Shader-based control of "Fake Stone Shader" stones ?

[nixx]

Hi all,

Like the subject says, I was wondering if there is a way to vary the scale, density, etc. of the stones in the fake stone shader, based on another shader. So effectively you could have for example a beach, where the stones would get gradually smaller and denser near the water.

Is there a way to do this now, and if not, is such functionality maybe planned for the final release ?

thanks,
nick

[Volker Harun]

Well,

the density can be shaded. You have a field at the bottom of the 'fake stone shader' where to enter the density- or distribution-shader. Depends what option is marked/unmarked.

On the other hand - at this moment - I do not think that there is a way of changing the stones' size with a shader.
I would creat for each stone-size a different distribution shader and would let TG2 do the density.

I would be happy if there is another way, though.

Volker

[nixx]

Yes, you can obviously use a density ("distribution") shader, my bad. But I was wondering about the other properties, like scale, stone height, maybe even the "pancake" effect, etc.

I 'd love this kind of control, not just in the fake stones shader, but in all nodes/shaders with similar properties. In the meantime, using several altered copies of the same shader, each with its own distribution, is probably the only workaround - just as you suggested.

thanks for replying

nick

[Oshyan]

"Driving" a setting with a shader (similar to MojoWorld I believe) is not currently supported, but I believe it is functionality we would like to add at some point. That is not to say it will necessarily make it into the initial TG2 commercial release, but it's clearly a very useful and powerful capability that we'll look at implementing when practical. In the meantime, in lieu of a more generalized system, a way to control stone size or other settings with a shader input may be added in specific cases where it seems most useful.

- Oshyan

[nixx]

I 'd happily "settle" for an initial solution like that (shader controlled settings in the most obvious places), since I know that implementing such a system throughout the T2 application will require significant changes and additions to the core. If this functionality could be "hardwired" to specific shaders (like the stone shader) for a start, it would already make T2 much more powerful.

nick

[Njen]

I guess the simple solution would be to make all float values accessable as an input. That would totally rock, and would enable me to do absolutely anything with TG2.

This is one of my biggest wishlist items, as it would certainly solve many situations I have been coming up with. For example, if I was able to connect an input into the altitude value for clouds, we could get clouds that follow the height of the terrain. Or if I was able to connect a fractal as an input into the cloud colour I would not need 2 cloud nodes to get colour variation. Or if I was able to connect a fractal as an input of the Haze Density, I could increase the haze for certain parts of my image easily.

Basically it would completely open up the possibilities.

[swiftstream]

I guess the simple solution would be to make all float values accessable as an input. That would totally rock, and be enable me to do absolutely anything with TG2.

Yeah, I fully agree. WM has this sort of functionality, and it's really key to creating complex effects relatively easily. I am also very fond of WM's macro functionality, and I hope that TG includes something similar to that as well, eventually--ATM the node view can get pretty cluttered pretty fast :-).