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General => Image Sharing => Topic started by: Dune on March 11, 2015, 12:41:09 PM

Title: Erosion mapping
Post by: Dune on March 11, 2015, 12:41:09 PM
If you take 2 heightfield shaders, both fed by a heightfield generator (from a fractal or whatever), and one of them with a additional erosion, you can feed the outputs through a set of displacement shader to scalars and subtract these from eachother. Play a little with the settings. Then you have a map of the erosion flowfields, in which you can put snow or rocks.
Title: Re: Erosion mapping
Post by: archonforest on March 11, 2015, 01:13:44 PM
That looks very cool...unfortunately no clue what u are saying  :(
It would be a big deal for u to upload a screenshot if the nodes? Coz like that I can try to learn this nice tech.
Title: Re: Erosion mapping
Post by: mhaze on March 11, 2015, 01:26:35 PM
This is something I really must explore.  I like number two.
Title: Re: Erosion mapping
Post by: fleetwood on March 11, 2015, 03:10:44 PM
Nice idea and results. I have to try it. I like Terragen's erosion, but still just scratching the surface (I like bad puns too)
Title: Re: Erosion mapping
Post by: mhaze on March 11, 2015, 04:22:04 PM
Works!!!!
Title: Re: Erosion mapping
Post by: Dune on March 12, 2015, 03:14:44 AM
See, it's simple (nothing personal, Mick  ;) ).

Here you go, the basics. The merge shaders act as masks.
Title: Re: Erosion mapping
Post by: archonforest on March 12, 2015, 03:32:46 AM
Thx for the screenshot. Now I will try to understand the method u wrote before.  :)
Title: Re: Erosion mapping
Post by: mhaze on March 12, 2015, 05:14:58 AM
My method though using the same idea is totally different.  But I think it can be simplified.
Title: Re: Erosion mapping
Post by: bigben on March 12, 2015, 06:27:44 AM
Stop distracting me ;)

This is a version of the input-A merge shader.

A few notes.
* For masks, there's no need to convert scalars to colours
* Every mask needs a colour adjust node (also comes with a clamp 0-1 built in)

In this example to colour adjust node lets you scale the differences in values down to a 1-0 range, eg. to provide a gradation for a 10m difference in displacement, black=0, white=10... tweak the gamma to shift the bias towards black or white, and clamp to 0-1
Title: Re: Erosion mapping
Post by: Dune on March 12, 2015, 06:41:41 AM
I also had a color adjust shader for finer adjustment, but prefer a merge shader instead of a subtract, as you can play with the amount of difference/subtract for interesting effects.
Title: Re: Erosion mapping
Post by: bobbystahr on March 12, 2015, 08:07:49 AM
Brilliant...need more time for testing but music is demanding lately...thanx Dune et al for all the ideas
Title: Re: Erosion mapping
Post by: dandelO on March 12, 2015, 11:12:47 AM
An Intersect Underlying, (which could also be positively offset some), with a large enough Patch Size(in a secondary node chain coming off the original terrain), helps with filling erosion channels, works great on the Alpine Fractal. That can then be merged(Raise/Add) with your regular Compute Terrain network, without much added render time at all. Played a lot with that recently for snow build-up and realised it looked very much like eroding the terrain...

*That's with just one terrain node, rather than two. ^^
Title: Re: Erosion mapping
Post by: Dune on March 12, 2015, 11:47:29 AM
Interesting. I realize this is probably all unneccessary work, regarding the upcoming (?) erosion plugin  ;) But nice playing anyway.
Title: Re: Erosion mapping
Post by: choronr on March 12, 2015, 02:21:03 PM
Thanks for these great ideas. Must do some experimenting.
Title: Re: Erosion mapping
Post by: bobbystahr on March 12, 2015, 03:23:26 PM
Quote from: Dune on March 12, 2015, 11:47:29 AM
Interesting. I realize this is probably all unneccessary work, regarding the upcoming (?) erosion plugin  ;) But nice playing anyway.

always good to have new tools/techniques in the tool box...that is what this forum excels in supplying.
Title: Re: Erosion mapping
Post by: bigben on March 12, 2015, 04:34:29 PM
An erosion plugin with flow, wear and deposition maps like WM would be awesome
Title: Re: Erosion mapping
Post by: bobbystahr on March 13, 2015, 02:04:24 AM
Quote from: bigben on March 12, 2015, 04:34:29 PM
An erosion plugin with flow, wear and deposition maps like WM would be awesome

drool
Title: Re: Erosion mapping
Post by: Dune on March 13, 2015, 07:08:25 AM
I'm diverting from the erosion thing here, but anyway, another render.
Title: Re: Erosion mapping
Post by: archonforest on March 13, 2015, 07:19:08 AM
seems like u are doing this pictures while u waiting for your coffee? or something...
Needles to say render looks awesome.

I suggest a scale here to get a render rated:

Bad, Okay, Nice, Wow, Dune.  :D
Title: Re: Erosion mapping
Post by: Dune on March 13, 2015, 07:52:48 AM
 ;D
Title: Re: Erosion mapping
Post by: archonforest on March 13, 2015, 10:38:46 AM
Looks like time to give back my TG licence to Planetside shave my head and join to the next Monastery.

