Recent posts
#81
Last post by raymoh - January 25, 2026, 02:44:13 AM
The fog is clearing on this super-Earth, which orbits a binary star. There is a lot of water here, mostly as vapor in the atmosphere, but the environmental conditions are deadly for humans.
Despite this, life has developed here: a life form similar to an Earth slime mold covers part of the surface. It is actually a single organism, the majority of which lives underground. What we see on the surface is just "the tip of the iceberg." Just like the Earth's slime molds, this creature can move very slowly for the purpose of finding food.
#82
Last post by Doug - January 23, 2026, 07:29:45 AM
Thanks for the reply and information.
I found it. The outer edge has no dark lines around it.
So it is the seam between two masks.
I moved it back toward the wall. I will just keep going until it disappears.
#83
Last post by Dune - January 23, 2026, 03:10:26 AM
The blue is darkish, so would dip too with the grey lines between the tiles, if you displace the whole lot. So you should make an RGB file separating the colors you need for the tiles and the displacement, so channel Red could be the soft grey (either make them dark on white or white on black) for the dips, Green the white tiles, and Blue the blue tiles. In TG you use blue nodes convert Red to scalar, Green to scalar and Blue to scalar to use them as masks for displacement or additional color or so.
Or make two files; the blue and white for the tile colors, and a separate greyscale for the dips between.
And repeat X and Y for a complete floor.
#84
Last post by Doug - January 22, 2026, 09:01:31 PM
Where is the dip between tiles?
My mask is good, i have all the dark lines for a dip.
#85
Last post by Dune - January 13, 2026, 02:08:26 AM
As a mix controller I used to have nothing, as the stretched part on one side got hazy enough not to 'really' interfere. I then used a blue node setup to get the direction, but now we have the surface and distribution shader with direction settings. Use that, I'd say.
#86
Last post by edb3_16 - January 12, 2026, 02:13:23 PM
Using cylindrical projection and setting the X to a small number fixed the issue I was having. Will have to try to merge several projections, just not sure how to set up the mix controller to blend them together properly. Hopefully Terragen 5 will have an option for an easy tri-planer projection!
Thanks again for your help and giving me ideas with stuff to experiment with!
#87
Last post by Dune - January 12, 2026, 01:59:08 AM
You're welcome. Image maps are difficult to project right, but indeed, for vertical cliffs I've used cylindrical as well, just make the X (I think) pretty small or it gets stretched over the whole terrain. I've also used a merge of several projection directions, over X, over Z and over Y, mixed by blue node or merge by merge shader, but you get some hazy overlap. Might not be bad for rocks.
Fake stones are awesome, use a transform shader (set to world) after one and it will be a real rock, otherwise it won't bulge. Mix, stretch, add, etc.
Use XYZ shader as well, it will fix displacements (so smoothing in a surface shader keeps everything before it as it was) and project (procedural) colors right. Lots to experiment with.
#88
Last post by Dune - January 12, 2026, 01:51:13 AM
Good render for your first post. Keep them coming!
#89
Last post by rynets - January 11, 2026, 11:25:35 PM
Edited for first post.
#90
Last post by rynets - January 11, 2026, 11:24:21 PM
