New Tutorial - Advanced Displacement Mapping with Leveller

[ElDiablo (Paul)]

Hey all!

   After multiple requests for a tutorial on Leveller I finally gave in and made one. You can find it on the Tutorials page or just follow this link http://www.twisteddirt.com/TutorialStuff/leveller_01.html.

It's a video tutorial and as the topic says...it's an ADVANCED tutorial. SO if you don't know a thing about Leveller it's likely to be hard to follow, but you might pick a few things up still. Check it out and hopefully it will teach somebody something! lol 

[VMX_CrAzEd]

im not into track making or mcm2 anymore but I watched the whole thing and it was a good tutorial. good work paul

[Metla666]

Video tutorials rock, Well worth watching.

[VMX_101]

Yes Paul does an amazing job with his video tutorials, I'm sure a lot of people will find this tutorial very handy. I personally found it very helpful, but I still find myself crawling back to Photoshop. Just can't get my head around leveller, I do admit a never version would probably help. But I'll wait until MVA comes out to purchase a copy.

But none the less this tutorial has definatly shed some light on how you can actually make tracks in leveller. Cause before I had no idea. LOL

Thanks Again Paul awesome tutorial.

Regards,

[ElDiablo (Paul)]

Thanks guys...glad you enjoyed it and learned something. Maybe I'll make more then? Maybe another more advanced Terragen tutorial? Or something else? Maybe a sky cube tutorial with Terragen and 3DEM?

[ATR_RaTaX2]

awesome vid, making a whole sx section using negative gradients is an idea i never would have thought of. Thanks alot. id like to see terragen textures tutorial next

[V_Muskaman]

Hey Paul. Just watched this and as someone who uses leveller almost exclusively I found it really interesting seeing the way another works. Especially the way you create the terrain after the path. One thing I would reccomend is learning the key shorcuts for flying around within leveller. After a while it's second nature. Anyway Great job, we really need more like this! 

[V_Muskaman]

Oh and I really want the newer leveller now!

[sX5Fe_giZM0o]

Well done Paul!  In the past I have only used it to smooth out portions.  The one thing I have been trying to figure out forever is what format to export as.   I can only get greyscale when exporting as an 8 bit TGA.
24 bit looks like this   http://www.thegaragefanatic.com/2112.jpg 
Anyone know where I'm going wrong?
Looks way to much like the 70's and I can't afford the flashbacks!!!  lol

[Bulldog]

24 bit looks like this   http://www.thegaragefanatic.com/2112.jpg 
Anyone know where I'm going wrong?

I believe that is what it is suppposed to look like.  You should be able to import that into Dillo and get a nice smooth terrian.  But it has been years since I have even worked on a track so I may be mistaken.

Pete

[V_Muskaman]

You're correct Pete. You can't edit this 24-bit version in photoshop, etc, but it'll work in armadillo just fine.

[ElDiablo (Paul)]

The problem with exporting a greyscale image from Leveller to PS (or any graphic proggy) is that Leveller has 64,000 levels of detail and all Graphic proggys have only 256. So the best way to WRAP your head around Leveller is to do everything that you're EVER gonna do in PS BEFORE you go to Leveller.

However...for the purposes of rendering shadows and such in MAX and any other 3D proggy you do still need a greyscale image to displace your mesh. So the solution is this-

(this will be different in older versions of leveller btw)

1) Above your window (use the right one for this part) is a series of icons that look like light switches (in 2.3 and later I believe)...click the first (left) one. That tells Leveller to use NO lighting.

2) Directly under the word WINDOW (in your top bar in Leveller) there is an icon that looks like a gradient...if you put your cursor over it, it says, "Colormap". Click it...change the SCHEME to classic grey and hit apply and ok to close.

3) Go to VIEW/Overview/Export to Bitmap and save as whatever file type you like (usually a .tga)

This is a MUCH cleaner and sharper image than exporting as an 8-bit .tga and I'm sure you'll be MUCH happier with it this way. This is how I export my dismaps for rendering shadows in Max.

Hope that clears things up. 

