UltraScenery by published artistHowieFarkes is a powerful tool to build highly detailed natural scenes in DAZ Studio. It has the capability of creating thousands of instances of trees, shrubs, stones, etc. providing a rich environment without needing millions of polygons.

The system allows plenty of add-on ecosystems that can be found from around the world. There are also several toolbox products (scripts) created by Code66 (Totte) to make working with UltraScenery easier and to improve the realism of scenes even further.

This tutorial set shows the usage of UltraScenery, including power tips and best practices from Totte (Code66) who demonstratesUltraScenery as well as his script toolkits. Key members from the Digital Art Live community added their knowledge and experiences to this tutorial set by sharing their own renders and recommendations.

Tutorial Content

Total running time: 3 hours and 12 minutes

MP4 video files and searchable / captioned versions of the tutorials included.

Rgcincy's PDF slide set on using height maps in UltraScenery

1. UltraScenery whats in the box and basic use

- Whats included with UltraScenery?
- Demonstrate best practices of the four-step use:

a. Create a heightmap for the terrain

b. Choose a landscape feature (road, stream, pond, etc)

c. Choose an Ecology (the plants and other elements)

d. Build the Scene.

- About randomizing the terrain and the ecology
- Using vegetation layers
- Adjusting the water settings

2. Whats essential to add on to UltraScenery and why

- The Accelerator performance differences with and without

3. Tottes Favourite Ecosystems

4. Tottes Toolkit 1 Demonstrated

- Hide/show ecology elements in the scene
- Height map generator
- Mask builder

5. Tottes Toolkit 2 Demonstrated

- Mixing ecologies the advantages
- Editing ecologies
- Ecology layers
- UST Instance Group locator

6. Tottes other natural scenery scripts

- Oso Alien Scenery
- Alienator Pro
- Hedgemaker

7. Community artwork, tips, and demonstrations

Searchable Sample

About the Presenter Totte (Code66)

Totte lives in Sweden and has been programming since the late 70s. He started to dabble in 3D back in the early 1990s with StrataVision 3D and later Bryce.

His interest in the world of DAZ Studio started around 2010, to create maps and handouts for the many tabletop role-playing game adventures he was writing and playing.

Totte then started to create some 3D content for DAZ Studio in 2015 and then gradually moved over to create more and more script-based products instead of pure 3D prop content.

His favorite tools for making 3D products and textures are Modo, UVLayout, the Substance suite, and FilterForge.

Totte has been an independent IT consultant for over 20 years, and also has been using DAZ Studio renders in dialogs in many bespoke development projects for various clients to brighten up otherwise boring programs!

He spends a lot of time walking the dogs and tries to play role-playing games as much as time provides.