I am new to Houdini and any design work like this. I am very interesting in creating terrains, and this is my first one (See attached). I am having trouble, I cannot seem to find how to remove the tint from the correct node in order to have a better view of my terrain. Can anyone help me?
Secondly, I am trying to copy my heightfield_draw node and try out some other positions with a copy of what I have made, but I am having trouble learning to do this. Any suggestions?
Also, my next to additions are to (1) add water and (2) trees. I then want to (3) add tunnels and pathways to the center of the mountain. Any suggestions with these?
Lastly, in designing the terrain, does anyone have any thoughts on best ways to manage a design process and the steps I would need to think through in order to ensure a good transition to something like Unity? (Which, again, I have never used before).
Thanks for any assistance!
New to Houdini
1081 1 1
-
- mat223740
- Member
- 1 posts
- Joined: May 2019
- Offline
-
- robsdesign
- Member
- 236 posts
- Joined: March 2015
- Offline
Hi, I would recommend any of Ari Danesh's terrain tutorials to get a good understanding of heightfields.
Regarding your specific questions;
Heightfield Mask Clear is the node you want to clear the “tint”. (which I assume is a mask)
For iterations, you could use Takes or delve into the new TOPS but a simple way is just to duplicate a node with current setting and then change the settings on the node still connected. If you prefer the old one, just reconnect it and delete the other. Or, you could copy a group of nodes (making a separate stream), add a switch at the bottom, connect the new and old streams and switch between the two.
To add water, there are a few methods, to name a few;
- use a plain with water shader and texture displacement
- use the Heightfield tools. (you can create masks/maps etc for creating terrain features, like water)
- create a flip sim
- use the ocean tools
To add trees/rocks etc, use heightfield scatter.
To add a tunnel you'd need to either convert to polygons or vdb and use boolean. (heightfields can't do tunnels/caves etc.)
To add pathways, you could try a ray sop with a curve and use the Heightfield mask tools.
For the last question, I'd go with my first recommendation. Ari Danesh has made some good tutorials that cover heightfields in general.
Regarding your specific questions;
Heightfield Mask Clear is the node you want to clear the “tint”. (which I assume is a mask)
For iterations, you could use Takes or delve into the new TOPS but a simple way is just to duplicate a node with current setting and then change the settings on the node still connected. If you prefer the old one, just reconnect it and delete the other. Or, you could copy a group of nodes (making a separate stream), add a switch at the bottom, connect the new and old streams and switch between the two.
To add water, there are a few methods, to name a few;
- use a plain with water shader and texture displacement
- use the Heightfield tools. (you can create masks/maps etc for creating terrain features, like water)
- create a flip sim
- use the ocean tools
To add trees/rocks etc, use heightfield scatter.
To add a tunnel you'd need to either convert to polygons or vdb and use boolean. (heightfields can't do tunnels/caves etc.)
To add pathways, you could try a ray sop with a curve and use the Heightfield mask tools.
For the last question, I'd go with my first recommendation. Ari Danesh has made some good tutorials that cover heightfields in general.
-
- Quick Links