Zoom TestApologies, this was rendered at 320 x 240 but the play back module is 400 x 300 so there is a little blurring.
A test of zooming in to a planet with the coast line detailed with the painter shader. Unfortunately although this is good for static scenes it looks to be un-reliable in an animation. As you can see in the "estuary" area you the small islands and creeks flicker in and out. I'm not too sure about the painter shaders uses but I've detailed the work flow below.
Firstly I created a large scale (continents and islands) black and white 1:2 ratio map in photoshop.
This is then manipulated to make it a spherical projection map (I'll link a tut if requested)
In terragen the map is used as a blend shader masking off a Terrain PF.
This image shader is it self masked by a Painter shader in the blend channel to give extra detail (projection = 3D).
I wonder if this is a "related" issue to the shadow clipping in some way. Maybe Terragen is "optimizing" the painter shader on each frame and hence making a slightly different version of the painter shaders output each time.
Well it almost works
......
Unfortunately I cant get an image map large enough to make a convincing detailed coast line so using the painter shader seemed like a good idea.
Shame, I had hoped to be able to use this technique to paint on different terrains on a planetary scale, rolling hills here, alps there, savanna over there, dunes beyond etc.
Comments very welcome.
Richard
