Hi everyone - I’m a new user, started yesterday and very impressed - currently using the free version but am certain to upgrade - I just love the amount of control WM gives.
I got into this because a member of the Daz 3d forum said he uses WM to create roads on terrains - my search shows that this subject was last discussed in 2006 and at that time there was no way of doing it properly.
Is there somewhere I could learn how this is done? Any help much appreciated
Hi Roygee,
In WM 1.25 there is no native way to produce roads, or at least to produce planned roads – oddly enough there are a variety of methods you can use to create random roads to meander across your terrain.
The upcoming WM 2 (which will soon have a release date announced for) allows you to create roads on your terrain.
could export your heightmap and edit the heightfield in photoshop and edit the height where you want your road then reimport it with the file import device?
I played around with adding roads to terrain some time back. I was trying to find a somewhat automated way to work a road map into the terrain. I had various result but here was one of my test files. The test_road.tga is being plugged in down in the bottom left. For WM Basic compatibility I pulled out the expand and blur nodes that I was using to smooth out the road edges, but you’ll still be able to get an idea of what I was trying. The line of erode nodes going out to the right was just to try increasing amounts of erode–I wasn’t necessarily going to use them all.
Zip with WM road_test.tmd and test_road.tga file here: http://www.marmil.net/wm_files/road_test.zip
yeah being more simple couldn’t you plugin a mask on your HeightMap with the file import device that you made in a graphic editing program?
I am using my test_roads.tga as a mask (brought in with a FileIn node) for various things, but I think I’m not understanding what you’re asking, sorry.
my bad you were talking about what i was talking about using a mask. For anyone not familiar with using displacement masks and cant find out why your road is towering the value on the grayscale to solid black to solid white with solid white being a height value of 1 and black being a height value of 2 best way to get the results your looking for is to export your displacement as a high resolution 8bit image and then bring it in photoshop and draw out where you want the road to be with a marque and doing a color average on blur to get a just about right height but flat. then you can do things like erosion on top of the mask within worldmachine to make it not seem so perfect.
Thank you all for your assistance - please don’t think I’m rude - tried to say “thanks” a few times, but keep getting “timeout” when I try to post a reply
I think about roads, too!
This are alwul roads, but the first step, maybe.
Pic & Worldmachine file is attached
There is actually a tutorial in one of the directories (forget which one) that you can load that shows you how to make very good roads. You can change the hight of each node to match the terrain.
Oh, fine - thanks !
I found it and find it really nice…
Use a slightly blurred version of your road to mask a blur on your terrain. Done.
To create roads, I suggest running your terrain through the Layout Generator device as shown in the Tutorial 5 example.
That way, your road will cut/fill the terrain as you wish, and it also ensures that the road is kept level.
Using a layout generator alone to overlay on the terrain is appropriate for trails and other things that would be a different material but otherwise share the underlying terrain features.