The more I use Nature Terrain Generator, the more I realize that it's an incredible, wonderful tool that was not quite ready for release.  I'll put aside for the the issue that when morphing tiles it is ridiculously easy for the tiled surface to suffer terrible tears where they should have remained connected.  It's annoying having to scan every seam from every angle just to make sure there are no tears, and then do it again after fixing the tears to make sure the fix did not open a new tear.
Anyhow, my real issue involves generating large terrains.  I need a 20x20 surface, which is just 80 meters on a side, not excessively large for an area for character exploration.  My generation ran for four hours before I gave up and killed it.  I do wish there were a progress bar!  So I figured I'd just do four 10x10 surfaces and stitch them together.  I was happy when my first 10x10 took just 8 minutes to generate.  I slid it 4000 units left to get it out of the way and then tried to generate a second 10x10.  An hour later it was still humming away, and when I clicked on the screen to see if it was still alive (Windows called it unresponsive), iClone just vanished, a total crash.

So, is there an upper limit?  Is it illegal to generate a second terrain when there is already one in the project?  Is this just yet another NTG bug?  Do you suppose the developer has any plans for fixing this highly promising program?  This is so frustrating!

I'm no expert on it but first things first.

First of all, make sure there are NO other objects in your scene.  iClone has a terrible problem when objects in a scene get over a few dozen, and in particular it will manifest itself when running Python programs.  So you should be starting from a completely brand new project to generate your terrain - you can always add other things later after you merge the surfaces.

Now - as to that.  After you generate your first piece of ground, make sure you do merge all the pieces.  IOW, go into your scene manager, select them all, modify/detach, then merge them all together as one accessory.  Okay, now you should only have the one object in your scene (this won't allow you to modify it anymore, so make sure you get it looking how you like it first.  Now generate the next piece.

If you have problems even with that, save that one piece out as an accessory, delete it and start with a blank scene again, and start again.  Now, if you need to modify the various elements you may have to be create - let's say you want the edges of each new piece to be able to be modded so you can join them properly.  Okay, then just merge the interior pieces and save them as one piece, and then save and merge each edge as you generate and shape it.  

Hopefully that all makes sense - if not, I can make a video showing the process.  Again, it's a PITA, but I suspect it's (partly? mostly?) due to this being a Python script AND iClone not dealing well with dozens of objects.  But you can work around those limitations.

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Alienware Aurora R16, Win 11, i9-149000KF, 3.20GHz CPU, 64GB RAM, RTX 4090 (24GB), Samsung 870 Pro 8TB, Gen3 MVNe M-2 SSD, 4TBx2, 39" Alienware Widescreen Monitor
Mike "ex-genius" Kelley

Thanks for all that advice.  I guess you are saying it's more likely a problem with iClone rather than NTG?

I've been using your third suggestion to get around the problem.  I just generate a quarter of my terrain, tweak it to perfection, merge, save, delete, do the next quarter, etc.
The problem is that I really wanted to see my ENTIRE terrain when I make the topography.  Now I have to visualize the other parts as I generate a part.  It's a nuisance, but I guess I have to live with it, perhaps for a very long time.

Thanks for all that advice.  I guess you are saying it's more likely a problem with iClone rather than NTG?

I've been using your third suggestion to get around the problem.  I just generate a quarter of my terrain, tweak it to perfection, merge, save, delete, do the next quarter, etc.
The problem is that I really wanted to see my ENTIRE terrain when I make the topography.  Now I have to visualize the other parts as I generate a part.  It's a nuisance, but I guess I have to live with it, perhaps for a very long time.

I did some work with the Nature Terrain Generator.
The best size for me was 100 planes. More then 100 planes kills the framerate.
For me the quickest way to start is:

-Create a new group 5x5, subdivision 64x64, 4K (it takes about 10 seconds)



- Select the 25 planes and use Ctrl+move  and snap them with Ctrl+M



- Do this 2x again. (choose your own direction)



-Now you have 100 planes. It takes me less then 5 minutes and iClone can handle this without problems.

Working with 100 planes means you have to scale your plants, trees characters etc. to 30-50%

Keep in mind Kelleytoons' good tips.

It's now time for you to create hills, water etc.:):):)

Best Regards,
Arie

Kellytoons - Well, my 'toy problem' approach worked, but as soon as I scaled it up to the size I needed, iClone crashes.  I have to admit ignorance on one thing you said:
"go into your scene manager, select them all, modify/detach, then merge them all together as one accessory."
I'm afraid I've never done that, and don't have a clue how to do it.  When I select them all and go to the Modify menu, all I see is 'Convert to terrain' which quickly crashes iClone, and some other things that seem inappropriate.  Can you please be a little more specific, or direct me to a topic in the manual.  Thanks!

Arie - Thanks for that detailed response!

I did what you did and got exactly your result.  But now I have a mystery.
I selected all tiles and converted them to terrain, and it went perfectly.
Here's the mystery, and it's absolutely repeatable, not a one-time fluke
If I create a 9x9 in one shot I have 81 tiles, fewer than your 100.  But when I select them all and convert to terrain, iClone goes nuts (empty spaces, some in the scene list having physics, some not, etc.) and then it does a hard crash.

So... Why does getting 100 tiles your way convert to terrain just fine, while getting 81, fewer, crashes iClone every time when I convert to terrain?

Tim

Arie - Thanks for that detailed response!

I did what you did and got exactly your result.  But now I have a mystery.
I selected all tiles and converted them to terrain, and it went perfectly.
Here's the mystery, and it's absolutely repeatable, not a one-time fluke
If I create a 9x9 in one shot I have 81 tiles, fewer than your 100.  But when I select them all and convert to terrain, iClone goes nuts (empty spaces, some in the scene list having physics, some not, etc.) and then it does a hard crash.

So... Why does getting 100 tiles your way convert to terrain just fine, while getting 81, fewer, crashes iClone every time when I convert to terrain?

Tim

If you have it working that's fine.

What I was talking about is if you select the master prop and choose "Merge Subprop" it will merge all sub props to the master, creating just one prop.

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Alienware Aurora R16, Win 11, i9-149000KF, 3.20GHz CPU, 64GB RAM, RTX 4090 (24GB), Samsung 870 Pro 8TB, Gen3 MVNe M-2 SSD, 4TBx2, 39" Alienware Widescreen Monitor
Mike "ex-genius" Kelley

I think you also selected the box (Group) when you converted the planes to terrain.
Then you get this result.



When you don't select the box (Group) and convert only the planes to terrain it will be ok and the box remains a prop. You can make this prop invisible.



Wait with convert to terrain till you have finished the whole scene. (Once it's a terrain you can't change the terrain).