How to texture and render terrain and landscapes -

[antonio0x]

Hello friends:

I am specifically interested in learning how to render and texture landscapes assigning different textures (not just colors) depending on the height of the mountains, so for instance: at 0 feet and bellow it would be water, from 0' to 100' gravel or sand, from 100' to 500' bushes, from 500' to 2000' pine trees texture maps, from 2000' to 5000' rocks and snow texture maps, etc... I already have the 3D surface topography imported from DEM files into MAYA 5, so what I am mostly interested is the how to of texturing, mapping and rendering in the way I described...

I appreciate any help you can give me. I am using MAYA 5 and am a beginner... but it seems to me that MAYA should have some feature that allows to assign specific textures to a 3D surface depending on the "Z" or HEIGHT value of that surface...

Perhaps the ramp shader is what I need to use, but how do I connect it to the height...? And once connected to the height, can I specify textures for each height instead of colors? Textures is what I need, not just a color gradient...

Or perhaps the Mountain Texture that comes with MAYA 5 is what I should use instead... I see that it has relevant attributes which I list below, and I am playing with them. It seems to me this should do it, but it still hasn't worked for me and do not know why... The Mountain Texture attributes that seem relevant to me are these:

1) Snow Altitude
The level (altitude) of the transition between rock and snow. The valid range is 0 to infinity. The range is 0 to 1. The default is 0.5.

2) Snow Dropoff
The suddenness with which snow no longer sticks to the mountain. The valid range is 0 to infinity. The default is 2.

3) Snow Slope
The maximum angle (expressed as a decimal value) over which snow does not stick to the mountain. For example, where the slope exceeds the Snow Slope value, it would be bare rock. The valid range is 0 to infinity. The range is 0 to 3. The default is 0.8.

But I still get the same rock and snow texture spread out evenly throughout the entire topograic surface weather it is at a 0' height or 5000' height...

Any feedback would be great...

Thanks a lot,
M/A

Perhaps we can start this thread and create a useful document for other people as well. I have not found any straight forward information that would explain clearly how to perform this task in MAYA...

[mloomis]

AntonioOx-

I've done something like you've described before. Apply a planar texture map to your terrain model
(Edit Polygons/Texture/Planar Mapping) being sure to apply it IN A HORIZONTAL DIRECTION instead of vertically.
Then use a ramp shader to the model. At this point, the default ramp colors should appear at different altitudes.
You can then substitute the textures you want to use for the individual colors by editing the ramp attributes.
(3D textures work well for this.) Experiment with Ramp Type and Ramp Interpolation as well as the scale factors
in the place3DTexture nodes.

Good luck!

Michael

[antonio0x]

Thanks Michael. I will try your suggestion today and will report how it works for me.

I appreciate your feedback.
A/M

[antonio0x]

Is there a way to attach image files in this forum...?
Thanks.

[joojaa]

Yes... you must upload your image to some server you have acces to and then link it using either UUBcode or html. I usualy use a combination of them and use the html version:

The new new uppcomming highend will be able to host the images themselves too or atleast that is what they are planning.