I've watched the tutorial for creating a height map terrain a few times.

The tutorial has mistakes and it needs to be altered, abolished or a least redone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxA6gPnc2Ew&list=PLNV5zSFadPdmQC68zZGcKERxgU9TgxYdx&index=3

When you go into earth sculptor to create a height map terrain the speaker works through the processes as if you are going to create a height map terrain.. Whoops in about the 4:40 minute he imports an already created height map terrain. So is this a creation of a height map from a height map.

Also, there are no references in the video how to export your files for them to become a height map terrain accessible in iclone.

Yes, you can export to iclone as vns file, then you convert go to set/import the vns file/ right click on it an choose add to terrain. So where do you go from there..? You can click on terrain, in the header bar, but it means nothing. You go back to set/prop and you can save the file as a prop. You still have no height map terrain creation that is accessible as such.

So, at what point does it become a height map terrain?

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Yes, I can get the Earth Sculptor imported into my iclone, but I can't edit the resultant file.
The textures don't render as I created them in Earth Sculptor, and the quality is basically not acceptable.

The Earth sculptor has been a pain for so many for so long. Everytime I get involved to build some sets...I just give it up and buy some terrain.

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There have been some pretty good explanations, but about the time you get into one the author will change from earth sculptor to Bryce, or some other program. There is no explanation of how to manage the files, by that I mean what to save when, where, or as what from Earth Sculptor.

If you don't enable or disable some features in earth sculptor your final views stink as well.

IMO, the Earth Sculptor tutors need a good rework, and every detail should be carefully articulated. Creating a Height map should be from scratch, not by loading a previous height map that was created by "who" or "how".

I remember reading a long-winded explanation and UV was all the talk. I can understand the tiling effects might save some resources, but that is after the fact. The basics of how to get the earth scultor project into iclone for modification of UV or whatever to produce high quality terrain or height map terrain is not explained.

My experience has been with live video, with live scenery, etc. When I stepped into this animation world it has been a rocky road. I never built a terrain, a height map, etc. in all my experience.

One thing I have learned... you don't go and buy something else to solve your problems. That is just a recipe for further confusion.

Reallusion needs to be proactive and provide very careful articulation and tutoring of Earth Sculptor for use with iclone. It should be a RL project, because on the forums you get so many different approaches and referrals to other ways to do things, including other softwares.
I would like finally understand the Earth Sculptor, how to create the files, how to use the files, how to import into iclone, how to create the height map files that are accessible within iclone.

There is 3 tutorial about Iclone:

iClone 5 Tutorial - Introduction to Height Map Terrains in iClone

iClone 5 Tutorial - Creating a Height Map Terrain for iClone

iClone 5 Tutorial - Enhancing your Height Map Terrain Environment

I think all is explain to create from earthsculptor but if it is not for you I can make a quick
tut but next week du to my job ;-)

Yes you are correct... the second video you mention is the one I have linked above.

Creating a height map image would seem pretty simple. Just create it and save it in the Earth Sculptor maps folder. Oops, you can do that...but how do you get it into iclone where it can be loaded and edited through the modify height map panel?

I may just be stumbling all over myself, and have missed the way it is done. I carefully watched the video you mentioned and that is where I picked up on the bit about create an height map image file , by loading an height map image file bit. LOL

Anyway, I mentioned RL fixing this bit, but that may be a long time coming. The best tutors for the path and motions are not from RL, but ilcone users.

The answer to this might just elusive to me. I created a nice 1024x1024 terrain with 4 textures and saved it in the maps folder. Yep, there it is in the folder along with the additional png files that it should have produced.

Yes, I can export as *.vns to iclone and load via set/prop, right click and attach to terrain.
Then I can click on the header bar for terrain. I can save as Terrain, but it still doesn't load as *.iterrain height map. In other words, I am failing to create a file/s that I can load into the iclone height map modifiy panel and edit it as decribed. Yes, the file has *.iterrain suffix as well, but the modify height map panel is not accessible.

I found a video by NL2012 where he used Carrara to create a terrain image map and import the files into iclone.

I won't try to explain, because I could not do it as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_AlabvKbt4

I'm not sure, if I had not seen this video I would gotten it. I just would not have thought to load in a blank terrain and then use the modify tools to bring in the terrain I created.

