Stratified Layers Tutorial

Version 0.7.x of Terragen added the ability to create stratified layers on landscapes like those you see in the Grand Canyon. This tutorial describes how to create them. [Note:Because this was created with v0.7, there may be slight differences in the controls for later versions.]

Since I wrote this, a far better way of doing all of this has come along. Sean O'Malley's SOPack plugin creates layers using a completely different method. But this concept of building layers in Surface Map can be used for other things as well.

1) Start out by creating a terrain with sharp canyon walls. I used these settings.
2) This is the terrain that was generated. Of course, your's will look different. The white line shows the camera which is looking left to right.
3) Set the main Surface Map to your base color. This will cover the entire surface of the terrain.
4) Create multiple bands. Each overlays the base surface map at the altitude and slope you set.
5) Here are the settings for the lowest band. The other bands are identical, except for the Altitude Constraint values. The values you use will depend on the minimum and maximum height of your terrain. Note that I have turned off the Slope Constraint. You may wish to play with this to change the location depending on your terrain. Also note that Coverage is set to max so that it covers the whole band, plus, both altitudes have the sharp/fuzzy setting at full sharp.
6) If you find that the bands aren't showing up, check the altitudes you have set. If you set a band between 60 and 70, but the highest peak on the terrain is 55, the band will never be seen. If you run your mouse over the terrain map on the Landscape dialog, you can see what the elevation at any point is on the bottom as the z coordinate.
7) Add a sky, set the sun behind the camera so as to show the cliff face well, and set the camera and target altitude to be about the top of the highest point you are looking at. Then, render.
8) These settings create very straight and full bands. To create more meandering and choppy bands, play with the various settings for each layer on the surface map dialog's Advanced Distribution tab. Also, try creating multiple, overlapping bands of the base color and the band color set to medium coverage.