Copper Canyons

[efflux]

A new image that I thought was interesting enough to post a link here:


http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/media/folder_151/file_1504890.jpg

After telling some people I would quit messing with TG2 for a while until I finish other pressing work, I couldn't resist from finishing this planet, being a TG2 junky already.

I tried to get steeper gorge like terrains. There is a thread here:

http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=1266.msg12605#msg12605

Thanks to ProjectX for starting this and discussing the ideas. I used a very simple set up where I just multiplied and clamped an altitude node, sent it to a displacement shader function input with a power fractal on the other input and then to compute terrain. Some more complex methods are discussed on the thread. My idea was to be able to render canyon or gorge type scenes with bigger distances in the renders. Normally you see these scenes done with heightfields. Ironically I then chose a POV that looks exactly like what you'd do with a heightfield so I may look for other POVs. I should also tweak this for more extreme canyon style terrain because I didn't take that far enough.

The steep areas are Voronoi functions as most of you will probably know by now. I wish we had voronoi basis capability from inside the power fractal shader because that would open up fantastic material possibilities. On this planet, I really want more voronoi variation which will be difficult to do with present TG2 capabilities.

Is it possible to distribute fake stones by slope without messing up their materials? I can't find a way to do this.

[rcallicotte]

efflux, that is a pretty cool image.  Did you use image mapping or is this all PFS?

[old_blaggard]

Nice colors.

[moodflow]

Wow, that DOES look like copper in the canyon.  Very nice!

[ProjectX]

This has some sweet texturing! I'd love to see how you did it!

[efflux]

Thanks for comments.

As for the displacements. It's all procedural. I have not finalized the methods for this yet. There is a thread here:

http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=1414.msg14163#msg14163

mogn provided a couple of files. The .tgd is closest to how I'm trying to resolve this method. I am not using the nodes called 600, Add scalar, and abs scalar. I am using voronoi 3D diff scalar instead of the perlin because voronoi is good for rocks. However this technique causes the functions to get stretched. This is actually a cool result but I'm trying to understand it. I am experimenting with various versions. I've even tried using vectors instead of scalars but I've not resolved it all yet.

What exactly is the purpose of abs scalar?

Maybe some other people with a bit more function know how, including mogn, can take a look at the altnoise.tgd on that thread and explore the possibilities further. I'm a bit lacking in time now and I can't produce any new work for a while but I may knock as few renders out from existing planets.

The more detailed surfacing on the rocks is simply standard blending of various surfaces. You can really create incredibly rich surfaces in TG2. Absolute lightyears beyond TG 0.9.

[mogn]

The reason for the abs scalar, is to prevent division by zero, and the purpose for abs(x)/(abs(x)+1) is to convert a unknown range to a number between 0 and 1.

[sjefen]

Just awsome

[efflux]

I have solved the fake stones slope issue I was having but sadly not before I did the above render where I distributed by altitude.

The first screen shot shows a standard set up with fake stones plugged in as a child layer to another layer with slope distribution - so the stones are not on steep slopes but you can see that the stones surface shader is also being controlled by slope - only on the top of the stones. To solve this, I disconnected the stones surface shader and plugged it into a second surface layer which also has the same slope distribution but no colour. The fake stones shader is being used to blend the shader going into this surface layer. This surface layer's slope constraints are set to terrain normal so the geometry from the stones on the previous surface layer is ignored.

[jo]

Hi mogn,

The reason for the abs scalar, is to prevent division by zero

The Divide nodes handle division by zero safely, see here. That documentation has just been added recently.

Regards,

Jo

[efflux]

That's what I thought because it simply works.

[Volker Harun]

It works!
- Surface 01 is the original Distribution
- Surface 02 distributes the colour
- The Powerfractal does the colour.

Brilliant and thanks for sharing!

Volker

[Matt]

Hi efflux,

Why not simply change the first Surface Layer to use Terrain Normal? You should not need two separate surface layers to solve this problem.

Matt

[Volker Harun]

Matt,

true ... but why didn't you tell us this ... hmmm ... 6 months ago? For that time everybody had a bloody time with Fake Stone Shaders ,-)

Efflux,

still your way is good for simultanous masking of another stone shader (with smaller stones, that should not sit on the large ones).

Volker

[Matt]

Hi Volker,

I think I've answered questions like this quite a few times. If not I apologise.

Matt