Building Sharp Cliff-Areas
- Thread starter H222
- Start date
Three methods:
1. Create a fixed asset to suit.
2. Create or use a cliff spline if you can find one to suit.
3. Spend hours in surveyor trying to get it exactly right!
ApproachMedium
Youtube dude
It's all in the texturing. Get the general shape down using the terrain tool, maybe you'll want to increase the sensitivity to create sharper edges. Then using the texturing tool, find some textures that look fitting, lower the scale and area to cover, and hold down the [ button to get more random distribution. You'll want to use a variety of textures and blend them together to avoid a flat, generic look.
-Joe
-Joe
cascaderailroad
New member
Cliffs by comtrain
Sirgibby (http://www.trainzone.co.nz/download.htm#freeware) has a whole series of pre-made, textured scenery objects that you can connect together to make all sorts of cliffs, waterfalls, rivers, etc. They're used extensively in his Murchison 2 layout.
Bob
Bob
mezzoprezzo
Content appreciator
Hi Jamie.
I've tried something similar on my Italian route.
This uses terrain, variously scaled and rotated textures plus a few building and vegetation assets.
This one has the same, but with the addition of some vertical rock face splines with trees placed on the ledges. There are several on DLS – the grey ones in centre shot here are Rockface 1 ge h 30m – kuid:136383:3520
Cheers
Casper
I've tried something similar on my Italian route.
This uses terrain, variously scaled and rotated textures plus a few building and vegetation assets.
This one has the same, but with the addition of some vertical rock face splines with trees placed on the ledges. There are several on DLS – the grey ones in centre shot here are Rockface 1 ge h 30m – kuid:136383:3520
Cheers
Casper
ray_whiley
Active member
Very nice - reminds me of Ravello.
Ray
Ray
mezzoprezzo
Content appreciator
Hi Ray,
Thanks.
It's a long time since I've been up to Ravello, probably 20 years. I still remember those spectacular views overlooking Amalfi and Positano.
Nice summer memories - particularly with all this snow we have here in the UK right now!
Cheers
Casper
Hi Casper,
awesome, as usual!! I feel at home when I look at your screenshots!
We had snow yesterday in Genoa...
Returning on topic, I think that making cliffs in Surveyor "stretches" the ground textures too much, with great loss of detail and very ugly effects. I prefer using cliff scenery assets or splines for better results.
Cheers
Carlo
awesome, as usual!! I feel at home when I look at your screenshots!
We had snow yesterday in Genoa...
Returning on topic, I think that making cliffs in Surveyor "stretches" the ground textures too much, with great loss of detail and very ugly effects. I prefer using cliff scenery assets or splines for better results.
Cheers
Carlo
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mezzoprezzo
Content appreciator
I’d agree with Carlo to a point. (Carlo, thanks for your kind comments. Hope the snow’s gone now!)
However I think some quite acceptable steep coastal terrain can be created using just the topography tools, textures and a few objects. The cliff splines can look a bit repetitive. Blended textures have infinite combinations.
Here are a couple more examples.
Cheers
Casper
This one had the usual rock face, but I have rotated, rescaled, and blended more than one rock texture to get a result which I’m reasonably happy with. A final (very quck!) squirt of ballast in the cleft at the base of the cliff helps with the illusion of a land slip down to the beach.
This one also uses textures only (excluding the hedge spline on the top), but I’ve kept the “steepness” less severe, and have gone up in small increments. Some textures work better than others on the steep bits. Just making the slope very slightly less vertical makes a huge difference IMHO. Compare centre cliff face with the left. There, I’ve temporarily stripped away the buildings which were hiding the poor effect that, I must agree, you do get when stretched too vertically.
However I think some quite acceptable steep coastal terrain can be created using just the topography tools, textures and a few objects. The cliff splines can look a bit repetitive. Blended textures have infinite combinations.
Here are a couple more examples.
Cheers
Casper
This one had the usual rock face, but I have rotated, rescaled, and blended more than one rock texture to get a result which I’m reasonably happy with. A final (very quck!) squirt of ballast in the cleft at the base of the cliff helps with the illusion of a land slip down to the beach.
