What Does Fractal Breakup Do?

[rcallicotte]

In a Surface Layer under the Coverage and Breakup tab, what does Fractal Breakup do?  More specifically, and all other settings being default, how do various numbers affect the terrain?  For example, what is the difference between a .5 and a 2 in this textbox?

[moodflow]

Fractal Breakup is used to 'breakup' the surface based on whatever fractal you've plugged into the node.  So lighter areas have more of the surface, and darker areas have less of the surface.  With this turned off (unchecked), no breakup would happen, and all of the surface would be applied.

If you are referring to the textbox below it, thats for animating the breakup change over time - though I have yet to test that part out.

[Oshyan]

Fractal Breakup is similar to a "mask" or alpha for the surface layer. The Fractal Breakup amount interacts with the Coverage amount to determine how much breakup and total coverage occurs. So an important piece of info about the current system is that coverage of 1 means that Fractal Breakup has no effect, a Coverage of 0.5 means that Fractal Breakup will fully influence the placement of the Surface Layer, and values in-between produce intermediate results. When Coverage is less than 1, higher Fractal Breakup values produce higher contrast "breakup"/masking. These values and specific behavior may be tuned in the future to be more intuitive.

- Oshyan

[rcallicotte]

Thank you, Oshyan and moodflow.  This explanation helps, especially the description you've given, Oshyan.  While it's enlightening, there still seems to be some missing understanding on my part, but maybe playing around with it and re-reading this description will help.

Thanks again.   

[dhavalmistry]

thanx for the detailed info.....

[MF_Erwan]

Fractal Breakup is similar to a "mask" or alpha for the surface layer. The Fractal Breakup amount interacts with the Coverage amount to determine how much breakup and total coverage occurs. So an important piece of info about the current system is that coverage of 1 means that Fractal Breakup has no effect, a Coverage of 0.5 means that Fractal Breakup will fully influence the placement of the Surface Layer, and values in-between produce intermediate results. When Coverage is less than 1, higher Fractal Breakup values produce higher contrast "breakup"/masking. These values and specific behavior may be tuned in the future to be more intuitive.

- Oshyan

Tell me if I'm wrong: if the coverage is 1 but we have limitations on slope and/or altitude, the fractal breakup will be used in the fuzzy zones?

Erwan

[rcallicotte]

Coverage of 1 means the cover is 100% - this is no breakup.

[edit - It helps me to use the provided hot pink color when adjusting this so I can see what level I really want.  This is a great new feature.]

[Matt]

Yes, fractal breakup applies to the fuzzy regions of the altitude/slope constraints even if coverage is set to 1. Wherever the constraints reduce the actual coverage, fractal breakup applies. In that way it's more powerful than simply using a blend shader to affect your distributions.

[R3igN]

Hi,

in the altitude constraints...

max alt funny zone...What does this do? Do i need to check the box when i am altering the values?

Whats fuzzy zone?

[Tangled-Universe]

The fuzzy zone settings can be best explained by an example:

Max altitude = 1000m
Max alt fuzzy = 200m

If there is no fuzzy zone the contraint will be very harsh. So 100% coverage up to 1000m but at 1000.1 metres 0%.
The fuzzy zone creates a gradient for a smoother transition in coverage.
In this example the max alt fuzzy zone is 200m which means that the coverage is 100% up to 900m and from then it will go down to 0% coverage up to 1100m. Above 1100 metres there is no coverage anymore.

Now that I write this I'm getting a little doubt whether it is from 900->1100m or from 800->1000m.
Anyhow, that's something you can sort out yourself The principle is the same.

Regards,
Martin

[rcallicotte]

Think of fuzzy zone as the way the borders of your fractalizations are handled - by levels of fuzziness vs. sharpness.

[cyphyr]

I always used to think that the fuzzy zone was +/- about the min (or max) limits. After some experiments I have found it to be that the fuzzy zone in the zone before the max or min limits so in the above example the:
Max altitude = 1000m
Max alt fuzzy = 200m
will give 100% coverage up to 800m fading to 0% at 1000m.

Richard

[neuspadrin]

I always used to think that the fuzzy zone was +/- about the min (or max) limits. After some experiments I have found it to be that the fuzzy zone in the zone before the max or min limits so in the above example the:
Max altitude = 1000m
Max alt fuzzy = 200m
will give 100% coverage up to 800m fading to 0% at 1000m.

Richard

same, i did an almost identical test awhile ago just to make sure i understood it

[R3igN]

Ok2

Gotcha!

Thnx!

[Tangled-Universe]

I always used to think that the fuzzy zone was +/- about the min (or max) limits. After some experiments I have found it to be that the fuzzy zone in the zone before the max or min limits so in the above example the:
Max altitude = 1000m
Max alt fuzzy = 200m
will give 100% coverage up to 800m fading to 0% at 1000m.

Richard

My doubts made sense, indeed 800->1000m fuzzy zone (otherwise, why call it max altitude when it's still present >1000m?)