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3 Dimensional Chat / Finally got Terragen into 3DS

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8truths
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Posted: 13th Jul 2003 11:46
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Since I posted this before, and didn't get any helpful answers, I figured I'd post now and let anyone interested know.

All it takes is 5 programs!

Terragen
Wilbur
Crossroads
any image editor
3DS

1. Make your TER file in Terragen.
2. Import to Wilbur. Save as a BMP.
3. Open your image editor and crop the bitmap to a manageable size (otherwise, the end model will be GIGANTIC).
4. Open Wilbur again, this time loading the BMP you just edited.
5. Save to RAW format.
6. Open the RAW in Crossroads, and save the file as either a 3DS or OBJ mesh (whatever your preference is).
7. Open 3DS and import your mesh (it will appear blank).
8. Click properties and turn off culling.
9. Rotate the object.
10. Scale it up anywhere from 10-100 times the size.
11. Use the Smooth modifier to make it nice. Apply textures, salt, bring to a rolling boil, and render.

Viola! 11 steps and five progs later, you got yourself a very nice looking landscape.

If you try it, you'll suspect you can skip a fw steps by exporting from Wilbur to OBJ, but that just turned out flat for me.

Imagineably, you could use this with Wings or any other prog than can import 3DS and OBJ meshes.

Now, surprise me by saying something like, "That's useful! Thanks." since I sincerely doubt anyone else here gave a damn about all that.
We can't stop here! This is bat country!
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lcfcfan
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Posted: 13th Jul 2003 13:39
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That's useful Thanks, i made a few terrains in bryce but i don't really like it, funny you posted this i was just wondering if it was possible to convert terragen files to a DBP friendly format i'll have to try this out later or tomorrow!

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Stevo
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Posted: 13th Jul 2003 13:47
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I was trying to do it as well, but when I imported the terregen file to ani8tor it had too many polygons

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John H
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Location: Burlington, VT
Posted: 13th Jul 2003 16:18
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Quote: "
All it takes is 5 programs!
"


LOL! Too bad I dont have Wilbur or 3DS

Cheers for figuring this out 8truths

RPGamer

Current Project: Eternal Destiny
Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Go to the Eternal Destiny Forum!
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Dave J
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Posted: 13th Jul 2003 16:32 Edited at: 13th Jul 2003 16:33
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You know half the point of Terragen is to create a greyscale height map image that when you save can be used to make terrain easily just by checking the degree of grey and using that as the height. I believe there's a tutorial on how to do this in DB over at www.darkbasic.net or something.

Thanks for the tip anyway, it sure would be useful getting it into .3ds format although I don't have Wilbur or Crossroads either lol.

"Computers are useless they can only give you answers."
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WindTech
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Posted: 13th Jul 2003 16:38
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Yea but DBP's Terrain command is total bull. How do you texture something like that properly? ;p theres no texture commands and the terrain size is dictated by the size of the image you use 512x512 is "512 by 512" and they didn't include a size tool ;p
Any hint on texturing that? ;p

Live as if to die tomorrow...
Learn as if to live forever.
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8truths
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Posted: 13th Jul 2003 19:22
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Wilbur and Crossroads are both freebies, for those of you who were worrying. They're both converters. There is supposed to also be a RAW importer plug-in for 3DS, which would allow you to not use Crossroads, but I have yet to look it up.

Wilbur DL

http://www.ridgecrest.ca.us/~jslayton/software.html

Crossroads

[href]http://www.europa.com/~keithr/crossroads/[img]

We can't stop here! This is bat country!
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Dave J
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Posted: 14th Jul 2003 09:45
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Cheers 8truhts.

WindTech, unfortunately I haven't actually done it myself so I don't know the limitations and what can and can't be done but if I ever do and find a way around it, I'll let you know

"Computers are useless they can only give you answers."
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Dave J
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Posted: 14th Jul 2003 10:13 Edited at: 14th Jul 2003 10:16
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Well just gave it a go and it worked fairly well, thanks a lot. It's just a shame you can't save the textures as well because the surface maps in Terragen take away a lot of the work of texturing a model.

Mine also came out at 32000 polys which isn't ideal for any 3d game lol.

"Computers are useless they can only give you answers."
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8truths
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Posted: 14th Jul 2003 10:30
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Actually, save the BMP files from Wilbur. Crop them before you convert the BMP to RAW.

Also, you could resample the BMPs to a larger size and so you texturing from them.

If you have 3DS, you could also try the optimize objects.

Porbably still not good enough for gaming, but I have already gotten some nice artwork out of it.

We can't stop here! This is bat country!
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Stevo
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Posted: 19th Jul 2003 20:15
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is it possible to use a polygon reducer thing, Just a thought?

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8truths
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Posted: 20th Jul 2003 09:02
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"A polygon reducer thing"

In 3DS Max, that is essentially what "optimize" is.

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