Strata

[Dune]

Trying out some warped stratified rock (WIP). Now with dust devil deluxe!

[Dune]

Seen 21 times already, well, here's some more to watch 

[Jo Kariboo]

I love the ground the last three pictures, I find them excellent.
I'm not a fan of his strata despite all the work to create shapes and original colors.

[AP]

warped strata_31-07-16-v2B-3 catches my interest the most. The other images do have interesting variations to the overall theme as well.

[Jokes]

Wow, these are some seriously amazing rocks! I am immensely intrigued! How do you get them looking like that?

[Dune]

Took me years to get to know TG, and it's quite complicated anyway. Not something I am willing to share at this moment.

Btw, doesn't take long to render: 25 mins, with detail 0.6, AA 6 and soft shadows @0.5 and 5 samples. No compute terrain, just a tex from XYZ and compute normal shader to allow for lateral displacements.

[DocCharly65]

Looks great, Ulco. A kind of jurassic world in my eyes. 

[Dune]

Thanks Nils.

Strata are now separated in two masked 'kinds', each with its own warping. Vortex shader also gives interesting results, but only usable locally.

I have a little problem with the dark/light distinction in this version. It transverses the otherwise warped and slanting strata. Turns out it's the fuzzy zone for a surface shader that takes care of 'bulging' the (warped SSS) rock above a certain final altitude. Apparently the colors are not exactly calculated with the fuzzy zone I used (height 10m, fuzzy zone 50). So a fuzzy zone that high even makes a hard line, which makes me wonder what the fuzzy zone/height variable consists of; is it a beveled edge or a smooth stepped edge, or .....? I raised it to 150 now, and it's getting way less, but it's not gone!
Any other way of setting a soft height restriction after just a compute normal? I was thinking of a distance shader and camera, so I have to check that. But I remember that's also not a very soft transition....
Anyway, more work to do.

EDIT: fuzzy zone of 150, and more lateral displacement. Helps a bit.

[Kadri]

I think you remember this but maybe worth a look ones more Ulco?
http://www.planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,18266.0.html

[Dune]

I remember that thread, but it was good reading it again. Thanks Kadri.

[Dune]

One more then.

And some tests with the minimum height. There's quite a difference between using the altitude and straight fuzzy zone and taking it through a smooth step.

[bobbystahr]

smooth step rocks

[DannyG]

Nice experiments here.

[Hetzen]

There's quite a difference between using the altitude and straight fuzzy zone and taking it through a smooth step.

Smooth Step uses a Gain curve to push out the mid point of a gradient. Have a look at the wiki for Gain scaler http://www.planetside.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Gain_Scalar

Bias is another good toy to play with to pinch gradients towards 1 or 0. http://www.planetside.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Bias_Scalar

Your Straight Fuzzy setting is creating a straight ramp through its fall off.

[Dune]

Thanks Jon. I knew about and often use the bias scalar (also with a fractal for variable bias), but didn't realize how the gain scalar worked (never read me in). Good to be pointed at it. I am now working on another beach setup (based on X to scalar) scene with overlapping surf, but get tremendous render times, with just a reflective shader, and not more than 25 nodes. No compute terrain, compute normal or XYZ, so maybe I need one of those to speed it up, this time. Or the warping is too complicated  Always something to find out....