Anyway, I will play with this method and do some trial and error. I don't have Carrara, and I will be using Earth Sculptor.

Thanks NL2012

Hi, Iclones new terrain heightmap quality is really good now and all it needs is the 512 x 512 height map image file and the texture mask map which defines the different  material. The mask is really important for getting the right look of terrain with different materials on slopes or different heights. I also use a higher resolution mask map and make sure its blured a bit to soften the material change

When you have these 2 you can play about with the 4 terrain materials in Iclone which can be anything but best to to be seamless patterns with good normal map for bump texture and these can be scaled to get high detail close up, but be careful of showing a pattern.

Earth sculptor should output this mask map, but I'm not sure how it exports materials. but materials can be any image and bump map etc.  I assume its the transfer of the textures from ES that your not happy with.

I have Bryce and Carrara so I made a way to output the mask from them ( the height map is a straight export from these) I created a pack for sale in market place with 10 ready made Iclone terrains with materials and also there are included the Bryce7 and Carrara scene files and shaders for creating the correct maps for your own designs. There are guides explaining how to do it easily.

Also the setting for terrain smoothness in Iclone should be 1 or 2 to keep more height map detail. I think Iclone 5.5  has to be used aswell for the 512 x 512 heightmaps.

Hope this helps.

 

http://city.reallusion.com/ContentPreview.aspx?i=JICc5ef209366c6420e5

[img] 

  

I appreciate your response.

This weekend I plan to spend more time and learn a great deal more about height map creation.

I plan to stay with Earth Sculptor until reasonably sure I know it well enough to produce quality terrain.

What I do is starting out with Earth Sculptor. I like it because I find the sculpting very intuitive compared to something like Bryce (but that's me...).

You have four materials to distribute over your terrain. Recently, I was creating a beach, so I had sand, some rocks, some greenery, etc.

I then export the maps from Earth Sculptor. There are two maps: one grey-scale map for the height of the terrain and a second map (called a masking map I believe) that will assign the various materials to different parts of the terrain. It's easy to recognize this map because it will have black, red, blue, and green areas, with each differently-colored area corresponding to a different material.

Once the two maps are brought into iClone, you can adjust the height and the level of the terrain. Then you have the option to replace the materials with better ones (the one from Earth Sculptor are not that good).

There is a way to edit the masking maps, but it is not easy because they are saved in a special way. When you open a mask map in a regular graphics editor, you don't see the colors but mostly a white image.

I have been able to recreate those maps correctly a while ago using a regular editor. One of these days I'll write down the steps. The reason to do this is that it allows you to create a terrain that includes streets and paths, which needs to be laid out more precisely than is doable in Earth Sculptor.

The textures here are grass, pavement, sand/dirt, and darker dirt/rock.

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Here's a how-to on creating the mask in Photoshop. You can use any editor that supports PNG. The layers make it easier. Whether or not you use Earth Sculptor, this will help you understand the whole process a little better.

http://www.forgottenplanet.com/creating-height-and-material-masking-maps-for-iclone-5-5-using-photoshop/

You mention export... are you exporting as *.vns, *.obj or using blank template under terrain/height map and loading the height map *.png file to bring in the map? As you mention in the following



Sometimes you do see then RGB black/white. That appears to be related the textures as you apply them horizontally in the detail texture of Earth Sculptor., i.e., the Red in the maks is the first texture to the left and so on.



You mention a regular editor.. I'm not sure I know what that means, since there are all kinds of editors.



This is an important paragraph, because proper placement of streets and paths within the terrain saves a great deal of time in production. You mention this isn't doable with Earth Sculptor.

It is discouraging to read "isn't doable with Earth Sculptor". I say that because I am always thinking about the movement of props and characters along these streets and paths as I build the terrain. Even if my results in Earth Sculptor don't produce best quality I do save alot of time. I pay attention proper heights, of the street turns and elevation changes in the creation of the terrain instead of trying to use more cumbersome methods after the terrain is already built.

Maybe you could explain abit more about the "isn't doable with Earth Scultor".

These images are really excellent renders of scenes. Are you using Earth Sculptor in these?

Here is a link to a video by Cricky, which is very good explanation of masking and height map.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eh2W4Smxw2g

He is using iclone and photoshop, which helps with my mindset.