There is something odd for me in the mid of the picture. Part of that rock looks streched?
Title: Re: Erosion mapping
Post by: choronr on March 13, 2015, 11:16:24 AM
Those displacements look very different from what I've seen. Very nice slope-side scene. And, looks like a new, good looking vegetation model.
Title: Re: Erosion mapping
Post by: Ariel DK on March 13, 2015, 11:20:49 AM
hey hey this technique is very useful to achieve some terrains like Patagonia landscapes ....::)
surely I will try later, has excellent ideas Dune
Title: Re: Erosion mapping
Post by: bobbystahr on March 13, 2015, 12:42:01 PM
Quote from: archonforest on March 13, 2015, 07:19:08 AM
seems like u are doing this pictures while u waiting for your coffee? or something...
Needles to say render looks awesome.

I suggest a scale here to get a render rated:

Bad, Okay, Nice, Wow, Dune.  :D

I quite agree
Title: Re: Erosion mapping
Post by: bobbystahr on March 13, 2015, 12:44:30 PM
Quote from: bobbystahr on March 13, 2015, 02:04:24 AM
Quote from: bigben on March 12, 2015, 04:34:29 PM
An erosion plugin with flow, wear and deposition maps like WM would be awesome

drool


A most worth diversion...is that grass predominatly the Grass Patch?
Title: Re: Erosion mapping
Post by: Dune on March 13, 2015, 01:13:25 PM
Stretching is caused by the mix of fractal warped square noise I used here (some up, some lateral, masked by max slope). And the grass is indeed only the grass patch, with terrain colors added (seen the flowers? I noticed them myself after rendering, funny coincidence if you use terrain colors for grass).
Title: Re: Erosion mapping
Post by: bobbystahr on March 13, 2015, 01:41:50 PM
Quote from: Dune on March 13, 2015, 01:13:25 PM
Stretching is caused by the mix of fractal warped square noise I used here (some up, some lateral, masked by max slope). And the grass is indeed only the grass patch, with terrain colors added (seen the flowers? I noticed them myself after rendering, funny coincidence if you use terrain colors for grass).

going back and looking closer I see em as well....a lucky coincidence for certain.
Title: Re: Erosion mapping
Post by: bobbystahr on March 13, 2015, 01:45:27 PM
This program, once you get the hang of it, is as much and often more than any one I've tried. Something basic and fairly simple like the grass patch, once you figure out how to size/scale it, is incredibly useful; as are all TG features...one comes to expect it after a while of discovering stuff with in stuff...heh heh heh
Title: Re: Erosion mapping
Post by: mhaze on March 13, 2015, 04:00:09 PM
Rocks (as well as the rest) are superb!
Title: Re: Erosion mapping
Post by: otakar on March 13, 2015, 04:35:35 PM
What? That is the built-in grass patch? Just shoot me. I am ready to pack my toys and leave the sandbox right now....

Ok, it's awesome. I'll take it as another inspiration.
Title: Re: Erosion mapping
Post by: bobbystahr on March 13, 2015, 04:42:19 PM
Quote from: otakar on March 13, 2015, 04:35:35 PM
What? That is the built-in grass patch? Just shoot me. I am ready to pack my toys and leave the sandbox right now....

Ok, it's awesome. I'll take it as another inspiration.

Initially when Ulco mentioned he used the grass patch way back I started looking for it and he is the best at distributing it in a 'real' feeling way..felt the same on both counts and now consider it a major tool....
Title: Re: Erosion mapping
Post by: Dune on March 14, 2015, 03:49:47 AM
I reduced it to 1m with 1000 blades of 3.5 the default length, and added grass colors (of the terrain, in which I had some tiny dots, perhaps even fake stones, as mask for the yellow flowers) through a transform shader. And set it to rotate with terrain 100% with no restriction, but you need an extra compute normal (patch default 1m) at the end of the line for the pop to sit on. And (as I found) increase color to above 1 in the default shader, and set translucency, etc.
Title: Re: Erosion mapping
Post by: bobbystahr on March 14, 2015, 09:02:54 AM
Quote from: Dune on March 14, 2015, 03:49:47 AM
I reduced it to 1m with 1000 blades of 3.5 the default length, and added grass colors (of the terrain, in which I had some tiny dots, perhaps even fake stones, as mask for the yellow flowers) through a transform shader. And set it to rotate with terrain 100% with no restriction, but you need an extra compute normal (patch default 1m) at the end of the line for the pop to sit on. And (as I found) increase color to above 1 in the default shader, and set translucency, etc.

Thanks for the walk thru Ulco...good trick with the FS flowers...will remember that...will be handy with the free version and only 3 pops in TG3.
Title: Re: Erosion mapping
Post by: Gannaingh on March 14, 2015, 11:46:06 AM
Everything is superb! Well done!
Title: Re: Erosion mapping
Post by: inkydigit on March 15, 2015, 06:46:03 AM
 8)
Super stuff as ever Ulco!
Digging your rocks and grass too!
:)
J
Title: Re: Erosion mapping
Post by: gregtee on March 16, 2015, 06:45:47 PM
Looks great.  I'll have to give this a try on some of my rock stuff.

-greg

Title: Re: Erosion mapping
Post by: Dune on March 17, 2015, 02:54:18 AM
Thanks guys. Yes, and please show the results, Greg.