The Melt - V3

Tangled-Universe · February 02, 2009, 02:04:36 AM

I don't have much time to elaborate on the process involved in creating this image.
The snow is a single surface layer with displacement intersection setting.
Grasses are the built-in from TG2 + the two grasses from Klas. Splendid models!

Rendered in 3,5 hours @ detail 0.9, AA 8 and GI 1/1.

I'll improve this version later because beside the snow there isn't much of interest.

Martin

FrankB · February 02, 2009, 02:48:04 AM

This is looking very promosing, Martin! Maybe a little less roughness would do the snow look well, but I'm sure you will get there :-)

Regards,
Frank

Seth · February 02, 2009, 03:27:35 AM

did you add some reflectivity to the snow ?

Tangled-Universe · February 02, 2009, 03:42:02 AM

Thanks guys

Frank: I'll see what I can do about the smoothness. I can tell you: it's really difficult since the smoothness is already at max. I think I should try a different approach then. Will think about it.

Franck: yes I added very very little reflectivity. Why so?

FrankB · February 02, 2009, 03:57:09 AM

Martin, it looks as if the roughness comes from the underlying fractal detail added by a heightfield shader. Could that be it?
You could also try to change the interpolation method in the heightfield shader to over-smooth, and then add roughtness to the terrain by yourself, excluding the areas where the snow lives.

Cheers,
Frank

Tangled-Universe · February 02, 2009, 04:24:14 AM

I'll send you the tgd tonight to show my workflow.
The snowshader is the latest in the chain.
The terrain is already very smooth. Almost all the displacement and roughness from the terrain is from fake stones only.

It's a good idea and I'll take a look how to...thanks

FrankB · February 02, 2009, 04:50:54 AM

as I told you the smoothing function reverts displacements up to the last compute terrain (to the best of my knowledge), but in case your heightfield shader added fractal detail, that was even before the compute terrain, hence these displacements will prevail.

I'm taking guesse here, so I'm interested in hearing back later if I was right :-)

Cheers,
Frank

Tangled-Universe · February 02, 2009, 05:49:26 AM

Quote from: FrankB on February 02, 2009, 04:50:54 AM
as I told you the smoothing function reverts displacements up to the last compute terrain (to the best of my knowledge), but in case your heightfield shader added fractal detail, that was even before the compute terrain, hence these displacements will prevail.

I'm taking guesse here, so I'm interested in hearing back later if I was right :-)

Cheers,
Frank

Yes I took that aspect into account and if I recall correctly there is fractal detail added before the compute terrain (since it is the default setting and I barely touch that) although it is really really smooth.
Nonetheless, that could cause the roughness.

rcallicotte · February 02, 2009, 08:41:13 AM

Another thing I haven't seen mentioned - some transparency. Melting snow gets less and less opacity.

Anyway, nice idea and it's looking pretty good.

Tangled-Universe · February 02, 2009, 09:14:51 AM

Quote from: calico on February 02, 2009, 08:41:13 AM
Another thing I haven't seen mentioned - some transparency. Melting snow gets less and less opacity.

Anyway, nice idea and it's looking pretty good.

Thanks Calico

Regarding the transparency: translucency isn't really suitable for this purpose because the snow gets a strange hue.
So I'm not sure yet how to achieve this. Since you miss it you may know it?

rcallicotte · February 02, 2009, 09:21:22 AM

You know me, TU. If you don't know it, I am likely to not know it. But, I was depending upon translucency. Is the blue that far off...hmmm, makes me think about snow - it usually has a slight hue of blue. Maybe if you began with a little blue in your main snow, it would look different when using a little translucency? Or have you tried it?

Tangled-Universe · February 02, 2009, 09:33:13 AM

Quote from: calico on February 02, 2009, 09:21:22 AM
You know me, TU. If you don't know it, I am likely to not know it. But, I was depending upon translucency. Is the blue that far off...hmmm, makes me think about snow - it usually has a slight hue of blue. Maybe if you began with a little blue in your main snow, it would look different when using a little translucency? Or have you tried it?

I haven't tried it....I did it in this image

lol
Maybe I should work more on the translucency...adjusting the tint could be the trick.

rcallicotte · February 02, 2009, 09:45:22 AM

Ahhh. I see now.

Maybe there's a way to blend the melted with a water shader then play with transparency a bit. Then it might look like ice, though.

Quote from: Tangled-Universe on February 02, 2009, 09:33:13 AM
I haven't tried it....I did it in this image lol
Maybe I should work more on the translucency...adjusting the tint could be the trick.

Tangled-Universe · February 02, 2009, 02:31:48 PM

Frank: I've managed to get the snow smoother but now the snowpatch doesn't breakup at the edge so I'll have to find a way to achieve this.

Will post a small testrender later hopefully

Martin

old_blaggard · February 02, 2009, 02:35:37 PM

I would actually consider using a water shader for the snow with low reflectivity and very high volume settings. We're currently sitting in about three feet of snow here, and I thought about it a little and the larger swaths are very smooth and opaque, but after melting for a while it gets some jagged edges and some of the little bits of ice become clear as water, especially on the edges.