fake stones colours

[jacquesd]

is there something weird about fakestones colours, i read most advices on the forum but there is always (on my files only) some stones which take the base colour or the surface layer above with or without distribution shader... when i use the distribution shader of the stones inverted and connected as a blending shader for the surface layers above the non shaded stones turn black, is it a bug or do i miss something ? as always sorry for my english

[billhd]

It's hard to answer this as stated, but for starters, try using a surface layer to provide the color of the fake stone, not the distribution shader. You can use the color checkbox of the surface layer to provide a single color, or uncheck it and connect a color power fractal (with dispacement unchecked under the displacement tab if you just want to look at the color) to the child input of the surface layer. then use this approach to try again with your blending shader.  Good luck  -Bill

[jacquesd]

yes it is exactly what i have done but there is always a certain amount of stones that dont get the surface shader plugged into the fakestone shader but instead, take the shading of the above node, if i use my fake stone's blending shader to mask the above surface layer (inverted of course) the non shaded stones takes the next above surface layer, in my case, base colour shader and of course if i mask all surface layers above with my fakestone's blending shader the non shaded stones turned black... i was suspecting the distribution shader of the stones to be the cause of my problem but with certain files it works and with other not... anyway thanks for your advices bill hd

[Tangled-Universe]

Can you post the .tgd showing the problem?

Cheers,
Martin

[dandelO]

I suspect that you're using slope constraints in your distribution shaders for the stones, is this right?
If so, you'll want to ensure that they are using the correct 'slope key'. The default slope key in a distribution shader and a surface layer is 'final normal'. Change that to 'terrain normal' and your problem should go away.

[bobbystahr]

I tend, as a colour blind person, to use image maps with a Surface Shader for the stones colouring myself. I just get an image of stone with a lot of variation in the colour and scale the image so that the colour disperses nicely dropping differing colour on all the stones but keeping them within a 'designated palette' from the stone/rock map. Do as dandelO  indicates for the rest of your problem as that's my path as well. RE: displacement and exploding rocks...I simply assign my image map also to he displacement tab and scale it small to start and increase it till I have the look I'm after..see attachment...I used a -0.5 displacement of the Colour Shader for the Displacement .  ..   ...

[jacquesd]

  Wow, this community has great talents, thanks for your feedback (nether seen this on other forums), dandelio you exactly find the clue !! using terrain normals fixed my problem so thanks again! unfortunately i can't send the tgd as i used a lot of image maps and the heightfield is also a huge map (4096x2), unless of course if it has an interest for you without them, let me know