Document: Shoreline Link: https://horo.ch/docs/mine/pdf/Shoreline.pdf Link to Textures: https://horo.ch/docs/mine/zip/Horo-Shores.zip Shoreline or Coastline Looking from a lake or the sea to a land, there is often white foam created by the waves where the water splashes onto the coast. It looks like a white line on the coast and this can be added to a Bryce scene. Introduction Here are two examples. The left one is Harsh Coast and the right one Approach Isle. Both are Bryce renders. Note that all pictures are embedded in the original size. Use the zoom option in your PDF viewer to enlarge. [2 Pictures] The line is a texture used in the Materials Lab to control the size of the line and its position and colour on the terrain. This can be a bit tricky and may need some time to experiment until you get it as you want. Create the Texture First, you have to create the texture in the Deep Texture Editor (DTE) and save it to the Textures library. Once this is done, you can access it any time. Creating a new texture The easiest way to create a new empty texture is to start Bryce, create a terrain - and never mind what comes up and with what random material. Enter the Terrain Editor (TE) by clicking on [E]. In the Editing Tools, the Elevation tab is already selected, else select it. Then hold down the [Shift] key and click on Picture. This opens the Deep Texture Editor (DTE) with an empty texture (holding down the [Ctrl] key opens the Pictures library). On top left, only component 1 is selected, also select component 2. On both components enable ambience [A] and set the top colour to fully white (the middle and bottom one can stay black). The Color Mode (down arrow on the bottom left of any component) can stay at None. The link between the components is set to Parallel. Click on it and select Difference from the drop down. Click on the button on top left of component 1 to open the Noise control. Click on Edit Noise (left of the word Noise). The Type is already at Nothing and the Mode at Standard. Set Octaves to 3, Direction XY to 90, YZ to 0, Frequency X=Y=Z=760 and set a dot to 3D. Click on the button on top right of component 1 to open the Filter. It is set to None. Click on None and select X(a*Altitude+b). Below the text at left is the a variable, at right the b one and below the c. They are all set to 0. <<<< Page 2 >>>> For component 1 set a to about 47.3, b to about -0.14 and c to 2. Now move the mouse into the square picture of component 1, hold down the left mouse button (LMB) and pull the picture into the field of component 2. It has now the same settings and since the components are added by Difference, the combination is black. [Picture] - DTE with the finished texture to be saved. On top of the Filter window, set the dot to the second hole to select component 2. Now change the a and b values: a to about 94.8, b to about -5.3, keep c at 2. The combination should show a black window with a white line at the bottom. See picture at right. Saving the new texture If you close the DTE now, your work is lost. Save it in the Textures library. On the right side of the combination are two buttons. Do NOT click on the lower one, because your work will be replaced by a random texture. Clicking on the top one opens the Textures library with your just made texture shown on top left. Installed may not be your choice of a category. Click on the down arrow right of Installed to open a list of included topics. You can also click on the + sign above the down arrow to add a new Category. Once you have chosen the a category you want to use, click on Add to put your newly made texture into the library. Using the provided ones If you do not like to go through all this creating texture stuff, you can use the one provided on my website: https://horo.ch/docs/mine/zip/Horo-Shores.zip (3,614 bytes). It contains the texture Horo-Shores.brt. There are two means to add it to the Texture library. 1. Use Explorer (or whatever tool you use to see the folders and files) and navigate to where your Bryce is installed. Open the Presets folder and there open the Textures folder. Select the folder (the category) you want to use or create a new folder (in my modesty, I have a folder named Horo). Copy the file Horo-Shores.brt into it. 2. If you have selected the folder of your choice or created a new category, click on Import and in the File Open dialogue; select the file Horo-Shores.brt. That's it. The file contains 4 textures: ShoreCalm (that's the one described above), ShoreFoamy, ShoreSpaying and ShoreViolent. Add the Shore Texture to the Terrain Material At right is a simple scene with a default terrain and the ground plane as the water. Additionally, a simple default grey cylinder is added. Both show a white line just above the water surface. [Picture] The shore line can also be higher up the terrain, if you have a lake up there … <<<< Page 3 >>>> Below the material used on the terrain is shown. Here, we are only interested in Channel D with the shore texture. Set a dot on channel D of Ambience (1). A random texture appears. Click on the second button on top left of the random texture to open the Deep Texture Editor. At the right border of the combination window, click on the upper button to open the Textures library. Select your shore texture and leave the Textures library to return to the DTE, accept the loaded texture to get back to the Materials Lab. [Picture] Set the colour for Ambient (2), usually white is fine. Set Ambience to 100 (3), it may be reduced a bit later. Remember that in the Sky Lab Sun & Moon tab Ambient colour must be set to fully white, because this is a global control Vertical Position and Thickness The Shore texture in channel D can be set to Object Space or Global Space (4). Global Space is usually the one to use. By clicking on the top left button of a texture, the Edit Texture window opens. There are three groups: on top the size of the texture (% = percent), in the centre the orientation (° = degrees) and at the bottom the position (BU = Bryce Units). The vertical position Y is the one that is important (5). Here, it is set to 6, if this number is increased (e.g. to 8) the line descends, if the number is decreased (e.g. to 4) the line moves up. The Y value 6.0 BU assumes that the terrain or any object and the water surface are set at the ground level. The size on top is set to 6%. This is usually what you need. However, there may be cases you want to change it. If it is set higher then 6, the line gets finer, less thick, but it moves down, which has to be compensated by adjusting Y (5). If it is set lower, the line gets thicker and moves up. Again, this must be compensated with Y (5). If you need to adjust the size and position, use a simple object like a cylinder with default grey and only the texture in channel D as shown on the second page and play with it until you get it the way you need it. Then copy the values to the main object, usually the terrain, and get rid of the cylinder. <<<< Page 4 >>>> Position and Thickness Examples Below are five cylinders shown with different settings of the shore texture in channel D. Ambient colour for the shoreline is green. The red 2D-Face is at the ground level where usually the water is. The centre cylinder has the default values X=Y=Z 6 and position Y at 6. [Picture] The left and right cylinder show what happens if the position Y is changed, the size is at the default 6. The far left and far right cylinders have the position Y at default 6 but the size X/Y/Z was changed. Note that you usually see only what is above the ground level (red line). The part below the ground is usually invisible but if the water is rather transparent and the part of the terrain that is under the water surface is flat, it is visible and this may not always be appreciated. A note on Ambience An object with Ambience glows without shadows and therefore no Bump is visible. Even with a black sky, no atmospheric effects like haze, no sun, no light source, it glows: perfect for a camp fire. Using Ambience for a shoreline is a cheat and physically wrong. If you do a night or low light scene, remember to adjust Ambient colour and lower the Ambience level. Wrap Up By adjusting the colour of Ambient and the level of Ambience, you can also use such a shoreline as a sandy beach as shown at right from the Lost Rock Isle. The Ambience colour for the shoreline is R/G/B 150/170/180, grey with a blue hue and Ambience set to 50. The Y position is 0, therefore higher up. [Picture] Hopefully, this example encourages you to experiment with this shoreline option. February 2023/horo