Here is an overview of the process:
Step 1 - (optional) It is suggested that you create a new directory for storing the main terrain and the water map. If you want to create other scenes later, separated directories are required to avoid overwriting of the water maps, which have always the same name. Notice that the scene script will always use a water map which is in the directory where the main terrain is stored. If you intend to edit the scene script mountains_with_water.pov for this particular terrain, you may also copy it in this directory.
If
you put scenes in other directories than the default Geomorph one
(/home/<your_user_name>/geomorph), you have to tell Povray where
it should look for the include files provided by Geomorph
(geomorph.inc, slope_patterns.inc and so on).You may add this line in your povray.ini file (probably /home/<your_user_name>/.povray/3.6/povray.ini) :
Library_Path=/home/<your_user_name>/geomorph
You may also add the option +L/home/<your_user_name>/geomorph in "Other render options" in your geomorphrc file, which can be modified from the menu bar
.
Notice that this option is automatically added in fresh installations
of Geomorph 0.40 and later.Step 2 - Create your main terrain. Here a "subdivision 2" terrain
was
used. To get a terrain with a lot of small hills, set the roughness
at 2 or 3 and distribution at 3 or 4. Also set the higher wave lengths
at 0 in the "Wave length control" subdialog. For instance, set the 256
and
512 wave lengths at 0 for a 512x512 map.Step 3 - Clone the terrain using "Copy under a new name" in the menu bar
, name the copy hf_water.png.Step 4 - Erode your main terrain with the rain erosion algorithm
. You should use the new algorithm
provided as the default one
in Geomorph 0.4. With the older algorithm, the channels would be too
weak. In the example, the maximum value of 200 000 "drops"
was used.Step 5 - For "filling" the eroded channels, we smooth the water map hf_water.png. Use the smooth tool
with a radius like 4 pixels for a
512x512 map. Save hf_water.png.Step 6 - Rendering: Activate the window of your main terrain (I mean click on it), find an adequate viewpoint with the preview camera and render mountains_with_water.pov
.
Be sure that you don't
render the scene when the hf_water.png
window is active, because it will not render like a water map. Notice
that you
don't have to save the main terrain before rendering, but you must save
the water map (step 5), because it is used "passively".Step 7 - If the channels seem too wide, you have 2 choices. The channels width does not scale with the terrain size. So, if you repeat the steps 2 to 6 with a larger terrain, channels would look narrower. In the example shown, an alternate solution was used:
1 - Revert the main terrain with the revert tool
. Erosion
channels becomes crests.2 - Use the crest tool
to narrow these crests. The
default value of 3
steps should be a good choice.3 - Revert back the main terrain with the revert tool
. Step 8 - Creation of the lakes: There are two techniques to create the lakes.
1 - The simpler one is to use the "Threshold" tool
on the
water
map to fill it up to a given level. The texture used in mountains_with_water.pov
shows a naked rock over the water level. To be consistent with this
texture, you should set the lower level at 10142 (this is one of the
values over which the "Minimum" scale fells automatically). You can use
a different level, but you'll have to edit mountains_with_water.pov
to set the "waterlevel" variable to a suitable level. This is the line
to change:#declare waterlevel = 10300.0*0.3/65535.0;
Use a level slightly over the threshold level. For instance, here, the difference between 10300 and 10142 is the height of the rock band we see over the water.
The
water level is multiplied by 0.3 because all Geomorph terrains are
scaled by 0.3 on the Y axis. It is divided by 65535 to scale the water
level from the "height field world", with a dynamic range of 0 to
65535, to the "Povray world", with a range of 0 to 1.2 - An other technique is to use the "Fill bucket" pen
(it is in
the
"draw" dialog 
) to fill depressions up on hf_water.png. This allows to create
lakes at more than one altitude level. However, it is not possible with
the provided mountains_with_water.pov to
produce a naked rock band just over the water surface, when there are
more than one level. Furthermore, if you have some areas under the
default
water level of 10300, they will appear rocky. Maybe you'll want to edit
the scene to decrease the water level and get vegetation everywhere.Caution: before and after using the "Fill bucket tool", save your work! It seems to have an index overflow bug somewhere I was not able to put right until now. This creates sometimes a "segmentation fault" (bomb).
Step 9 - Fine-tune the scale of the main terrain, if required. In the example shown, the terrain was stretched by 200% on the X and the Z axis (the "ground plane"). The scale instruction appears like comments in mountains_with_water.pov. Playing with the scale can give more natural results. The drawback is that it is not shown and thus not controlled in the preview dialog (not yet).
___________________
Written in January 2007
Back to the
documentation indexContact:
Patrice St-Gelais