Happy new year, everyone.
I have a question about the Tex Coords from XYZ node, just want to make sure that I am using it correctly here.
The idea is to model a mountain form common in the American Southwest and other parts of the world, with a central massif above a base with some eroded material such as a talus. The central part has a definite peak or edge, so this isn't a mesa or butte. (Apologies to any geologists if I'm not using the right terminology.)
This scene needs some tweaks but I think I'm getting close. No shading or foliage yet . . . I'm just interested in the underlying geometry for now.
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The network uses two alpine fractals to build the shapes, with the second on top of the first. The base of the second is driven by a mask defined by the minimum altitude setting of a distribution shader.
In order for this to work I had to insert a tex coords node immediately before the second alpine fractal. I assume this is because the current terrain displacement needs to be calculated before the base of the second alpine fractal can be defined.
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Compute terrain and compute normal nodes work here as well, but they include horizontal displacements. I only need vertical displacements so the tex coords node seemed to be the way to go. And it's way faster besides.
The beauty part of this is that the central massif and talus can be defined separately. And the deposition settings of the alpine fractal give you a lot of control over the amount of erosion in the talus.
How does this measure up in terms of best practices? Is the tex coords node doing what I think it's doing? Is there a better way to build these shapes?
