Help creating non-rectangular land

Ibby

L1: Registered
Nov 1, 2009
3
0
Hey,

I would really appreciate some help. Basically I would like to create a a piece of land that looks like this. I've tried, but I always end up making something blocky and with sharp edges.

1532plf.jpg


Also, it would be great if the water would reach and overlap the shoreline, but I'm having trouble doing that ( I dont want the water to be like a square when it touches the shoreline, maybe an irregular overlap). Like the picture below.

1262rg2.jpg


Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
 

Ibby

L1: Registered
Nov 1, 2009
3
0
Everything you want can be achieved using displacements.

I've tried using displacements, but how would I be able to make the edges sort of circular?

EDIT: Nevermind, since you said it could be achieved with displacements, I played around with them some more. Changing the axis and power helped. Thanks for your help guys!

Would this work with water though? Because creating a displacement would destroy the other faces....
 
Last edited:

UKCS-Alias

Mann vs Machine... or... Mapper vs Meta?
aa
Sep 8, 2008
1,264
816
Water cant be displaced and instead just go through the displacements. This will give the effect you want.
 

Ibby

L1: Registered
Nov 1, 2009
3
0
But what If I want to shape the water edges? Instead of being straight to a bit more curvy...
 

littleedge

L1111: Clipping Guru
aa
Mar 2, 2009
986
605
I'm just going to use a few numbers for examples.

Make 4 512x512 brushes that, together, make a 1024x1024 sized area. Displace the top face.
Make 1 1024x1024 brush with nodraw. Then texture the top face with a water texture of your choice. Place it beneath your ground displacements.
Using the tools provided to you for displacing, lower the ground so that part of the ground is beneath the water, part is above. You now have a little island.

If you wanted to make it look like there were actual waves going against the coast, you'd have to have moving overlays (I think) and it's not TF2-like -- Don't do it.
 

gamemaster1996

L13: Stunning Member
Sep 30, 2009
1,064
134
Also in the jungle pack there's a wave prop although im not sure if it'll help.
 

Stormcaller3801

L5: Dapper Member
Jul 5, 2009
249
28
If I understand what you're looking for, you can get the effect you want with just displacements, akin to what I have here:

shenanigans_a40000.png


Only without the ugly purple and black checkerboard, because you'll have built cubemaps. It's a pretty simple process of altering the shape of the land and extending it below the surface of the water- in that image the entire room has a displacement for the floor, it just dips below the waterline in areas and then comes back up again.

I do suggest using some sort of blend texture for your displacement, as it'll allow you to better define the shore and whether or not the water is there long-term: grass doesn't grow underwater, generally speaking, so if there's grass down there, it can only be due to recent flooding of the area.

Of course, you could use greenery to represent algae or similar things, but most people would interpret it as grass, particularly if it connected to the surface and matched in color.