Thanks.
I like to sharpen but slightly. Unfortunately with this planet, sharpening doesn't get very good results. It's a bit noisy in places but noisy even without sharpening. It's the light coloured material. The light material actually covers the darker material where you see light so it is a combination and quite a rich surface so looks cool in those places. The entire surface has a grain of voronoi noise which is blended to appear only in some places. You can see a slight gravel effect on the ground. Exactly what combination is causing the grain I am not sure but it's quite common in TG2 to get a graininess. Probably better that way because some apps create a too smooth surface and you can't get grain even if you try. Also, the surfaces have specularity which may be enhancing the grain in lighter areas because specularity in TG2 does appear to create a rough grainy effect as I've noticed before. When I start a new planet I will test these things but I'm guessing it's a combination of displacement grain with specularity. Colour roughness may also be contributing.
There isn't that many blue function nodes. I used the altitude strata technique to blend surfaces and my own stones graph. The only issue is that I've yet to work out how to slope blend the stones without messing up their surfaces. On this planet the stones simply use a ground surface texture (without redirect). This wasn't very good as this surface was not ideal for the stones.
Probably the crucial factor in this planet is my use of redirect. The terrain is two fractals merged with subtract. In some places these are not being redirecting as much as the rest of the terrain and hence retain their rounded outcropped nature. These merged fractals are duplicated to use for redirect but with altered displacement for redirect control. One is redirecting a lot more than the other. Also, these redirects come after the surfaces (except stones and grain) so the whole landscape is twisted around. This retains a kind of link between things like altitude constraints and the hill shapes. Otherwise it would be very regulated looking.
Another thing is that the planet uses strata and outcrops. This is what enhances the outcrops or step effect but I have smoothed the strata a bit by using smooth surface in compute terrain. This is my favourite trick because strata and outcrops is a bit harsh.
I have experimented with various AA and detail settings. It doesn't really cure the grain. Downsizing from bigger render does but that is not the ideal solution.
