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light map water effects

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light map water effects

Postby boblanders » Thu Mar 26, 2015 8:59 am

so ive read whats on http://www.bundysoft.com/docs/doku.php? ... n_by_water but the only explanation of what the coefficient value actually is, or what changing it will do is by following links on the algorithm page that may as well have been in some other language since i dont have any of the required background knowledge needed to understand most of what is explained in that link. im trying to make it so that the water isn't transparent at all until a depth of about 3-5 meters and im not sure how i can achieve this affect (on the final satellite texture, of course i can edit it after exporting but that would require me to redo it every time i regenerate the textures/light map)
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Re: light map water effects

Postby Aaron » Fri Mar 27, 2015 1:47 pm

Hi Boblanders,

I apologise for that documentation; it is a little needlessly complex.

Before I complicate things further, can I ask whether
  1. you want the water in the output texture to look like an overhead view of the surface of the water, or;
  2. you want the water in the output texture to look like the colour of the seafloor under the water?

Regards,
Aaron.
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Re: light map water effects

Postby boblanders » Sat Mar 28, 2015 4:35 pm

a. you want the water in the output texture to look like an overhead view of the surface of the water, or;

this
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Re: light map water effects

Postby Aaron » Wed Apr 01, 2015 1:26 pm

Hi Boblanders,

Oh dear, I was kind of hoping you wouldn't pick that one.

L3DT doesn't calculate the texture of the surface of the water. The reason for this is that L3DT was mainly designed around supporting 3D game engines, which usually render the terrain and the water as two separate objects with their own textures, so it's not been necessary or desirable to bake the water surface onto the terrain texture. These game engines often have their own water renderers that include dynamic wave modelling, reflection mapping, and other nice effects, which look much better than could possibly be achieved by pre-calculating the water surface in L3DT or elsewhere.

The intended purpose of the water modelling in L3DT is only to accurately calculate the colour and brightness of the light on the seafloor (i.e. at the terrain surface) after it has passed through the water column above. As an example, the first image below shows the light intensity at the seafloor from the L3DT texture:

HF-WM.jpg
Terrain mesh only


The second image (below) shows what happens in very simple game engines when you add a flat water plane mesh over the top of the terrain, with a simple semi-transparent wavy texture image. Real game engines do nicer effects, but you get the idea. The surface is separate to the terrain, so the surface has a separate texture image.

HF+WM.jpg
Terrain and water meshes


In summary, the surface of the water has historically been a renderer/game engine problem, rather than something that is calculated by L3DT. I tend to think this is still the right way to do things for the majority of users. That said, it is possible for a plugin to be written to bake the water surface onto the texture map, and I will be more than happy to assist should any developer want to try writing such a plugin.

Best regards,
Aaron.
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