How to build a blend-in scene
Regarding aesthetics, SC4 has a few shortcomings. Yes, like the jagged-edge-diagonals. But that's not my topic. I'm more concerned with clashing textures. You know, two squares meeting with a stark break on a straight line from one to the other, like rich grass to woodland or worse. In urban settings one might get away with it, it's manmade when pink marble meets grey asphalt. But in natural or rural settings, any straightline transition between textures looks ... well, unnatural. So here is a little demo that shows some possible ways out of this dilemma.
01
First of all, you need PEG's 'PPonds'. It has the necessary 'Water, Boulders, Rocks, Pebbles, Sand' and more. Another must-have are his 'Pinetrees' – get them all ;-). In this demo I also use some of his ploppable 'Forestry-Scenes' and the 'Rockmod' (mossy) matching the PPonds, both optional. Pegasus, thanks for all your creations!
02
Much needed is also the 'RRP Pasture Flora-Set' by Chris Adams. It offers very beautiful varieties of grass, flowers, bushes and shrubs. Kudos to Chris!
All the mentioned sets are located in the MajorMode-Menue, and I usually call them 'Brushes'. You'll get used to it ;-)
It's a good idea to train yourself with those brushes, as many of them react to multiple clicks, i.e. change of size and or position. Also try to remember how ploppable they are – some need space, some can overlay each other, some can even overlay or be plopped on other lots. It's good to know which does what, otherwise you'll have to redo stuff many times (bulldoze and do over).
Okay, let's rock – literally ;-)
03
Layout your lake. Use the smaller Tahoe-brush and leave lots of gaps for later adjustment. Leave on the grid (press 'G') for now, it helps a lot in seeing how the terrain flows and finding the 'hotspot' for each plopped item, i.e. to determine how far away you have to click to set a new item instead of upsizing/changing an existing one.
04
Now use the small shoreline-brush and sketch the shoreline. Leave lots of gaps again.
05
I decided on a heap of boulders and rocks along the northern shoreline. So start with the biggest brush (boulders) and place them randomly, but not too close together.
06
With the next brush, place rocks around the boulders, again randomly, though they should 'relate' to the biggies, concentrate some around the bases of the boulders (as if they were 'supporting' them).
07
Now use the brush 'cluster' to fill in the larger gaps. With some practice, you can really brush them on (click and drag), instead of placing them click by click. Don't forget the spaces behind the biggies – if in doubt, rotate the screen.
08
Next define the outer edge of rocks and boulders with the large shorelinebrush. Careful, don't brush – do it click by click, to get those spots where you want them. You're now reaching a point, where many spots are already 'taken', so if the item doesn't plop right away, carefully click around the desired spot, with some luck you'll find an empty pixel. If your trial-clicks lead you too far away from the desired spot, reconsider. Better to have no pebbles in a certain spot than having them where they don't make sense.
09
It's time to close the northern shoreline (below the rocks). Use the small shoreline-brush again. Make sure not to draw just one thin line, make it thicker (wider) in some places. Mix brushing and (trial-)clicking. Maybe set some waterplants in a nice spot.
10
Now if you were a rock, you may ask yourself: How did I get here?!
So, let's provide a reason. Build up a nice little cliff right behind the pile of rocks. Raise it to a height that shows the real rocktexture. Try to get nice sharp edges at the break-off point. Also gradually raise enough terrain around the cliff to make it rise up subtly out of the landscape.
Notice: If you are not yet familiar with precise terraforming, look (or ask) around. There are some very good tutorials on this important subject. Very important – Gods control terrain, not the other way around ;-P
11
Now extend the existing rockpile right into that cliff, tapering off towards the top. Use the various rockbrushes as described above.
12
At this point I like to stick some reedgrass between the rocks, it looks half dried up but tough. Try to place it 'between' big rocks and boulders, so it appears to grow out of those cracks. Less is more.
13
But remember, Mother Nature always finds a way. So plant also some fresh brightgreen shrubs and weeds (unless the landslide just happend, but that would be another scene...hmmm, cooking up a new desaster? ;)
14
Now we can close the shoreline all around. Again, let the width vary. This is your last, oh well, your best chance to still alter the basic layout (without bulldozing lots of finetuned work).
15
Before you fill in all the water, check if you want to add some more stuff – shoreline plants, waterlilies etc. If you want sparkles, stick a few 1x1 tiles (from the Parks menue) in the middle.
16
Now fill in the water. Work along the shoreline first with the smaller Tahoe-brush and watch how the water nicely seeps into the sand. Fill the rest with the larger Tahoe-brush, but try to do it with as few clicks as possible. If you 'layer' the water too much, it tends to get 'blotchy' (though in some cases this might also be a wanted style-element). Look at the following image closely – you see some darker spots, that's where the clicks overlap. Here it looks decent though, because I filled tile by tile, instead of using 'brushstrokes' (ohh, sweet patience and discipline *g*). Notice though, how one of my clicks wiped out a large part of my waterlilies (compare with no.15). I didn't 'repair' it, so you can see what might happen.
17
Okay, now comes the hard part. This technique is what I call 'Blending in'. My advice: Leave the grid still on, as it becomes more and more important to find a proper and valid clickspot. Besides, it is one of the highlights after some hours of tedious work to finally turn the grid off for the first time and see the results in their full beauty. Don't deprive yourself of this moment :-)
I picked a spot to the left of the rockfield to demonstrate the next steps. First, taper out big and small pebbles to the side. You may notice some bright sand between the rocks, I applied the sandbrush with one generous sweeping stroke across the rockfield, so it fills out the last open pixels. Careful with this brush, it's very bright and if you have too much sand it's hard zu tone down or camouflage (this is particularly noticable within shadows, the sand will often be still as bright as out in the open sunshine).
But to continue – you can see that I set sort of a boundary for rocks and pebbles, here I used the brush 'Moss' (that wet-greenish stuff on the left side). After the moss there shall be no more rocks or pebbles (sez I).
18
To further define, but at the same time soften this border, I spray some brown grass. Before spraying, move a bit to the side (where you can bulldoze safely) and try out, how this item behaves on clicks, if it overlaps and so on. Then use it with care and rather sparingly, you just want a thin layer. Make it too thick and it looks like hair ;-P
19
Continue with the same principles, using different kinds of green. By and by, overlapping can become a little denser than the brown grass.
20
Plant some bushes and weeds, in as many different shades of green as possible. Spray some flowers. Don't overdo it though, if either gets too thick, it starts looking crowded or, worse, tacky. Decide for one basic flower, here: yellow. Any other color (here: white) should just be an accent, not competition.
21
NOW turn off the grid! And be happy...!
As you see, you can make an almost seamless transition from any scene to the basic gametexture (or whatever TerrainMod you choose).
22
Let's just add some eyecandy to our landscape, some simple 'Forestry-scenes'.
23
Work around those pieces with all the techniques decribed above to incorporate them into the landscape. Notice the fences at bottom left? They are regular (square) lots, and they do have a basetexture, a rather bright, aquaish green. Still, I was able to cover that almost completely, just by choosing the right brushes. They blend in perfectly with the rest.
Notice also the little paths around and between the pieces, simply done with the small shoreline brush.
24
The greatest moment being a God – planting trees, nay, whole forests :-))
So here is the complete scene, and I think it would fit well into any mountainous region.
I hope you enjoyed this demo and perhaps find it even useful. Happy landscaping!
If you have questions or comments regarding this demo, feel free to join the simpeg forums.