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General => Terragen Discussion => Topic started by: reck on November 06, 2011, 05:11:07 PM

Title: Distribution shader -> Fractal break-up question
Post by: reck on November 06, 2011, 05:11:07 PM
I thought if I enabled the fractal break-up option in the distribution shader it would breakup the colour of the shader that is using the distribution shader as a blend shader but its not making any difference, the colour is still applied over the whole landscape whether the fractal break-up option is enabled or not. Isn't this what the break-up option is for in the distribution shader?
Title: Re: Distribution shader -> Fractal break-up question
Post by: reck on November 06, 2011, 05:12:49 PM
Also can someone tell me what the value 2 means in the distribution shader under the name of the fractal break-up shader, it doesn't seem to have a label.

Thanks
Title: Re: Distribution shader -> Fractal break-up question
Post by: Oshyan on November 07, 2011, 12:36:12 AM
You will have to reduce the coverage below 1 (full) to see breakup. 2 is essentially the amount of breakup. I don't recall just now why 2 is the maximum and not 1.

- Oshyan
Title: Re: Distribution shader -> Fractal break-up question
Post by: Tangled-Universe on November 07, 2011, 03:16:06 AM
Quote from: Oshyan on November 07, 2011, 12:36:12 AM
You will have to reduce the coverage below 1 (full) to see breakup. 2 is essentially the amount of breakup. I don't recall just now why 2 is the maximum and not 1.

- Oshyan

Is 2 the maximum? You can enter higher values and I believe that if you have it blended with greyscales of say 0-0.1 that it works to raise coverage (in case you use that blendshader for other purposes as well and don't want to touch it, for example).

Reck, if you want to have break-up to fully control the surface layer's presence you need to set the coverage to 0.5 and break-up to 1.
Title: Re: Distribution shader -> Fractal break-up question
Post by: reck on November 07, 2011, 08:12:32 AM
Thanks guys,

In the end I did what I normally do and created a power fractal and connected it to the blend shader for the distribution shader. So it looks like this.

Surface shader --> Distribution shader (Blend for surface shader)--> Power fractal (blend for Distribution shader)

I just thought that seeing as adding a distribution shader automatically adds a fractal break-up (power fractal) node it made more sense to use that than add another power fractal. So it seems I just need to mess around with the coverage. Martin I think i'll use your setting as I do want the break-up to fully control the surface layer (via the distribution layer).

BTW I don't think 2 is the default value, I believe it was 0.5 before I changed it.

Thanks

Title: Re: Distribution shader -> Fractal break-up question
Post by: Tangled-Universe on November 07, 2011, 08:41:56 AM
That's correct Reck, the default value is not 2, so you must have changed it indeed.
Title: Re: Distribution shader -> Fractal break-up question
Post by: bobbystahr on November 07, 2011, 02:01:47 PM
Quote from: Tangled-Universe on November 07, 2011, 03:16:06 AM
Quote from: Oshyan on November 07, 2011, 12:36:12 AM
You will have to reduce the coverage below 1 (full) to see breakup. 2 is essentially the amount of breakup. I don't recall just now why 2 is the maximum and not 1.

- Oshyan

Is 2 the maximum? You can enter higher values and I believe that if you have it blended with greyscales of say 0-0.1 that it works to raise coverage (in case you use that blendshader for other purposes as well and don't want to touch it, for example).

Reck, if you want to have break-up to fully control the surface layer's presence you need to set the coverage to 0.5 and break-up to 1.

I agree except I was told originally to set Fractal Breakup to 1.5 and Coverage as stated to .5 which works as well when using a B/W image map shader as breakup .  ..   ...
Title: Re: Distribution shader -> Fractal break-up question
Post by: Dune on November 08, 2011, 02:46:44 AM
It's easy enough to just test different settings flat on a single colored ground and see what happens. Save them and put them next to each other, I do that a lot to find small differences.
Title: Re: Distribution shader -> Fractal break-up question
Post by: bobbystahr on November 08, 2011, 11:31:26 AM
Quote from: Dune on November 08, 2011, 02:46:44 AM
It's easy enough to just test different settings flat on a single colored ground and see what happens. Save them and put them next to each other, I do that a lot to find small differences.
Ditto, and I keep a dir of these tests to browse if need be .  ..   ...
Title: Re: Distribution shader -> Fractal break-up question
Post by: Oshyan on November 10, 2011, 09:48:23 PM
I only meant 2 was the max on the slider. Of course, as with almost every other setting, you can always put in larger values. ;)

- Oshyan