Playing with shaders

[Cocateho]

Hey there, been awhile since i posted anything. I was recently toying with a new method of doing ground work (for me) and started using only fake stones of varying sizes instead of surface shaders. I think I like the effect, but critique or suggestions to better refine the technique are always welcome. Here's the first two images of my attempts:



[attachimg=1][attachimg=2]

[Lady of the Lake]

I like the foreground in the second one a lot.

[Dune]

They are nice. I have 2 comments;
1: Can you get the snow fields smoother? That should be possible if your ground before compute terrain is quite smooth, if you used displacement intersection (and I guess you did).
2: I would limit the larger stones at least to lesser sloped areas or depressions, the ones on the right seem a bit on the verge of tumbling further down.

But you came back with something nice!

[Cocateho]

They are nice. I have 2 comments;
1: Can you get the snow fields smoother? That should be possible if your ground before compute terrain is quite smooth, if you used displacement intersection (and I guess you did).
2: I would limit the larger stones at least to lesser sloped areas or depressions, the ones on the right seem a bit on the verge of tumbling further down.

But you came back with something nice!

I was wondering that myself about the snow, although I must admit close up realism with snow is something I never quite got the hang of, especially when trying to create any appearance of thickness it never seems to come out quite right 

As far as the rocks go, that SHOULD be an easy fix with limiting the slope, didn't notice it so much until you said something but it is a tad odd LOL.

[TheBadger]

The ground cover in image 2 has some really nice effects happing.

[archonforest]

I like the 2nd image.
The only thing that is a bit weird for me on that pix are the small/medium stones on the right side...they look like copy paste....a little variety of shapes would be cool...

[mhaze]

Nice idea. I like no 2 especially.  I agree with all the other comments.