Gaea School: Masking Rivers

 Masking Rivers

So you want to export river masks? Not too hard. Here is an example node-tree:

1. Create your terrain. Add Rivers (obvs!)
2. Portal out for colour outputs. Add a TextureBase which intelligently masks different types of topology, such as slopes.

3. Add a portal to the Rivers node from the Rivers output. You can export this directly for your mask, but if you want an integrated colour map, use two SatMaps one for the ground and one for the river, then use the River node output for the mask on the combine node.

Colour output (combined)

Rivers mask output

Source tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLWplfkYDdQ

Blender output

100 million polygons and lots of maps. Work-in-progress for sure.

Gaea 2.3: More basics

 After tinkering for a few days, I feel like I've come a long way with the basics, while recognising how much deeper you can go. Watching artists like Maarten Nauta build node trees that are ten times larger than mine, I can't quite cogitate how much nuance I'm lacking in my builds.

There are still many areas I need to learn:  

Combine:

Fully understand the Combine node. It's about the most important of all nodes as it controls how different nodes are mixed together through blending modes:

By default, Combine blends equally between input nodes. Alternate blend modes are like Photoshop blend modes -- same maths:

BlendBlends the values of the two inputs.AddAdds Input2 to Input1.ScreenAdds Input2 to Input1 without overexposing the output.SubtractSubtracts Input2 from Input1.MultiplyMultiplies Input1 by Input2.DivideDivides Input1 by Input2.MaxSelects the higher of the two inputs.MinSelects the lower of the two inputs.SqRtThe square root of the two combined terrains.PowerUses Input2 to create exponents of Input1.DifferenceCreates the difference of the two inputs.InsertInsert relatively flat and isolated shapes into an uneven surface, such as sand dunes, while retaining the flatness of the rocks..EmbedEmbed any shape into any other terrain by performing a height-preserving add function.

Output

Outputs are clamped by default. This means the output is bounded between 0 and 1, preventing odd side effects. Remove Clamp if you think the blend is removing too much displacement, but use the Autolevel feature from the Enhanced drop-down.

Keyboard shortcuts: https://docs.quadspinner.com/Guide/Interface/Keyboard.html

Better terrain blending: I need to learn how to mask!

See Modify Shapes.

Rock scatters: Another feature that appears to be stronger in Gaea than World Creator, although not by much.

Biomes: How to create different landforms through masking -- I assume that it's mask-based, like World Creator.

Materials: I've hardly touched materials because I use True Terrain for that. I should still get some hands-on, given that Gaea appears to be really good at creating surface weathering.

Gaea School: The basics

 This morning, I intend to throw myself into an all-morning intensive training session to get an overview of Gaea's basic operations and workflows.

Gaea UI (v2.3.0.1)

Main Menu

On the top bar is Gaea's main menu. From here, you select:

File

Edit

Graph
Node

Preview

Tools

Help

Viewport

The top panel is Gaea's viewport, which displays the terrain you are creating. Note above that the map view is activated via the viewport menu, so that you get a top-down view as well as the 3d view. You can change the main view to 2d.

Viewport resolution. 1k by default. 2k and 4k are available, with corresponding performance costs.

Control the viewport with:

 WSAD keys: Basic movement 

Mouse scroll wheel: Zoom in or out

Alt+Left Mouse button+ Mouse movement: Orbit

Infinite Graph

Gaea's procedural magic flows from this node-based graph. There are many node types and rules governing how they can interact. This is going to take some time to learn.

The key points:

• Each node is a heightfield processor that performs a single task. By connecting several nodes, you can create an elaborate program or "recipe" for creating a complex process.
  
  
• Node graphs can only go from left to right, never the opposite. They represent a one-way flow.
  
  
• Split your terrain graph across multiple tabs using Portals and Chokepoints. This allows you to separate concerns, such as creating the main shape, colour production, and exporting masks. 

See Portals and Checkpoints.

Properties Panel

To the right is a vertical panel that contains the parameters for your selected node. This is where you tweak any available properties. It's context-driven, so the properties change depending on what node you select.

Watching Time

Quadspinner YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@quadspinner

Introduction to Gaea 2.0: https://youtu.be/3fGU98Hn5Us?si=xIjx6tBZ0hxWYgH9

Starter Guide Video - https://youtu.be/2BMOmQJTXsQ?si=GE2PPZdPapuvlY4a

Gaea to Blender workflow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcJmrgPHqGI


Another quick output!

Not to hard to use. Just so many options and parameters.