In C4 Pro when working with sky and terrain I frequently end up with horizon and land when I don't want it. Checking and unchecking "Enable Ground" seems to have no effect. Likewise, fiddling with "Horizon Altitude" doesn't accomplish much. Any thoughts? I've been tilting every object in my scenes as a work-around, but this is pretty clumsy because I don't always really want to have every object parented to the terrain (or any of the many various permutations). I guess the clearest way to word this is: "Is there a way to have 'sky' any place there is no other object? Thanks for any feedback.

Not sure what you mean. Perhaps a visual might help?

example

Turning off the Enable Ground option still leaves this haze layer. I agree with you, it would be real nice if turning it off would provide sky from top to bottom.

I have also played with the Horizon Altitude, going from the largest positive value it would accept to the largest negative value it would accept, and saw no difference at all. It does not seem to have any effect.

The only alternative I could find was to do what you are trying, tilt the scene and camera towards the sky.

Lower the camera closer to the ground and rotate it so that it's pointing up over the horizon, or make the world size bigger in the terrain editor which will make the terrain bigger, but adds more features, rather than just rescaling.

Yes , I think you would have to raise/lower your scene and play with the camera height could help too. Mike

Moving the camera is not an option. That destroys the shot you're going for. Ditto with making world bigger.

...tilting the whole scene is a perfect solution, but it's just clumsy. It shouldn't be necessary.

Well, I got some pretty good results lowering the horizon to -100in, but I started with a rather large world. Tilting the scene or just raising it up may be your only option, but here's the quickest way to do it: Ctrl+A, Ctrl+G. Tilt (or raise) then Ctrl+Shift+G. Don't parent everything to the terrain, that's madness!!!

...yea, I know that routine. I hope Eovia fixes this, though.

How far did you try to lower the horizon? I got it to go all the way to -2000, and by then I was in the outer atmosphere, so I stopped....

I've tried both extremes and saw only minimal improvement.

Seems to me you are fighting the inherent properties of a virtual 3d space. The horizon is a perspective issue that you can only change by moving your POV.

You seem to be thinking of the sky as being projected on the inside of a sphere which is not really the case.

(Hmmmm, I'm gonna get some flames on this one! :-) Message edited on: 01/14/2005 07:22

Message edited on: 01/14/2005 07:25

...yes, I'm aware of that, sailor. I'm looking for practicalities though, not semantics.

In which case I would follow the advice given by brainmuffin and mmoir

...at the risk of repeating myself I got the same results as post number 4 ;) No matter. I'll just stick with the 'tilt' routine until Eovia fixes it.

How about using a sky image as a backdrop?

www.youtube.com/user/ShawnDriscollCG

Thanks, Shonner. I do that sometimes. I still have a fondness for good ole Terragen :) I'd still like C4 to be able to handle this. They've done a nice job with skies, but this little quirk puts a wrinkle in things. I can live with the 'tilt' workaround. It's a little clumsy, but not a deal breaker.

Tunesy, Have you tried selecting your terrains and camera at once and then raising them until the horizon is at the right spot.This way your "shot" doesn't change but the horizon line does with respect to your mountains. This was done in post#9's description.Just a thought. Mike

the white part is where the haze appears. To get this part really looking good, you have to increase the haze and the hazealtitude. Another thing is, if the horizon is visibel but there is nothing. Then, just duplicate your terrain, rotate it and use it to fill the background. Or put an infinte plane and make it to water. Here in this image the horizon is nearly as high as the top of the mountain on the right. So you will need a lot of fill up. This is no bug. It is a simulation of the world and so, if there is nothing, nothing (white nothing) is to see.

...I guess I should have clarified. I want to preserve the elements and space of the shot I created. I don't want to "fill the background" or "make it to water". I'll just stick with the 'tilt' (or 'raise', thanks, guys) workaround for now. It works fine and isn't that big of a hassle usually.

Message edited on: 01/19/2005 13:06

I recommend using a flat ground plane and then adding the Mirror shader to it. This will render as if the sky were present above and below the horizon line, but you'll have to be careful where you place the obejct in your scene, because they will cause a reflection in the ground plane. Tilting the ground plane a little will fix this sometimes, but it will also throw off your mirror of the sky. Here is an example, of what this could look like all from from Carrara 3 Render.

But the best way to go would be to render the Objects and the Sky seperate, and then Re-Render the Object as a Mask. You could then import all of these images into Photoshop and be able to clear everything away, from the Objects layer, you want NP. This scene was done with that method. Actually, the background layer is about a half dozen different sky's with varying Opacity's!

Cool :) Doesn't do what I'm looking for, but a nice technique to have in ones tool box when the time is right. Thanks, Angel.

Tunesy, there is one other theory I have that I haven't tested out yet. instead of tilting everything, move the camera veeeerrrrrrrrry far back, and shrink the production frame. if there's something behind where you've placed the camera that will get in the way, then try using a wide angle lens and a small production frame.

You guys are great )) Thanks for all the input. Frankly, I've moved on. When this issue comes up it's just not that hard to address, but thanks for all the helpful info. I love it ) Now I have to pester you all...in the Amapi forum! ;) P.S. -- I just love C4 Pro and Amapi...more fun than a guy should be allowed to have...))