Smooth rock at sealevel (solved!)

[ezprado]

Hi!

First, I'm pretty new to T2 and have tried a lot to solve this myself with no luck.
So I'm posting here hoping to get professional help!

I want a mountain with rocky surface (fractal detail) which gets smoother right above and down below sea level.

Something like this:


This is normal in real life due to the waters polishing effect on the rocks. But I have yet to see it in a T2 render... So is it possible?

Regards,
ezpRado

[RArcher]

Sure.  Simply use one constraint for your displacement near sea level, and a second different constraint for areas above.

[ezprado]

Thanks RAarcher.

It seems like the fractal detail happens in my "Heightfield shader 01" under the tab "fractal detail". I don't understand how I can altitude constrain this...

Regards,
ezpRado

[ezprado]

I think what I want is to be able to lower the fractal detail and apply a smooth operator below a certain altitude on my terrain. Would that be possible?

Regards,
ezpRado

[Henry Blewer]

On the power fractal, there is a check box for smooth coastline. It flattens everything below a certain height. It's crude and hard to set right. A constraint would work better.

[aymenk2003]

I think what I want is to be able to lower the fractal detail and apply a smooth operator below a certain altitude on my terrain. Would that be possible?

Regards,
ezpRado

add a surface layer and in the altitude constrains check the minimum or the max Altitude drag the fuzzy zone to 0. the see what you need the increase the fuzzy zone slowly ...
here's a small expl. generate the heightfield first...

[Matt]

The Heightfield Shader doesn't allow you to vary its built-in fractal detail unfortunately. You would have more control if you reduced the fractal detail on the Heightfield Shader and then added extra displacement using (e.g.) a Power Fractal. The added displacement can then be controlled by altitude, either by using Distribution Shader as its blending shader or by making your displacement fractal a child layer of a Surface Layer (which can be controlled by altitude).

There are other ways you could vary the built-in fractal detail of the heightfield shader. You could make two heightfield shaders with different fractal detail amounts and merge them using a Merge Shader. Another shader - perhaps a Painted Shader or an Image Map Shader - could be used as the Merge Shader's mix controller. Unfortunately I don't think this method works with altitude constraints without a much more complicated arrangement of nodes.

Matt

[Dune]

Doesn't the 'compute terrain' node level the fractals enough if you check 'smooth terrain' and perhaps increase the patch size?

[ezprado]

Thanks alot for your answers! I went with decreasing the fractal detail on the heightfield shader and added two surface layers with altitude constrains which I can control the displacement amount of each.

Love this forum and it's users for great help in no time!

Regards,
ezpRado

[Henry Blewer]

Most of us here are obsessed by this program. It's fascinating discovering new methods of using nodes and shaders. Even 'simpler' landscapes can come out to be beautiful, or bizarre if that is the effect wanted.