UltraScenery - new(er) territory [Commercial]

richardandtracy

Really clever, Barbult. Thanks for sharing.

Regards,

Richard

MelanieL

barbult said:

This scene evolved over several days. I was frustrated by not having any water terrains for UltraScenery2, other than the skinny rivers, so I made one by taking River 1 and making a big "lake" in the middle. I took one of the Oaks ecologies and changed the Oaks to trees from the Tree Pack 1. Then the Waterfall Builder was released, so I wanted to use some of those features. Rather than a waterfall, I wanted to try rapids where the river dumps into the lake. So I just used some boulders and rocks and mist etc. from the Waterfall package and a couple water splashes from something else.  Then I added a couple cows and a few birds and borrowed the fence from the UltraScenery1 road feature mentioned by Fae3D.

By the way, those waterfall elements use some 8K textures. That is drastic overkill for a distant scene like this. I used Scene Optimizer to reduce them a lot.

Great scene!

But OK, I have to ask: how?
I understood how to create new features (by hacking existing ones) in USC1 but have not yet worked out how to tweak USC2.  

Elor

barbult said:

In the Scene pane context menu (hamburger menu with4 lines), select Show Hidden Nodes. The fence is in the Feature Props group.

Oh, I didn't know I could do that and with the nodes visible, I can now replace the missing USC1 objects once a new scene have been created :)

barbult

MelanieL said:

barbult said:

This scene evolved over several days. I was frustrated by not having any water terrains for UltraScenery2, other than the skinny rivers, so I made one by taking River 1 and making a big "lake" in the middle. I took one of the Oaks ecologies and changed the Oaks to trees from the Tree Pack 1. Then the Waterfall Builder was released, so I wanted to use some of those features. Rather than a waterfall, I wanted to try rapids where the river dumps into the lake. So I just used some boulders and rocks and mist etc. from the Waterfall package and a couple water splashes from something else.  Then I added a couple cows and a few birds and borrowed the fence from the UltraScenery1 road feature mentioned by Fae3D.

By the way, those waterfall elements use some 8K textures. That is drastic overkill for a distant scene like this. I used Scene Optimizer to reduce them a lot.

Great scene!

But OK, I have to ask: how?
I understood how to create new features (by hacking existing ones) in USC1 but have not yet worked out how to tweak USC2.  

It's basically the same technique. I took an existing terrain, made a copy of the folder, and made new height maps for it by modifying the existing ones. You have to change the names of the files in the folder and edit the info and properties files to reference your new files. For the ecology, I did a similar technique and edited the file to replace the Oak trees with trees from Tree Pack 1. You can find the terrain and ecology folders in your library folder in data\HowieFarkes\UltraScenery2\Presets. When you are done, you can render or screenshot new preview, thumb and tip files for your new terrain or ecology. "Hacking" is for personal use, since it is all derivative of the original purchased product files.

MelanieL

barbult said:

MelanieL said:

barbult said:

This scene evolved over several days. ...

Great scene!

But OK, I have to ask: how?
I understood how to create new features (by hacking existing ones) in USC1 but have not yet worked out how to tweak USC2.  

It's basically the same technique. I took an existing terrain, made a copy of the folder, and made new height maps for it by modifying the existing ones. You have to change the names of the files in the folder and edit the info and properties files to reference your new files. For the ecology, I did a similar technique and edited the file to replace the Oak trees with trees from Tree Pack 1. You can find the terrain and ecology folders in your library folder in data\HowieFarkes\UltraScenery2\Presets. When you are done, you can render or screenshot new preview, thumb and tip files for your new terrain or ecology. "Hacking" is for personal use, since it is all derivative of the original purchased product files.

I wonder why I got the impression it was more complex for USC2 features and ecologies? I thought I had taken a look at some released files and been unable to work it out. Maybe I was just too tired and should try earlier in the day! 

Thank you for your reply.  

ETA: Oh and it didn't help that I lost all my modified USC1 files when I had to reinstall DS and all my content after a PC wipe while being fixed. Next time I'll make sure I backup those hand-modded files on an external drive.

barbult

MelanieL said:

I wonder why I got the impression it was more complex for USC2 features and ecologies? I thought I had taken a look at some released files and been unable to work it out. Maybe I was just too tired and should try earlier in the day! 

Thank you for your reply.  

ETA: Oh and it didn't help that I lost all my modified USC1 files when I had to reinstall DS and all my content after a PC wipe while being fixed. Next time I'll make sure I backup those hand-modded files on an external drive.

The files are a little different than USC1, but if you are just modifying maps or swapping props, it is not much different. If you want to change more than that, you will need to investigate a bit more. Give it a try. I probably made at least a dozen mistakes before getting it to work right. Most were just dumb typos or needing to make a filename change in one more place. (I did it late, when I was tired, too. Probably better not to do that!)