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General => Terragen Discussion => Topic started by: Dune on December 15, 2023, 06:20:42 AM

Title: sloping altitude measurement?
Post by: Dune on December 15, 2023, 06:20:42 AM
I can't figure something out, and it may be terribly simple. I have a height tif, raising an island. Now I need to have the upper 1m layer of the ground in a different color (topsoil). I can't use altitude constraints directly for obvious reasons (it would be a straight line). 

I've tried warping a distribution shader (not final of course) by the tif, tried all sorts of displacement to scalar, color adjust, warp, vector displacement of the tif combinations... everything. Nothing works.

So any ideas are welcome!
Title: Re: sloping altitude measurement?
Post by: schmeerlap on December 15, 2023, 10:34:45 AM
Quote from: Dune on December 15, 2023, 06:20:42 AMit may be terribly simple.
I can only be of help if it is terribly terribly simple. You know how you add a thick layer of snow on the ground with a surface layer with displacement. Would that give you the topsoil layer you're after?
Title: Re: sloping altitude measurement?
Post by: Dune on December 15, 2023, 11:02:45 AM
No, is the quick answer. There should be another way.
Title: Re: sloping altitude measurement?
Post by: Stormlord on December 15, 2023, 06:34:54 PM
I'm not an expert, but could normal and flip lead you to a solution?
https://planetside.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Visualise_Normal

STORMLORD
Title: Re: sloping altitude measurement?
Post by: aknight0 on December 16, 2023, 12:55:07 AM
Maybe something with Get Altitude vs Get Altitude in Texture?  https://planetside.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Masking_with_Get_Nodes
Title: Re: sloping altitude measurement?
Post by: aknight0 on December 16, 2023, 01:12:05 AM
Or can you use the tif as a mask, and shrink it just a bit?  Here's a simple shape shader masked with a slightly smaller simple shape shader.
Title: Re: sloping altitude measurement?
Post by: Dune on December 16, 2023, 03:08:29 AM
Thanks for thinking along, guys. But those options won't work. It's a cliffy island, so a reduced tiff won't be very precise.

Anyway, I found the solution. I thought I had it somewhere in the back of my brain, some part I didn't use for a while :P I did use this method before, many years ago, I vaguely remember. It is indeed very simple.