Trying To Make a River or Stream

[RichTwo]

For the past three days, I have - with limited or no success - tried to incorporate a river or stream into a scene.  There are a few project (.tgd)examples others have shared, but they seem only work with the "native" terrains of the projects.  I want to use a terrain of my choosing and simply "plug in" the feature.

I tried, for example separating the nodes from Mick's share (https://planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,27969.0.html) and saving as a clip (.tgc).  I found that the original feature width at 300m was far too much to qualify as a narrow stream, which was what I wanted.  But narrowing it to say 50m or less and adjusting displacement plus SSS edge qualities produced weird artifacts along the banks and I could never get rid of an unnaturally sharp edge where the banks meet level ground.

Other river / stream projects others have shared just didn't work out either unless I stuck to their "native" terrains.  On my own I even tried a fractal warp on a SSS and warped everything except the SSS.

This is not my saying that I don't appreciate the work of others, because I truly do.  I'd sure never be able to figure out how any of it works.  I'm just at a frustrating impasse and about given up on it.  If anyone can have a look at my project and see what I need to do or not do, I'd also appreciate that.  Thanks in advance!

[Dune]

I'll have a look, but it's no good workflow to just add tgc's in any terrain. Best to learn how to build a scene from scratch, so everything fits nicely. And then you better understand how things work. I mean, there might be a smoothing applied in a tgc, that creates weird artifacts when just dumped in your setup. Or they might have too much unnecessary nodes.

[mhaze]

I've just had alook at the example - I shall have to do it again and improve it. As Dune says it's better to learn from an example and the work it yourself. The fractal warp is an unusual way to warp a SSS try a vector displacement or warped redirect instead.

[mhaze]

Reduce the fractal warp size and roughness. I you want absolute placement precision use a painted shader.

[mhaze]

Here's a quick mod of your scene.

[Dune]

And here's another one

[mhaze]

Love the Gamma trick!

[RichTwo]

Wow, thanks!  I'll have a look soon.

And after doing so with Ulco's .tgd I noticed something I wasn't sure of.  So I zoomed in did a crop render.  It's a tiny waterfall!   Very clever!

[WAS]

Also I just posted another simple stream example in image shares.

https://planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,28603.msg283186.html#msg283186

[RichTwo]

I have only one more question - how do I mask object populations off the stream?  I tried several different nodes for the mask (and inverted) and got no result.  And restricting altitude via surface layer is of little help.

[WAS]

Usually you'll want to actually start with a much larger SSS shape, and than clamp it in with raising black point and lowering white point for your actual river, and than using the large shape with white point down for a mask away from shore. Adjusting as desired.

For example, usually my stream displacement will be Black Point 0.25 White Point 0.5, where my shore mask will be just White Point 0.25. Using the shore mask as the input for pops, and inverting.

[Dune]

Try this. I did some extra adjustments too.

[RichTwo]

Try this. I did some extra adjustments too.

After some twiddling and connecting to your masked populations setup, which I was trying for - SUCCESS! It works perfectly.  Thanks again and I believe I'm on my way now!

[Dune]

Great. Have fun!

[bobbystahr]

Try this. I did some extra adjustments too.

Handy, stashed away for when I need it....thanks Ulco