This one also uses textures only (excluding the hedge spline on the top), but I’ve kept the “steepness” less severe, and have gone up in small increments. Some textures work better than others on the steep bits. Just making the slope very slightly less vertical makes a huge difference IMHO. Compare centre cliff face with the left. There, I’ve temporarily stripped away the buildings which were hiding the poor effect that, I must agree, you do get when stretched too vertically.
I’d agree with Carlo to a point. (Carlo, thanks for your kind comments. Hope the snow’s gone now!)
However I think some quite acceptable steep coastal terrain can be created using just the topography tools, textures and a few objects. The cliff splines can look a bit repetitive. Blended textures have infinite combinations.
Here are a couple more examples.
Cheers
Casper
This one had the usual rock face, but I have rotated, rescaled, and blended more than one rock texture to get a result which I’m reasonably happy with. A final (very quck!) squirt of ballast in the cleft at the base of the cliff helps with the illusion of a land slip down to the beach.
This one also uses textures only (excluding the hedge spline on the top), but I’ve kept the “steepness” less severe, and have gone up in small increments. Some textures work better than others on the steep bits. Just making the slope very slightly less vertical makes a huge difference IMHO. Compare centre cliff face with the left. There, I’ve temporarily stripped away the buildings which were hiding the poor effect that, I must agree, you do get when stretched too vertically.
man can u teach me how to build this edges i am very poor in such thing and texturing but i want to build such edges
mezzoprezzo
Content appreciator
Hello kamran.Where do you start?!
A lot depends on how experienced you are already with Surveyor. If you can already shape the terrain, then a lot of experimentation and practice with different types of textures will help. One of the key things I learned early on was to use the rotation, scale and radius tools. I tend to select the texture, tap it onto the topography with the L mouse button whilst tapping the ‘[‘ or ‘]’ key the same time (the ones to the right of the letter ‘p’ on a UK keyboard).
I also vary and layer the textures a lot. Change the radius to suit as well. If you do all of those things, then the “checkerboard” effect which you get with repeat patterning will never show, provided your Performance Settings for “Ground” are set near to, or at maximum.
With the shaping of the hills, set the sensitivity to low. Mine’s never more than two points up the dial. If it’s set too high I find the terrain shoots up into very high spikes which are a real pain. Mountains, hills and cliffs look much more realistic when they’re smooth and high (except perhaps for the peaks). The 'adjust height' control set to small radius and low sensitivity will allow fine adjustments, switch to wireframe if necessary to see where the spikes, holes and adjoining bars need to be grabbed for adjustment.
YouTube has a fair few tutorials on the subject. You could start with this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9iLm9VjJfk&playnext=1&list=PL7B22E157262D697A&index=30
Once you've mastered the basics then there are lots of threads which you will find helpful on the Forum if you do a search.
Looking at Jamie's OP photo's, the only one I'd feel confident enough to build from terrain and texture tools is the middle one. The other two would require specially built assets. And breaking waves are just sound files at the moment!
Cheers
Casper
Yes, blended textures can look OK but you can't get away from the feeling that the paint is still wet and running off the canvas.
While Cliff splines can look repetitive they can also look brilliant with a little bit of care and work.
The 3D effect is brilliant and can't be achived with textures.
The best effect is achieved by blending textures, terrain and 3D cliff splines.
The following screenshots are taken from the TS:MURCHISON2 route. The cliff splines splines used are part of the 360 cliff splines included (along with the other nature series items ....cliff splines, rail ledge splines, rock splines, textures, river splines, 3D animated waterfalls)
I created a series of different cliff sections for each cliff texture to help reduce the repetitive banding effect.
Michael
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mezzoprezzo
Content appreciator
They look very good Michael. Excellent work!
I still use both methods and really must get some of these creations having looked at your screenshots - and your site.
I do like the darker colours of the rock splines and the way you have merged topography, textures and assets to create that stunning effect.
More work!
Cheers
Casper
I still use both methods and really must get some of these creations having looked at your screenshots - and your site.
I do like the darker colours of the rock splines and the way you have merged topography, textures and assets to create that stunning effect.
More work!
Cheers
Casper