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Clip file only (not a .tgd world set-up) for my Mojoliths.  Once again, I have merely pieced together parts of files that someone else created.  My only claim to invention is assembling them and making adjustments.  A brief tutorial on how to use:

There are four main Groups: Standing Structures, Lower Terrain, Bulges, and Grooves.

Standing Structures: Creates the liths.  Seed node controls their diameter with the Lead-in and lowest values. Density controls the spacing.  A value of 0.52 seems to work the best; anything lower will overcrowd the scene.  Color Adjust shader controls the shape of the liths.  Main Displacement controls their height.

Lower Terrain:  Creates only a base on which the liths will sit.  It is fully adjustable.  The Surface Layer shader is only used as a mixer.

Bulges: Creates the large lateral displacements on the liths.  Distort Scale node controls their overall size.  Feature scale min and max nodes create the difference between their sizes.  Note: it is best to keep min and max values fairly close to each other, otherwise there will be too much distortion.  The Color Adjust shader controls their shape.  Displacement shader controls their volume.

Grooves: Creates the small recesses in the liths and terrain.  There are two sets of these and their controls are similar to those of the Bulges group.  This group can be disconnected and will not affect any of the other Groups' functions.

I hope you enjoy!

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Very generous Rich. I'm particularly interested in the "Grooves" - they give a real alien feel. Thanks!

Thanks, Rich, much appreciated.

John

yes indeed thank you!!!!!

Thanks , Rich2  :)

Thank you Rich2. Very cool stuff.

Thanks Rich2, I much appreciate your explanation and generosity.

Thanks so much Rich2. This is so much fun playing around with - and learning.

Your generosity is very much appreciated.

Thanks. I have been wondering how you did these. It's something I have tried and not figured out.

just dl ed...cheers Rich!

Awesome! This clip is a lot of fun! Thanks.

While my scenes start to look more and more like your technique, I needed to look at your clip-file.
It is amazing how many nodes you have connected, nodes with pure white or black previews ... so you worked your way through a jungle by night ... not seeing the next step .... I couldn't!

At a few points your setup seems to be more complicated than necessary ... nonetheless very good work.

Volker

Quote from: Volker Harun on September 05, 2010, 04:46:17 AM
I needed to look at your clip-file.
It is amazing how many nodes you have connected, nodes with pure white or black previews ... so you worked your way through a jungle by night ... not seeing the next step .... I couldn't!
At a few points your setup seems to be more complicated than necessary.

Hi, Volker (or anyone with the know how)
Could you post (in this thread) a cleaned up version of this function clip, that retains its full functionality, with a brief explanation of which nodes are superfluous or wrongly positioned.
That would be very helpful to the understanding of which node does what and how.
My understanding of it is too sketchy to take this on.

John

QuoteCould you post (in this thread) a cleaned up version of this function clip, that retains its full functionality, with a brief explanation of which nodes are superfluous or wrongly positioned.
That would be very helpful to the understanding of which node does what and how.

In my case I'd even say I don't have the faintest clue! I worked a lot with the clip recently and got nice results but that was trial and error: Changing parameters and see how that worked out.
Most of the Blue Nodes are complete abracadabra to me. :-[

Well, one thing to have in mind is, that this clip has the option to control many aspects.
This way of control is proportional with complexity.

The things I was thinking about loud would clean up the node network and might give some speed - but I think that it will be less understandable.

The best way to understand the clip is to plug in the different shaders to the input of the planet node ... starting with the compute terrain on the left, continuing with surface shader below it and so on. Play with the scales ... i.e. set the minimum of the bulges to 500 or something ...

Volker

Thanks for the quick response, Volker. I understand the reverse engineering approach you are suggesting. And I know which nodes adjust the parameters. I think your saying that functionally the clip (network of nodes) is ok left as it is.

John

Thank you, Volker.

Quoteplug in the different shaders to the input of the planet node

That's an approach I will try.

Dang - I thought this thread had dropped off the map, but here it is rearing its ugly head, and I've failed to respond with whatever meager knowledge and wisdom I could possibly impart.  But here goes...

On the Bulges group, notice the Colour Adjust shader.  This is singularly the most important control of all.  Mess with it and you'll have to go to the displacement (secondmost important) shader and tweak it to keep it all in a palatable state.  Really it's a balancing act that seems defy the laws of the universe.  Same goes for the Grooves group.

You can adjust powerfractal / displacement for the standing structures as well, but you'll find yourself going back to the bulges and grooves and adjusting them, too.  As the wise and benevolent Volker says - it's all adjustable, just very sensitive.  And you'd have to spend some time to see what does what to what. Believe me, I've trashed more overnight renders than I've cared to say.

If that didn't confuse you, then you understand more than I do about this clip.  Again, I only assembled it, not invent the functional parts.

Quote from: Rich2 on September 06, 2010, 05:29:55 PM
If that didn't confuse you, then you understand more than I do about this clip.  Again, I only assembled it, not invent the functional parts.

LOL ... There is an old song that describes your last post ... 'Humble Stance' by Saga ...
In my opinion you just did what this forum is aimed for ... collecting knowledge and reassembling it to your own matter ...
That thread of Efflux and me for example is just a collection of questions like 'what is this node good for' and answers like 'I do not know, but it works!'.

The use of the Colour adjust is not the most intuitive ... though there is no real alternative.

One thing I learned from your clip is the use of the mix scalar ... thanks to Rich2 the Great and Majestic ,-)

;) :)

"Great and Majestic"?  Me?  Hardly the case, Volker my friend.  It is the works of yourself and efflux that are the most intuitive in my humble opinion.  Here is how Mojoliths came about, best I can remember:  

The bulges and Grooves came from efflux's "Perlin Strata", I now know.  The standing structures is actually a stripped-down and heavily tweaked version of an early canyon-generating clip - I think it was by Cyphyr but I can't be sure.  And I no more than stumbled into discovering how to make that work.

As posted earier in this thread, if there is a way to simplify this clip, have at it.  Anything I tried to do in that respect only caused it to fail, especially when disconnecting blue nodes.  I suppose until single node do-everything-plug-ins become available, we'll just have to live with working with functions.

Peace be unto you and your family.

First thing to scratch in your node network are the 'Add Scalar Nodes' ... you are having some high scaled noise adding values from 0 to 1 ... This feature might be interesting for scales below 10 ...

Second, compare the power fractal with the outcome of the voronoi ... i.e. set the power fractals colour contrast to 1 and set the offset to something by -0.4 to -.3 - if I remember correctly ... it should be very close to each other.
Driving the Voronoi with a power fractal gives very beautiful results when using colours from i.e. 0 to 10  (no clamp high colour!)inside the PF and Voronoi scales of i.e. 7 to 9 ... still the voronoi just adds some minor detail to the distribution of the PF.

These were the first two things that came into my mind ... more detail later ...

By the way ... you only need one Get position within a scene. More versatile is Get position in texture, as it can be scaled with a transform shader.
Texture is like a piece of cloth that can be stretched and moved ... the get position will be still the same though.

,-) Peace upon You and your beloved

Quote from: Volker Harun on September 08, 2010, 03:23:29 PM
By the way ... you only need one Get position within a scene.

I was a bit wrong here ... for this scene one Get position is fine ... you only need one Get position until the next Compute terrain node ...