Hello all!
It's been quite some time, maybe 2 years since I posted here. You know how life goes. Anyways, I thought I would go ahead and formally throw my hat in the ring so to speak. in an effort to both reconnect as well as get some feedback on one of my projects which I am aiming to submit. I also have a few questions that I am hoping some of you guru's out there might be able to help me out with, although I'm not sure this is the right thread for said questions. I will endeavor to keep my questions as specific and concise as possible and provide visual examples as well.
So, lets move on:
This first image is a low res visual to show the issue I am having with leveling out the ground beneath my shack.
My best attempts to solve this issue are the following...
Apply an image map shader above the other terrain shaders as a displacement map. I used a black/white image map with a graduated gradient. This didn't work as the fractal displacement was still prevalent and I still could not muster a completely flat 20m x 20m area for the shack to sit on. This render was done with that image map still in place.
My other lines of thinking for solving this involve, firstly, using another fractal terrain layer with all displacements set to 0, masked by either a painted shader or the same image map shader I tried to use before. My next option would be to just go ahead and model a stone foundation base for the shack in such a way that it will sit into the terrain and look right. I havent moved ahead to the point yet where I'm ready to grow my ivy for the shack and nearby trees yet because I am attempting to literally work from the ground up.
Any pointers I can get that might help me solve this will be met with glee and admiration.
My next issue is with my fake rocks shaders. I have looked at every tutorial I can find on these and even when I follow them to the letter I cannot get the results that the tutorials show I should get. I know all too well how hard it is to get good fake rocks so I'm also looking for any additional pointers I can get in that regard. The stones in the following images are not intended to represent my goals for a final result. I increased the population in order to get a better view of how my changes are affecting them. I actually have 4 fake rock shaders going so far. One is the pebbles which are masked to the pond shore and worn path area and look like crap, The second is another pebble sized layer that I have placed above the brownish surface layer but underneath the grass surface layer, the 3rd is all the mass of crappy looking stones you see strewn about the entire map (these are the main ones I need help with), the 4th are the big stones that are strewn about the eastern edge of the pond. These don't look all that bad but definitely room for improvement. With all that said, have a look at the images and let me know if you can help
For whatever reason the forum will not let me repost or edit my image insertions so I will have to resort to posting them as a reply to this.
Please keep in mind these are process images. I am literally building from the ground up and once I introduce an asset to my scene I like to make sure that it is functioning properly and providing the desired effect before moving on to the next feature. As of now I have about 3500 plant models in but I can see this number going well above 10k before I'm done here.