Tablelands

[bobbystahr]

Ray traced shadows.

Huh...I always have that on and never get that effect without Ambient Occlusion set to at least 3....Paid or Free ver. maybe that'd make the difference with the amount of AA and Detail you can get on a paid version. I'm on the Free.

[Oshyan]

Paid/Free should not make a difference, and using AO instead of GI just makes things *less* accurate. GISD includes the AO effect (darkening in occluded areas), along with bounce as well, so it should give you appropriate darkening *as well as* light bounce. I don't know why people seem to like using AO instead of GI so much (it's a common recommendation here, "switch to AO!"), but I guess the look may be preferable somehow in certain cases.

- Oshyan

[AP]

The previous render, i had Ray traced shadows off and the shadows were less deep and everything seemed less tactile, less real.

[bobbystahr]

Paid/Free should not make a difference, and using AO instead of GI just makes things *less* accurate. GISD includes the AO effect (darkening in occluded areas), along with bounce as well, so it should give you appropriate darkening *as well as* light bounce. I don't know why people seem to like using AO instead of GI so much (it's a common recommendation here, "switch to AO!"), but I guess the look may be preferable somehow in certain cases.

- Oshyan

I confess, for me it gives a comix feel to a render and as a former underground comix maker I guess I have set preferences. To be truthful I'm sorta amazed I haven't started working in B&W in Terragen, hee hee hee. Be more appropriate for this colourblind old fart.

[efflux]

I really like some of the forms you have here. What it needs is more variation. That's easier said that done though. The rock distribution on the ground is a typical fractal pattern that needs broken up or at least it's following a fractal looking patterns in terms of the slope it's adhering to. It looks like these forms on the cliffs work well though in terms of looking good close and far.

[AP]

I tried my best to keep the stones along the slopes as a faked talus. What is lacking here is proper erosion, specifically talus erosion where it should have deposition built up in concentrated form at the bases of the stepper parts of the terrain.

[Dune]

You can fake talus slopes by first raising the terrain into a talus region, then from certain height up (or masked by a reduced color if you displaced the talus from a color base) increase height and add strata.

[archonforest]

WOW very nice! I like it a lot. Keep it

[bobbystahr]

You can fake talus slopes by first raising the terrain into a talus region, then from certain height up (or masked by a reduced color if you displaced the talus from a color base) increase height and add strata.

I for one would like to see an example(visual) of how this works out and the network to do it...got lost at 'raising the terrain into a the talus region'.

[Dune]

Here you go.

[AP]

This is what i wanted to do, the fine build up at the base of the slopes.

[bobbystahr]

Here you go.

gracias

[AP]

That is an interesting method and i would be very willing to try it out for certain.

[Dune]

It's probably hard to get the 'cones' of debris excatly where the gullies are, but perhaps if you use a low octave biased perlin or softened ridged perlin for the cone displacement and then a wider upward displacement for the whole hard rock, and then use the initial cone mask to 'erode' the gullies out of that shape again.... or a second planet with the hard rock. There are possibilities no doubt.

[bobbystahr]

It's probably hard to get the 'cones' of debris excatly where the gullies are, but perhaps if you use a low octave biased perlin or softened ridged perlin for the cone displacement and then a wider upward displacement for the whole hard rock, and then use the initial cone mask to 'erode' the gullies out of that shape again.... or a second planet with the hard rock. There are possibilities no doubt.

Well that talus.tgd got loaded and is my wont I started tweaking stuff and wound up with this terrain. Added a fakestone layer in the flats and when it was textured I said, "hey that looks like caustics from water." Then added the same PF to the ground under the FSs as a weak child which worked so I added a lake, dialed native displacement out and added a Displacement shader using the same PF as it's Function and broke it up a bit with a Distribution shader and Bob's your Uncle...still don't have the grass clump texture any where near where I'd like it. I'm Red/Green colour blind, an unfortunate affliction for one who loves Terragen. I'm making an open request for clip files of any and all grass shaders you've made if y'all woldn't mind helping the disabled(half joking)
C & C welcome as well. I'll share the .tgc for the Caustics PF if any one wants it.