lead in scale and feature scale

[james adamson]

Hi all.
I am trying to get a better understanding of the lead in and feature scale plus smallest scale.
After playing with it would this be an accurate description of whats happening? It seems that feature scale is as though you are zooming in out of the fractal
and that lead in and smallest scale redifine the detail within the portion of the fractal you are viewing. 
Would this be in any way accurate or am I clutching at straws here?

[luvsmuzik]

I am sure there is a better technical explanation than what I could give, but your analysis seems fair. I assume you watch the little preview window on your power fractal as you change those values? I adjust smallest scale for sameness of features, avoiding variation sometimes.....

Displacement will also enter in....as 5000 gives you a mountain in your terrain fractal and 100 gives you the flatlands......
Displacement on objects can get very interesting, trial and error, but usually smaller numbers work best.

[Oshyan]

The technical explanation is simple, as seen in the Power Fractal documentation: http://planetside.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Power_Fractal_Shader_v3
How this actually looks in practical terms inside of Terragen could be explained multiple ways, as you've done here. It's hard to say what the best way of understanding or visualizing it would be as it is a bit subjective, but if your explanation connects both with the technical definition linked above, and the visual output you see, then it's a good one.

- Oshyan