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General => Terragen Discussion => Topic started by: Xenoyia on December 02, 2017, 10:32:47 AM

Title: Tire tracks?
Post by: Xenoyia on December 02, 2017, 10:32:47 AM
Hello ;D

Been looking at how to create tire tracks on my landscape, following an imported 3D model.. no clue where to begin though, I'm assuming I'll need a distribution shader with some masks?

Something like this is what I'm going for:

(https://i.gyazo.com/aad48db6a3035aed86fe72c5fecf0ff5.png)

Many thanks
Title: Re: Tire tracks?
Post by: Dune on December 02, 2017, 10:58:29 AM
You can use a greyscale mask of the tyres that should be repeated (in the image map shader) in the direction they go. You can then warp these tracks by warp shader and vector displacement and some PF.
Title: Re: Tire tracks?
Post by: Hetzen on December 02, 2017, 11:04:43 AM
I've taken a tyre black and white texture and repeated it through y in an image map shader before. Then us that as a displacement of a few cms, then repeat four times for the four wheals. It get's interesting when you overlap tyre tracks, trying to get one to collapse the other, so you have to use a couple of masks to do that.

This was something I was working on for the Iceland contest. I was trying to use multiply and add for the colouring, so the attached image doesn't have the base texture switched on as I was working on the tyre tread.

Title: Re: Tire tracks?
Post by: Xenoyia on December 02, 2017, 11:16:29 AM
Ah, I see!

I've been trying an image map shader for a while with this, the main problem is positioning it so it's underneath the car - can't seem to get it to show up!

I'm sorry for being slow, I'm slowly getting used to Terragen but some of this stuff just goes right over my head.

(https://i.gyazo.com/3f8a6853875fc9d9e2c6b80184b5f818.png)
Title: Re: Tire tracks?
Post by: Dune on December 02, 2017, 11:19:46 AM
You have to use Y (not through camera), and resize the mask for realistic tyrewidth. Yours are way too big! Sizes are in meters! And it's better (IMO) to set the image map at 0/0/0 and use a transform shader to locate/rotate, at least, that's what I always do.
Title: Re: Tire tracks?
Post by: Xenoyia on December 02, 2017, 07:09:35 PM
Ok I must really not be getting this haha

(https://i.gyazo.com/a83cb1000efbbbcf1db75d95c01d503e.png)

I got it to show up, but I can't get it to make a dent in the ground (always raised this much) and it's not rotating at all.

I connected the transform input shader to the input of the image map shader, if I connect it to the image's mask it doesn't show up at all. I've attached the tread I'm using.

Thanks for the help so far!

UPDATE: I managed to make it create a hole of death, I created another surface layer and connected it that way so now it's going underground just fine. It's still not rotating properly, though.

UPDATE 2: It's being affected by my other shaders, warped and messed up a lot - this'll be a problem anyway, how do I make it so my other terrain shaders (cracked floor, rock generation) don't touch this?

UPDATE 3: I've rotated it and found out how to get it masked properly. It's still being affected by the other shaders so the effect is being lost..

UPDATE 4: This might not be too bad, but I'll need to figure out exactly how to 'end' the tracks at the front tires, that's lost on me right now. It's kind of a subtle effect right now:

(https://i.gyazo.com/b0ff3d22d118ce37367955129e657507.png)

UPDATE 5: Figured out how to end the tracks. Shader arrays! Still would be nice to know how to give some shaders priority and not be affected by others.
Title: Re: Tire tracks?
Post by: Dune on December 03, 2017, 03:10:34 AM
Check this out, I quickly made you a file. It can of course be improved a lot.
Title: Re: Tire tracks?
Post by: bobbystahr on December 03, 2017, 10:18:08 AM
Quote from: Dune on December 03, 2017, 03:10:34 AM
Check this out, I quickly made you a file. It can of course be improved a lot.

Good on ya Ulco.
Title: Re: Tire tracks?
Post by: KlausK on December 04, 2017, 08:40:05 AM
Hey, after looking at Ulco`s system (thx for that) which I never would have figured out by myself I made some sort of 'Poor Man`s Dune Tracks' file.
The *.zip contains the gathered file. It also includes a Hummer.obj which was free to download (I can`t tell anymore from where) and the Tyre.png from above.
Cheers, Klaus.
Title: Re: Tire tracks?
Post by: luvsmuzik on December 04, 2017, 10:25:27 AM
Thanks KlausK! Always useful stuff from you and Ulco!
Title: Re: Tire tracks?
Post by: bobbystahr on December 04, 2017, 10:57:52 AM
Thanks Klaus, never too much input I say....this is also very handy.
Title: Re: Tire tracks?
Post by: Xenoyia on December 04, 2017, 11:26:54 AM
Thanks a ton! This is all super helpful, I'll be able to learn a lot from these.

Could I, theoretically, put tire tracks on top of clouds?
Title: Re: Tire tracks?
Post by: luvsmuzik on December 04, 2017, 12:36:27 PM
Check this out! Pretty positive you can rotate to suit with a transform input before the image map.

http://www.planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,283.msg5747.html#msg5747
Title: Re: Tire tracks?
Post by: J_Con on December 04, 2017, 06:58:23 PM
Excellent Help/work. Looking forward to trying this technique.