Creating Landscape
borgking001a
Posts: 48
in The Commons
If I wanted to create my own landscape, which program should I use that would be compbatible to DAZ?
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Comments
https://www.daz3d.com/ultrascenery--realistic-landscape-system
I agree with barbult on the ultrascenery landscape system by Howie Farkes.
If you are going to do more signifcant customization of arrangement, I would also recommend ultrascatter by the same PA.
https://www.daz3d.com/ultrascatterpro
you can also for just terrains use ground control
https://github.com/ewinemiller/dcg
Terradome 3 ...
https://www.daz3d.com/terradome-3-iray
I liked the Poser version a lot more than the DS one, but its not bad for more distant work. The water is decent.
Carrara > https://www.daz3d.com/carrara-8-5-pro
Both terra dome and ultra scenery work well. It does depend what sort of scenery you are trying to do.
well Bryce too and it has a Bridge
Are we to assume this is for higher end GPUs? I got the impression this was far beyond what my computer could handle. Looks damn awesome though. Howie has really outdone himself on this.
I feel a little burned with Terradome3. I haven't been at all pleased with the results. The terrain shaders look like something I'd have used back in my old Poser days. I do use it from time to time for very distant background terrains though.
I only have a GTX 980 Ti (6 GB) and it works great. It is very memory efficient because of the use of instances. It never comes close to filling my GPU memory.
Edit: There also are several add on packs for UltraScenery to add more plant types and more terrain features. Even the basic UltraScenery product will give you a lot of variety and a lot of fun.
Shoot, then I guess I should have been grabbing the base and addons as they were released. I've been casually watching the UltraScenery forum thread with everyone's renders and was left with the impression a user needed a beefy system especially when characters are added. Well, it's something for me to look forward to in the future.
As if I don't spend enough in this store as it is. haha
How "un-beefy" is your system? I'm using an 8-year-old PC (i7 processor, 32 GB memory) which manages the scene-building perfectly well. My problem is that I only have a 2GB GTX660 video card, which can't handle any but a tiny tiny scene (one character in a simple environment and with not too many clothes!) so I do all my renders by CPU. Nonetheless I absolutely love UltraScenery.
My computer is 4 years old and I do need to upgrade the RAM as I only have 16 GB. I have a GTX 980 and use DAZ 4.10 (so I can actually use the GPU and not have it fall back to CPU...ALL THE TIME). I do have the 4.12 Beta but almost never use it. I don't have a problem rendering on the CPU but most of the time I don't have to. I've gotten pretty good at rendering in sections and arranging in Photoshop. Most of the time my scenes render on GPU. Andrey Pestryakov's mountain sets do just fine for me although I do need to be careful once I start adding characters.
I for sure agree on Terradome 3 ... I use the skys mainly now ... bought the 3 addon packs for that. The terrain is lacking close resolution for sure.
I have a 7 year old Win7 machine/16Gb RAM with a GTX1060 with 6Gb and DS 4.11. It can cope.. The basic UltraScenery has never filled more than 12Gb RAM and 5Gb of VRAM with one G8 figures. So you should be able to use Ultrascenery without significant problems.
since I am actually finding the improved ultrascatter pro update is not freezing up my machine like the original, I may consider this one day too
I only have 8GB of RAM though and a 980ti so no figures would be a given like most sets in DAZ studio, at least with iray
If you do not want the covenience of creating the terrain directly in Daz Studio,
then you could use any software, that offer creating terrains and has possibility to export them.
Before UltraScenery, I have created terrains in Blender, exported them as .OBJ
and imported to Daz Studio.
The problem was to find the suitable shader in Daz Studio, that looks good.
If it were bi-directional I would strongly suggest Flowscape. As it is, it may be worth considering. DS figures can go into it once posed but only images come out. https://pixelforest.itch.io/flowscape
Regards
Richard.
I use both UltraScenery and TD3. I definitely agree about TD3's terrain shaders, though. One product that's ended up being a surprising workhorse for me is the Ground Shaders for Daz Studio. I never thought I would get so much use out of it, but I think they look great, especially for how cheap they are. v176 has some good shaders, too. I have the Muelsfell Multi-Layer Terrain Shader, but I haven't had much success getting it to work.
I sure hope the OP has gotten some ideas and useful info out of all of this as much as I have. LOL
Joe Pingleton used earlier versions of Flowscape...must have been before the import character option. His composites were beautiful.
I'm definitely going to have to give UltraScatter a try when I get a chance. I think it's clear it has truly increased the versatility of landscape creation in Daz.
Gordig, I use those Ground Shaders on occasion. I prefer them and a few others as a base and then cover up the terrain with foliage. Otherwise they just look too flat for me. Vicky's shaders are really wonderful, but caution must be taken to adjust the SubD before rendering. They lock up my computer due to their high SubD needs. I do think landscape products still lack decent ground textures. Not all of them of course, but a fair number of them. Andrey and Muelsfell seem to have figured it out. Love those terrains they create.
I really just hate, hate, hate Blender. I still fuss about it after all these years. I can't work in it too long before my eyes and brain start to hurt. I never understand what the hell I'm looking at in there. Typically, I'll do basic modeling in Wings3D and then move to Blender for finishing touches. But the UV mapping just throws me into raging fits. Just don't get it. I'll continue purchasing landscape products from my favorite Daz PAs before I ever landscape in Blender. I love Flink's stuff too.
What's the most recent version of Blender you've tried? They've really improved their interface and it's a lot easier to work in now. I still don't particularly like working in Blender, but I also haven't done much of it yet. I didn't care for C4D's interface at first, either, but now I'm very comfortable working in that.
An example of simple terrain (Ant Landscape) created in Blender
and rendered in iray in Daz Studio.
And with Babina 8 for the scale.
Then using sculpting features in Blender, you could have countless variations...
And then applying different shaders in Daz Studio is an eternal fun...
Ooow that looks like she's on the back of a sea creature.
Thanks. It was one of the shaders included in https://www.daz3d.com/sci-fi-and-fantasy-fabric-iray-shaders-and-merchant-resource
The most recent version. It made a few things simpler, but I think some of us (me!) just don't 'get' it. I'll always prefer Wings. The simpler viewport is easier for me to navigate and I get no eye strain from it. I did finally get the hang of the sculpting feature when I created a lighthouse in Wings and used Blender's sculpting tools to fine-tune the wood and stone. But the UV mapping brought the entire project to a halt. That was months ago but I think I've figured out what I was doing wrong.