I was digging around my old files and found a scene with a very low 
resolution heightfield that has a nice shape, but is jagged where it 
intersects my "water" plane regardless of the smooth setting. Somehow, 
back in 2007 I was able to increase the "resolution" of the heightfield 
by giving it a black to white texture and capturing an image of it using 
an orthographic camera hanging directly above it.

The scene still "works" in the sense that the output is another 
heightfield. However it is not smooth! I.e. the low-resolution geometry 
of the original heightfield is noticeable, even with the smooth setting 
turned on. Maybe I made some changes in the interim... Maybe I was using 
an older version of POV...

Any ideas?

-Mike

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SharkD wrote:
> I was digging around my old files and found a scene with a very low 
> resolution heightfield that has a nice shape, but is jagged where it 
> intersects my "water" plane regardless of the smooth setting. Somehow, 
> back in 2007 I was able to increase the "resolution" of the heightfield 
> by giving it a black to white texture and capturing an image of it using 
> an orthographic camera hanging directly above it.
> 
> The scene still "works" in the sense that the output is another 
> heightfield. However it is not smooth! I.e. the low-resolution geometry 
> of the original heightfield is noticeable, even with the smooth setting 
> turned on. Maybe I made some changes in the interim... Maybe I was using 
> an older version of POV...
> 
> Any ideas?
> 
> -Mike

A related question is how can I create good heightfields in paint 
programs? Everything I do ends up looking very pixelated, or like a 
terraced field.

-Mike

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SharkD wrote:
> SharkD wrote:
>> I was digging around my old files and found a scene with a very low 
>> resolution heightfield that has a nice shape, but is jagged where it 
>> intersects my "water" plane regardless of the smooth setting. Somehow, 
>> back in 2007 I was able to increase the "resolution" of the 
>> heightfield by giving it a black to white texture and capturing an 
>> image of it using an orthographic camera hanging directly above it.
>>
>> The scene still "works" in the sense that the output is another 
>> heightfield. However it is not smooth! I.e. the low-resolution 
>> geometry of the original heightfield is noticeable, even with the 
>> smooth setting turned on. Maybe I made some changes in the interim... 
>> Maybe I was using an older version of POV...
>>
>> Any ideas?
>>
>> -Mike

What seems to have happened is that I modified the heightfield in 
Photoshop. I no longer have Photoshop, and the apps I do have don't 
operate in 16+ bit mode. Thus I was getting weird results such as the 
terraced effect.

> A related question is how can I create good heightfields in paint 
> programs? Everything I do ends up looking very pixelated, or like a 
> terraced field.
> 
> -Mike

This topic and the one above are described very well in this forum thread:

http://www.bundysoft.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=639

I ended up downloading the software mentioned in it and modifying the 
heightfield using it. Worked well.

-Mike

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