Downed and found

[Dune]

The mud needs some work, I admit.

[Mahnmut]

Maybe some puddles would increase the realism of the mud.
Greetings,
J

[TheBadger]

nice concept Dune. But its not reading as mud to me. Looks wet. But I don't feel like its any kind of surface I have seen in life.

[Dune]

That's why I wrote that the mud needed work ;-)

[gregsandor]

Try to smooth out the small peaks and most of the sand-grain stuff so it looks like wind- and water-slicked mud.  As it is now it is shiny, like water is suspended in it, but it doesn't have that liquid consistency.

[fleetwood]

Not to go crazy with semantics, but in my opinion mud is still mud even if it is all dried out and cracking up.

[Dune]

You can go all sorts of ways with mud, and while experimenting I came up with a tidal marsh environment; very wet mud and some stagnant water in the lowest parts, dried out and a bit eroded in the upper parts, which are covered in veggies. I can do better than this (yes, we can), but it's much better than it was , IMHO.
I was experimenting with displacement based on color, added smooth step and a bias function with a ridgy perlin as function input to get some sort of eroded edges. Lowest areas (which I kept quite smooth) with a RT reflective shader. This has the benefit of wetness moving up-mud, so to speak, not the harsh line when 'lake' meets land.

[Dune]

Another version. First was made with a concocted procedural river system (z to scalar, sinus stuff, some SShape masks  + another simple shape for the main stream), but that's far from perfect. I wish (hint, hint) someone would dream up a procedural blue node soft edged tapering 'tree' which can be used as a mask for a river with some random tributaries.
Second was made from a mask made in WM, some sort of flow system.

[Jo Kariboo]

I very like the n. function-terraintest_28-04-13-v1.jpg, nice mud !!!

[TheBadger]

like these new ones much better.