[ToaDsiX]

I do admit a never version would probably help. But I'll wait until MVA comes out to purchase a copy.

Oh and I really want the newer leveller now!

It looks like leveller is going open source.

http://www.daylongraphics.com/products/leveller/opensrc.htm

Thats pretty cool

[sX5Fe_giZM0o]

Thnx so much!!  It worked..  Not that I doubted you guys lol...   I changed to classic grey and it altered map quite a bit.  I guess that needs to be set before I import?   I'm using ancient version of LEV, but I may buy new version now.  Do you know if MXU vs ATV's new editor will have something like this built in?   Do you know of any special settings I should use when exporting as a TMESH?  Bryce takes them but not the 24 bit TGAs.  Well it will but it looks like pic I posted above and renders that way also.   I am missing something with the TMESH import.  It only has worked about 4 out of the 20 or so times I have tried it.   Looks like it is creased into 4 sections.

Also I was wondering if any thought was given to making MXU vs ATV backwards compatable to mcm2 tracks?
Will there be a lap time recorder?  They should get Mike Gecko on the payroll!!!  After all,, he did pickup where Rainbow dropped the ball..

Guess I'll have to stop cussin out Rainbow now that they decided to finaly take back custody of the MCM2 community.   Better late than never!!  lol

Thnx again

Dave

[ElDiablo (Paul)]

No you don't have to set it up before you import. It DOES change the map...but nothing drastic...just a bit of detail is tailed off but it's not a big deal cause you're just using it for shadows...not an actual displacement map...that one would be exported as a proper 24-bit .tga direct from leveller.

As far as I know...this is the best way to export a bitmap for rendering shadows. No other file format seems to be compatible with Max that I'm aware of.

As for the TMESH exporting...I've never once used it. I export my meshes as Terragen Terrain files (.ter). So I don't think I can help you out on that one. There are lots of other export options in the menu of the latest version (and I think they pretty much exhisted in versions at least since 2.0). Perhaps there is another format that Bryce will play nice with?

I am pretty much unfamiliar with Bryce for the modern day. I haven't had it since something like version 4 (which I paid too much money for as I recall) and I never really got into it enough to say I was really good with it. It does do a great job of proceedural textures...but for MCM2 they seem almost TOO clinically perfect...i.e. too perfect to take serious. Although you do a great job with it IMO. Just not the right FIT for me I think, and I think I have a lot more control with Terragen. Probably because I'm more comfortable and completely familiar with all aspects of Terragen.

Wish I could be of more help bro 

[ElDiablo (Paul)]

As for your MXA (MX vs ATV) questions... there is going to be a track editor...so you could remake your tracks providing that the image sizes and file formats are somewhat compatible. If I've heard correctly, the displacement maps are still about the same in MXA and the sizes are still about the same. I think it has something to do with console req's. The game is a direct port from the console version (or that's what I've been told) so you can't expect much to change from the console version except for the online play (still 8 people..but probably not on Xbox live!) and the editor. I doubt very seriously that Rainbow will release anything like a lap recorder. I would think that would be left up to us to figure out. There's enough recorders out there that can handle this kind of thing. I doubt you'll have to wait to long for one to pop up.

[cR]

Paul about the direct port, i think you'r wrong.. as stated on the site "Major enhancements planned for both versions!" both versions are PC and PSP...so... I think graphic enhancements will be there, that usuall for ports... look at GTA SA for example... the PC and XBOX versions are way better then the first version for the PS2... just an example

[ElDiablo (Paul)]

Wether it says it or not...I wouldn't count on it Clint. BTW lets try to keep this discussion ON TOPIC. There is a topic on MX vs ATV elsewhere on this forum. I don't want this topic getting hijacked and turning into a different discussion.

[Bulldog]

Great Tutorial Paul.  Think you could do one on texture creation in Terragen?

Pete

[ElDiablo (Paul)]

Sure I can Pete! I think that's the next one. I did one a while back but the quality wasn't the best and it had audio problems (sound overlapping, etc..) so it wasn't so easy to follow.

I think I'll start writing up a script/outline sometime this weekend and see what happens. Anything specific that anybody is interested in seeing in it?