Quote from: Oshyan on May 14, 2018, 11:20:55 PM
Strange, from the images in the thread I linked, I really understand "streamlines" to be different than you do. What you are showing in that image is basically just normal fluid-based erosion, deposition, etc., just on a smaller scale. That's not what "streamlines" is explained or demonstrated to do (in the image), as far as I can see. Not sure why we have this difference of understanding though, as it's based on the same info and images...
- Oshyan
Streamline is Streamwise Erosion. It is the BASE of the large flows you see in his plugin. What will eventually create those flows... It's really not hard to understand. Do you think flows are spawned overnight from nothing? They start from streamlines... the "just on a smaller scale" as you put it. But this is not cutting stone. This is pushing sediments.
If it is not streamline/streamwise, name it something else. "Flow Direction". But as far as I can plainly see it represent the direction of flow over any surface...
EXACTLY WHAT THE STREAMWISE EROSION PROCESS IS. It is sedimentary. These streamlines push things, no matter what your interpretation of reality is. Using these maps, some fractalization, you can create very realistic streaking for flows... Just like in the real world.
Where do you think this "detail" is coming from to used for "texturing" glaciers, etc? As the sun warms glaciers, streams flow, cutting tiny paths that interact with light... There is no actually texturing of ice but mud and debris... It's light refraction of shape.
Almost feel there is a language barrier here.
A real world application of streamlines is the suspended load below a dam based on the hydrological and sediment data that reaches below the dams. This can show sediment concentration and median increases/decrease through the development of scouring time. They study how sediments concentrate and flow to learn how sedimentary flows are created in real-time which helps data for long-term erosion like rock. Literally every bit of water-based erosion you see, started with streamwise erosion on a tiny scale with sediments. This load volume in streamlines cuts rock.
Things are being too heavily emphasized on the coding aspect, and focus on a glacier, rather than the real world application these maps can provide.