Sand shader Test5

[choronr]

After more than two weeks away from Terragen, I finally got back to finishing a test image that uses Tangled_Universe's Sand shader which also includes FrankB's stone bed. I'm not totally satisfied with the cactus in this image, probably due to its color (should be more of a brown/green to better match the dry surroundings).

In all, I'm very satisfied with the ability to redirect the sand ripple flow and change its color. Combined with the stone bed, the possibilities using this shader are endless. Many thanks to Martin and Frank for the opportunity to produce several images using this preset file. Hope the final will be available soon.

Bob

[Gannaingh]

I'd say the larger stones could use better texturing/coloring...but that sand looks absolutely amazing!

[aymenk2003]

Good work if you omit the cactus that looks Flat...
let us see another...

[FrankB]

Ah, Bob, your image reminds me that I wanted to look into your issue with shadows. Have you sorted it out on your own in the meantime?

You are putting the sand shader to good use. Indeed it's ideal to combine it with smaller displacements such as the stones. It seems though your color is getting lost on the stones, or is the uniformity deliberate? Could well be, not all stone beds are multi color

Cheers,
Frank

[Volker Harun]

Good one ... you could try to add a colour adjust shader to the cactus only adjusting the gamma.

[littlecannon]

Sand is stunning, stones i feel need work as they look to smooth and generic (maybe you are after this effect...). The dry bushes look good, but the cactus looks like it walked out of Monsters Inc. Seems a bit fluffy to me. Cheers, Simon.

[Tangled-Universe]

The sand looks great here!
I second Frank's suggestions.

...The dry bushes look good, but the cactus looks like it walked out of Monsters Inc. ...

lol

[domdib]

Perhaps, when the shader does become available, you could share some thoughts on nice ways to tweak it?

[Tangled-Universe]

Perhaps, when the shader does become available, you could share some thoughts on nice ways to tweak it?

I always try to write a thorough explanation of what each node exactly does and the possibilities to tweak stuff.
Anything you have in mind here especially/specifically?

Martin

[domdib]

I have in mind a particular use that would have high specularity - so that it's almost like powdered glass. From what's been written in other threads, I'm guessing that's possible, but it would be nice to have it included in the instructions. Thanks!

[Tangled-Universe]

I have in mind a particular use that would have high specularity - so that it's almost like powdered glass. From what's been written in other threads, I'm guessing that's possible, but it would be nice to have it included in the instructions. Thanks!

The problem with high specularity is that the dropoff is very strong.

If you set reflectivity to 1 and roughness to 0.01 you'll get very bright speculars but they'll be very concentrated on one area of the terrain related to the sun's position and angle.
If you increas the roughness and thereby creating more "spread" the speculars become less bright and more diffuse. Increasing the reflectivity might improve this but brings you back to the first problem.

In other words, it is very difficult to get evenly distributed speculars throughout a whole image/shader.
It would be nice to have some kind of fake speculars and to control that using a function.

Martin

[domdib]

Thanks for the explanation - my usecase would probably involve a fairly small area, so I might be able to get away with it.

[choronr]

Ah, Bob, your image reminds me that I wanted to look into your issue with shadows. Have you sorted it out on your own in the meantime?

You are putting the sand shader to good use. Indeed it's ideal to combine it with smaller displacements such as the stones. It seems though your color is getting lost on the stones, or is the uniformity deliberate? Could well be, not all stone beds are multi color

Cheers,
Frank

Hi Frank,

I noted that the plants were floating in the air even though I inputted the mouse readings. By dragging the plants down, I was able to have the plants meet the shadows.

Yes, the stones and rocks are picking up the base color. I tried individually coloring them but they still pick up the base color. Also, the image maps applied are faintly visible. I would prefer to have multi colored stone and pebbles. In one of my previous images (Lapidarian) I was able to archive this multi colored array. I used the same settings; but, in this image, it didn't work.

Back to the drawing board I guess. Thanks for your comments,

Greetings from the hot, hot southwest.

Bob   

[cyphyr]

Very good sand and a well put together scene, but whats with the boxes? Especially visible just above the cactus and just above the central bush (but elsewhere too), they seem like render/compression artifacts but I've not seen the like before.
richard

[choronr]

Very good sand and a well put together scene, but whats with the boxes? Especially visible just above the cactus and just above the central bush (but elsewhere too), they seem like render/compression artifacts but I've not seen the like before.
richard

Hi Richard,

Thanks for visiting. Yes, there are some blocks upon the rocks which I sometimes remedy by using 'Correcteur', a small program to remedy straight lines and angles. However, when confronted with dark shadows which is the case here, you get some jaggies. In all, it does a great job cosmetically to clean up those straight lines and angles under certain lighting conditions.

Bob