Ice Cream - Shader progression 1/1/10 - page 2...

Started by dandelO, December 29, 2009, 10:14:12 PM

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dandelO

Thanks, folks.

I'm still beating out the fractal lines... I have another idea to keep them at bay, will post any progress as and when.

Henry: I'm not sure I follow your meaning. Break up what with fake stones? The fractal lines?

TheBlackHole: Thanks for the suggestion. I'd like to keep it reasonably large scaled so deeper snow-piling doesn't 'spike' the surface when more displacement is required, adding smaller fractals would help with the lines but I think it'd also make it less snow-like, although snow flakes are tiny, their cumulation is quite smooth, rounded and large scaled, you rarely see rough, jaggy snow(unless it's disturbed, of course).

dandelO

Here's a nasty test render of the surface layer on an out-the-box terrain, the fractal lines have been mostly ironed out.

Again, these are the layer's defaults - displacement = 1, Sparkle luminosity = 1. POV = 2m v' Y.

[attachimg=#]

Things are nearly coming together now, I'd like some translucency in here aswell, I'll play with that some more tonight...

aymenk2003

That is nice ...more improvement ... and you'll get the realistic sparkle snow ...

N_KAID
Le peu que je sais, c'est à mon ignorance que je le dois.

dandelO

Just different slope constraints...

[attachimg=#]

dandelO

#19
So, here's what I think is just about finished.

This is slope constraints of max = 45°, fuzzy zone = 5.
[attachimg=#]

And here its slope constraints are max = 60°, fuzzy zone 5.
[attachimg=#]

It's less streamlined than I'd hoped to make it because I needed to separate the snow surface and sparkles into 2 layers.
When translucency was added to the one-node setup it was cancelling out the sparkle function of the layer because the single node setup applied colour last, not below the surface. I could've packaged it all up inside other layers but then, there's the messing around inside the internal networks to find the important settings that are for editing, like slope/alt' constraints, displacement values, etc.

This way, with 2 separate channels, everything is at your fingertips. All the slope/alt/displacement controls are in the 'Snow layer', while translucency/sparkling settings follow that.



I'll upload this once I find out where the best place would be. If it's to go to the NWDA CS I'll need to document it and make sure all aspects are covered beforehand.

* Are there any glaring issues you can see that you think need addressing before I finalize this? It's a bit too translucent just now, I'll fix that, anything else, though?

This would be roughly the default settings for the Ice Cream shader.

dandelO

Fixed the translucency...

[attachimg=#]

cheers for any input. :)

aymenk2003

I think you didn't sleep this night anymore ;D...
Nice render ...realistic snow...

N_KAID
Le peu que je sais, c'est à mon ignorance que je le dois.

domdib

It looks very impressive. What would help would be a larger render of the final version, to see clearly the distribution of the sparkles.

dandelO

I'm on it, dombib. I think I'm in the final tweaks stage now, I'll render some examples to show it off when I can...

dandelO

Here's a couple of larger example images of the shader.

This first has default values - displacement = '1', Sparkles = '1', slope constraints = '45' degrees/fuzzy zone '5'. This is roughly what you'll get dropping the main file onto any out-the-box terrain.

[attachimg=#]

Edit to follow with different settings...

dandelO

And this has: Slope constraints = '55' degrees/ fuzzy zone '5', displacement = '3m'(* see below for a small note on this setting).

[attachimg=#]

* Towards the lower right hand side, you'll notice that this displacement setting('3m') has almost reached its limits, displacement of the smallest scale of the 'snow displacement' node has now become 'speckled', it's slightly spiking here. Raising the displacement of the snow to 3m has, in turn, made it closer to my camera and now the POV is around v'Y = 1m. If you do need more than 2 or 3 metres of displacement at this close level POV, you will want to also raise the layer's displacement fractal 'smallest scale' to overcome the speckling. Generally, you won't need 3 metres of snow-pileup at an eye level POV, though, this is the way around it if you do need it.

Getting there...

Thanks for looking! :) Isn't it just begging for footprints? ;)

Dune

Great work, Dandel0. To avoid the speckling of the snow, I use a large scale fractal anyway, and add another small scale fractal later in the pipeline, with a separate, lesser displacement. I'm looking forward to see what you did... still busy with mine.

---Dune

Henry Blewer

I don't know which image to praise? I like all of them.
http://flickr.com/photos/njeneb/
Forget Tuesday; It's just Monday spelled with a T

domdib


Tangled-Universe

Very nice work Martin, you have some very nice snow :)
I'm a bit surprised you use powerfractals for creating the volumetric snow. Anyhow, it is very nicely done.
What it needs now is a bigger scene to show off.

Martin