No PBR textures are lowering terrain

[Cold_Blizzard]

Hello guys I even don't know how explain it, i ll just try add some records. And the question - is there any way to cure it, make all textures leave ground untouched in terms of height.

 

[stagecoach]

Use non PBR or if you do, don't mix non-PBR with PBR.

 

[lewisner]

What does PBR actually mean ?

 

[Cayden]

Information is this forum thread "PBR and Parallax" may help.

https://forums.auran.com/threads/pbr-and-parallax-texturing.177640/

Cayden

 

[wreeder]

What does PBR actually mean ?

I'll avoid the technical language. When 3D graphics first began about 40 years ago, textures on objects were just images that were projected onto the object much like using a slide projector to cast an image on a room full of furniture. There were lots of distortions introduce by this method. Later UV wrapping was created to allow textures to be fitted to the surface of objects like your clothes are fitted to wrap around your body. But images were still used for the textures and those images were either photographs of real world surfaces or hand painted images created by a artist. Both included highlights and shadows to make them look 3D but this was an illusion and if used in an animation or game where the object moved or the lighting changed over time the illusion fell apart. So PBR or Physically Based Rendering was created to more accurately create an textured object that can move about as the light changes and still maintain the 3D illusion. This is done by using a series of maps for different purposes such as a color map, normal map, height map, roughness map and specular map that together allow the texture of an object to change as the lighting changes. Here is a more technical explanation if you want more.

 

[lewisner]

I'll avoid the technical language. When 3D graphics first began about 40 years ago, textures on objects were just images that were projected onto the object much like using a slide projector to cast an image on a room full of furniture. There were lots of distortions introduce by this method. Later UV wrapping was created to allow textures to be fitted to the surface of objects like your clothes are fitted to wrap around your body. But images were still used for the textures and those images were either photographs of real world surfaces or hand painted images created by a artist. Both included highlights and shadows to make them look 3D but this was an illusion and if used in an animation or game where the object moved or the lighting changed over time the illusion fell apart. So PBR or Physically Based Rendering was created to more accurately create an textured object that can move about as the light changes and still maintain the 3D illusion. This is done by using a series of maps for different purposes such as a color map, normal map, height map, roughness map and specular map that together allow the texture of an object to change as the lighting changes. Here is a more technical explanation if you want more.

Thanks

 

[JCitron]

Great explanation @wreeder!

I always thought of the textures as decals being pasted on to the models. Old 3ds R4 DOS used white plastic as its base texture which reinforced that thought. (Am I dating myself? ;-) )

 

[wreeder]

Thanks, decals is a fair way to think of them in the early days. In my program of choice Lightwave 3D, they were actually called projections. Planar, Cylindrical and Spherical. By choosing a patch of polygons and naming them with a surface name, you could limit the area the texture was applied to such as a label on a bottle. Most objects had dozens of named surfaces. It was a good system that allowed you to build up a large library of surfaces which could be reused quickly and easily.

 

[JCitron]

Lightwave was an awesome program and I'm sorry I never got a copy of it. I saw it once at one of those computer-shows that sold parts and software and didn't get it the one time someone had it for sale. This was from a dealer I used to deal with often. I got Drafix Cad from the same dealer years before along with Corel Draw 1.0

3ds R4 DOS was similar with the mapping types. I learned early on not to apply a planar map to a cube. This is something I've seen in early Trainz objects and I recognized the texture problem immediately.

 

[wreeder]

Lightwave is still around. Newtek sold it to a company that was going to continue to develop it but nothing happened for 3 years. They were persuaded to turn it over to a groups of developers that had been on the team at Newtek. They released a new version just a couple of months ago. Looks exciting but out of my price range now that I'm retired. I still use Lightwave 3D 2015 when I want to make something pretty.

Honestly, AI is going to destroy the 3D business once it can think is 3D. It is a whole lot easier to ask AI to build you a model than to buy a $1000 program and learn how to use it. That is my standard for AGI. Can it learn to operate another program at an expert level.

 

[JCitron]

I agree. AI is destroying a lot of creative things because companies don't like to pay artists to start with and this is yet another way to replace artists and musicians.

That's great news but I too can't afford it either. I no longer build anything due to some cognitive issues now making things like that very difficult. It's tough getting old.