snow against side of, say trees

[KyL]

I second that, and I would love to be able to use it on object as well. Ideally something to get the curvature of the object, which could then be warped and plugged back to mix materials.... No sure you could do that without raytracing though :/

[Hetzen]

I second that, and I would love to be able to use it on object as well. Ideally something to get the curvature of the object, which could then be warped and plugged back to mix materials.... No sure you could do that without raytracing though :

You can warp these processes already. The issue was limiting the facing to a general north slope, which we were thinking would need a smoothed version of the terrain. Or are you talking about looking at one model to be applied to another?

[WAS]

... talking about looking at one model to be applied to another?

I think that's it. Least for me. There is a lot of flexibility cut out with these limitations. Certainly a lot of creativity.

[Hetzen]

True, but there are usually work arounds. I'm wondering if the best way to define a northern slope more accurately would be to animate a light travelling in the arc of the sun from morning to evening. Then render a series of top down views of your landscape, with all other lighting switched off, so you create a black and white mask of where the sun hits the terrain. Then combine say 12 sequential frames of the suns positions, to use as a mask for your snow / planting / weathering areas.

[WAS]

True, but there are usually work arounds. I'm wondering if the best way to define a northern slope more accurately would be to animate a light travelling in the arc of the sun from morning to evening. Then render a series of top down views of your landscape, with all other lighting switched off, so you create a black and white mask of where the sun hits the terrain. Then combine say 12 sequential frames of the suns positions, to use as a mask for your snow / planting / weathering areas.

That's not a bad idea, certainly a unique approach. Perhaps not the most effecient lol.

[Hetzen]

Probably not, maybe just one render of the sun in a position that gives you what you need for that image.

[Dune]

It would be cool to be able to use a sideline with those sun shadows, use the last node to get a greyscale mask and apply to main line. But then you can still only use actual sun angle. Normals would be better. Smoothed normals...
If you need to render a mask first, want render should that be? Ortho, I presume. But that wouldn't get you complete coverage. Normal render would hide areas, where those 'certain-slope' veggies would not grow then.

[Dune]

Something I don't understand. When taking a (smoothed) vector and using one component to color an angle, adding a later(!) Pf still messes up that angle with 'subangles'. Smoothing a basic finely displaced terrain shader also doesn't work with the smoothing shader. At least not in this 5 minute test.
Coloring angles with a visualize normal works, but I couldn't separate the colors to masks.
Anyway, here's something to play with. I have to devote my time to some biggish commissions now, so won't be able to pursue this much.