Grass Clump

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Grass Clump

Node Description and Purpose:
The Grass Clump object creates, as the name suggests, a clump of grass. The clump is round. The grass is made up of individual blades. The blades are denser toward the center of the clump. It's a simple but effective object. It might not stand up to close scrutiny but it's good for near middle to far distances.

Although a surface shaderA shader is a program or set of instructions used in 3D computer graphics to determine the final surface properties of an object or image. This can include arbitrarily complex descriptions of light absorption and diffusion, texture mapping, reflection and refraction, shadowing, surface displacement and post-processing effects. In Terragen 2 shaders are used to construct and modify almost every element of a scene. is created for the clump when the nodeA single object or device in the node network which generates or modifies data and may accept input data or create output data or both, depending on its function. Nodes usually have their own settings which control the data they create or how they modify data passing through them. Nodes are connected together in a network to perform work in a network-based user interface. In Terragen 2 nodes are connected together to describe a scene. is created the surface just has a grey default colour. You will need to change it to an appropriate colour.

Node Type: Object


  • Population mode: TBC

  • Visible to camera: If this is checked the grass clump is visible to cameras such as the render camera. In other words it will show up in renders. If this is unchecked the grass clump won't show up in renders. However if, for example, the Cast shadows checkbox is checked then the shadows cast by the grass clump will still be visible.

  • Visible to other rays: When this is checked the grass clump is visible to various rays which are traced during rendering, such as reflection, transparency and GI rays. As an example, if this was unchecked the grass clump would not show up in reflections.

  • Cast shadows: This should be checked if you want the grass clump to cast shadows.

  • Double-sided surface: If this is checked object surfaces are double sided. A single sided surface is only visible from the "front", which is the direction the surface normal is pointing. If you look at it from the other direction the surface isn't visible. Double sided surfaces are visible from all directions.

  • Use smooth normals: If this is checked the object normals are interpolated to make the surface appear smooth. If it's unchecked the surface will look faceted.

  • Flip normals: Check this to flip or reverse the object normals.

  • Number of blades: This sets the number of grass blades in the clump.

  • Clump diameter: Use this to set the diameter of the clump.

  • Blade length: This sets the maximum length, or height, of the grass blades. The blades are given random lengths up to this value.

Transform tab

  • Translate: This sets the position of the object.
  • Rotate: This rotates the object about its origin. The order of the values is heading, pitch then bank.

  • Scale: You can use this parameterA parameter is an individual setting in a node parameter view which controls some aspect of the node. to scale the object in the X, Y and Z directions.

  • Import chan file: Clicking this button allows you to import a .chan file for animating the object position and rotation.

Additional tabs for Grass Clump[edit]