Ocean Water Displacement Glitches

[ShaunDon]

Hey guys --

I'm working on an open ocean scene with a displaced plane for the water surface. The displacement map is a procedural smoke map that's a modification of the one used in the flavrsaver's oil rig scene. The problem that I'm having is that when I get the camera down to only a few feet above the surface, the waves are composed of stepping heights -- like an architect's physical model of site contours.

I've just about torn my hair out trying to resolve this issue, but so far I've only been able to reduce the size of the stepping by scaling down the UVW map size. Has anyone experienced this type of issue before? Is it unique to the smoke procedural map?

Thanks for the help!
Shaun

[vlado]

Are you using a 32-, or a 64-bit version of 3ds Max?

Best regards,
Vlado

[ShaunDon]

Oops, probably should have thought to include that! We're using 64-bit V-Ray 1.50.SP3a w/ max 2009 x64.

Thanks!

[vlado]

Try the 32-bit version then; it might look better. I know there is such a problem with the Noise map, so perhaps this concerns the smoke map as well.

Best regards,
Vlado

[ShaunDon]

Thanks Vlado. Our workstations and farm are all set up for 64-bit only, so it will take a considerable amount of labor to setup for 32-bit as well. Not sure I have the time to do that for this job, might just go with a Photoshop fix, but I'll give that a shot as soon as I'm able.

Thanks!
Shaun

[jozef_chvojka]

Hi Shaun,
maybe the quick solution is to render a bitmap out of your procedural and take care of tiling instead of retouching wrong places...
It depends on what's faster for you...

[bardo]

Thanks Vlado. Our workstations and farm are all set up for 64-bit only, so it will take a considerable amount of labor to setup for 32-bit as well. Not sure I have the time to do that for this job, might just go with a Photoshop fix, but I'll give that a shot as soon as I'm able.

Thanks!
Shaun

I'm not sure...but I think that Vlado would tell you to use a 32bit texture file format for the displacement... not the 32bit version of Vray render....

[ShaunDon]

Bardo --

I'm pretty sure that Vlado meant 3ds max when he suggested to try the 32-bit version, as he asked what version of max I was using in his first post. There is no texture file that I'm using, the displacement is generated by a procedural smoke map.

Jozef --

I did try this awhile back, but for my scene there's no real way to make a bitmap texture work. The amount of area that I need to cover means the texture would have to be fairly sizable, but also hold up to close inspection. The map had to be ridiculously large in order to get the crisp wave crests that the procedural map generates. I've attached an image of my latest ocean render so you can see. I've minimized the glitch so it doesn't show up unless you're right on top of the water, which should be sufficient until a fix is found.

Thanks guys!
Shaun

[dellis]

Shaun that's looking great!

[bardo]

Shaun...sorry...I didn't read right... sorry again

I've replied too fast...

Anyway....a good result

[ShaunDon]

Thanks guys, this has been a fun brain teaser. We only started doing naval work last year, so we've been working to refine our environments with every project we do. I'll make sure to post the finished renderings after we deliver next week!

[tammo]

Hi!
Have you tried to use a different scale or unit setup?
Maybe you could scale the ocean up and adjust the noise scale by the same amount.

[ShaunDon]

I ended up scaling down the UVW map size considerably and increasing the size in the smoke parameters. I don't really understand why this doesn't cause tiling in the smoke map, as every other procedural map has a definitive edge when using explicit map channel coordinates, but regardless it's working great!

[3DMK]

http://charles.hollemeersch.net/Projects/24/oceanwaves


This is a cool free procedural ocean surface generator [3D geometry]

It may be of use??? It looks very realistic and it's very easy to use.

Cheers

[ShaunDon]

Very cool! Definitely something worth exploring. I wonder how Max would handle it when expanded to cover more than a thousand square foot area -- even moreso if the camera sees the horizon. Certainly worth experimenting with, thanks for pointing that out!