

Horo · May 2015

@Rashad - stand-alone. You can export terrains out of the TE (or any software that creates Bryce-compatible height maps), then import the processed image back to Bryce.

The issues you report when importing height maps into Bryce is probably that those height maps are not 16 bit TIFF but RGB 24 bit, which is only 8 bit grey. The result are steps because there are only 256 discrete steps from black to white. Bryce exports - and can import - 16 bit grey-scale TIFF, but not 48 bit RGB TIFFs. There are not many 16 bit grey capable graphics applications around because the 16 bits cannot be displayed in the full brightness resolution. You can't see the difference 8 - 16 - 32 - 64 bit grey-scale on a computer monitor, all look like 8 bit.

HDRShop can read 16 bit grey-scale TIFFs, but not those that come out of Bryce 7.0 and newer because the image file directory in the file header is flawed. However, terrains exported from Bryce 6.0 and 6.1 work fine with HDRShop. Save it as 96 bit TIFF or HDR. I have a free tool on my website (TIFF4816) that converts 96 bit to 16 bit for the TE.

EDIT: You can also make use of the Import RAW option in HDRShop to load a flawed IFD TIFF from Bryce TE that is refused as TIFF. Set the sizes, the Header to 2758, Unsigned 16 bit and Monochrome. A white image is displayed. Go down about 15 to 20 EVs and you see it. This one you can save as Floating Point TIFF or Radiance and convert with the TIFF4816 program.

David Brinnen · May 2015

Very interesting cliff that... OK here's another example/test.

t5_1 a 4096 x 4096 Plant X procedrual terrain. t5_2 = t5_1 eroded once. And t5_3 some basic noise.

During the making of this I did run into a Bryce bug that Horo has documented in his accompanying pdf and his fix did work.

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Recording started 2015:05:16 11:38:43

vivien · May 2015

David - Thank you for sharing the steps to the filters. The terrains look great

Horo - Waiting in anticipation for your filter program

bigh · May 2015

still looks like a Bryce to me .

Fishtales · May 2015

bigh said:
still looks like a Bryce to me .

Why shouldn't it? Every program has its 'look' but only if if it is looked for :) Put the images from any number of 3D programs together and get someone who doesn't do 3D to look at them and they would be hard pressed to say they were made in different programmes. Surely it is the overall effect that is looked for and not the individual programme ones.

David Brinnen · May 2015

t6_1 and t6_3 Warped Ridges at 4096 x 4096 t6_2 Mud cracks eroded once.

The recipe used,

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Recording started 2015:05:17 19:44:44

The result.

CTippetts · May 2015

@David Brinnen - Wow! They're getting better. Would it be possible to see what these terrains would have rendered to under the same lighting and such BEFORE the TE Filter program?

David Brinnen · May 2015

CTippetts said:
@David Brinnen - Wow! They're getting better. Would it be possible to see what these terrains would have rendered to under the same lighting and such BEFORE the TE Filter program?

Yes.

So here we have, in order,

t6_1
t6_2
t6_3

And the final result of the filtering and combination of these three terrains.

David Brinnen · May 2015

In this scene I've kept it simple and used just one terrain. You get a before and after. So the source is 4096 x 4096 slickrock. t7_1 And the result is t7_2

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Recording started 2015:05:18 09:16:07

mermaid010 · May 2015

David these renders are awesome.

David Brinnen · May 2015

mermaid010 said:
David these renders are awesome.

Thank you.

t8_1 = 4096 x 4096 warped zorch
t8_2 = result of filtering.

recipe

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Recording started 2015:05:19 17:28:17

CTippetts · May 2015

@David Brinnen - Thank you! The "before and after" makes the script to get there much more meaningful. Beautiful results.

@Horo - TE Filter ... GREAT enhancement to Bryce!

Horo · May 2015

@vivien1 - it may still take a fortnight ot twice as long.

@CTippetts - thank you. Warning: works from Bryce 6.0 onwards. Earlier Bryce versions cannot export height maps.

@David - awesome terrains. You go about it completely different than I do, which is enlighting. Of course, the terrain shape is important, but the material applied to it and the lighting equally so.

mermaid010 · May 2015

Horo said:

@David - awesome terrains. You go about it completely different than I do, which is enlighting. Of course, the terrain shape is important, but the material applied to it and the lighting equally so.

I was going to say the same thing.

I tried one of David’s Recipes post #17 the one with the Warped Ridges and Mudcracks but not all his steps and here’s the results.

I think it makes a nice cascade.

The Animated Cascade.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/504192120760103870/

David Brinnen · May 2015

Thanks guys, well it's more aggregate moving 8000kg (4.5meters^3) today but this program is keeps pulling me back in to experiment.

t9_1 4096x4096 cauliflower hills

t9_2 the result

First render the starting point, the second the result from the same position and the third using the wide angle lens.

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Recording started 2015:05:20 16:55:43

Dan Whiteside · May 2015

Really like all these but I especially like the wide angle lens image.

CTippetts · May 2015

Horo said:

@CTippetts - thank you. Warning: works from Bryce 6.0 onwards. Earlier Bryce versions cannot export height maps.

Using Bryce 5.5 on my old Windows XP SP2 machine, I have always simply gone into the terrain editor, and done a CTRL-C to copy the terrain data, and then paste it into other art applications for modifications. Is that not possible with the TE Filter program? Can you not "paste" into it?

Slepalex · May 2015

CTippetts said:
Horo said:

@CTippetts - thank you. Warning: works from Bryce 6.0 onwards. Earlier Bryce versions cannot export height maps.

Using Bryce 5.5 on my old Windows XP SP2 machine, I have always simply gone into the terrain editor, and done a CTRL-C to copy the terrain data, and then paste it into other art applications for modifications. Is that not possible with the TE Filter program? Can you not "paste" into it?

Confirmed! No problem with the export of the height map in any version.

Horo · May 2015

@CTippetts - correct, you can CTRL-C the terrain and get a 8 bit greyscale image with 256 shades of grey. Exported terrains from bryce 6 onwards are 16 bit greyscale images with 65,536 shades of gray.

Because the graphics card sports only 24 bit colour, which is 8 bit for each colour red, green and blue, there are also only 8 bit for grey. You cannot see the difference of 8 bit grey, 16 bit grey, 32 bit grey (HDR) and 64 bit grey (GeoTIFF) because the screen cannot display it.

Below a terrain drawn completely white and Gaussian Edges applied with one click. At left, Ctrl-C and opened in Photoshop. At right, exported as TIFF. The insets at the low border look the same.

The images imported as terrains show the difference: 8 bit, the CTRL-C'ed, and 16 bit exported. The terrain sizes are both X/Y/Z 81.82/40.96/81.92 and the resolution is 512.

TE-Filters was made for 16 bit greyscale brecause only a few and usually expensive graphics application can handle them. The CTRL-C'ed 8 bit greyscales can be read by all graphics programs and saved as 24 bit colour and these can be imported into the Bryce TE.

Bryce versions prior 6.0 cannot import 16 bit greyscale images. When done from the Elevation tab in the TE, it is just ignored (very helpful) and when loading from the Pictures tab, an error message pops up. The minimum requirement for the filters program is Win 2000, 256 MB RAM, Bryce 6.0.

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Horo's Terrain Editor Filter Recipes

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