Tidal foam test

Kevin F · May 11, 2008, 02:56:29 PM

Now don't dismiss this out of hand - it's just a test.
I had an idea after FrankB suggested to somebody that they try to limit the small fakestones on large fakestones effect by making two populations and merging them using the mix control set to choose by altitude.
My idea is to merge the water shader and a white surface layer set to choose by altitude.
This is the result plus a lot of other tweaking and it's looking promising. I know there's lots of things wrong - shape of surf,patches of glowing green, shiny rocks etc etc. BUT the potential is there if anybody wants to contribute.
Kevin F.

RedSquare · May 11, 2008, 03:58:29 PM

Anybody who dismisses this test out of hand would be a prat.

A good deal of promise, hope your further trials gain fruit.

nikita · May 11, 2008, 03:59:27 PM

"Nice potential!" then

The foam itself already looks quite convincing but it really should be limited to the shoreline. The the transition between foam and no foam could be smoother too.

rcallicotte · May 11, 2008, 06:14:28 PM

This is pretty cool...but (I have to say it

) it looks like a big bowl of green jello with whipped cream. Shaken, not stirred.

Kevin F · May 12, 2008, 08:47:28 AM

Here' a low res update to the original render. Getting better but still a lot to do.
C&C welcome.

rcallicotte · May 12, 2008, 09:29:14 AM

Wow! This is coming along. Has this method you're using proven to be difficult and lots of nodes?

Mohawk20 · May 12, 2008, 11:00:32 AM

Wow, that looks soooo much better...

Kevin F · May 12, 2008, 11:30:11 AM

Here's a variation on a theme! again low res for speed (50min)
AA2, detail .4, GI 1,1

Kevin F · May 12, 2008, 11:32:18 AM

Quote from: calico on May 12, 2008, 09:29:14 AM
Wow! This is coming along. Has this method you're using proven to be difficult and lots of nodes?

the method is really easy, but as usual lots of variables! I'll post a TDG of the basic water layer on shared files.

nikita · May 12, 2008, 12:41:13 PM

I tried to find a procedural solution to limit the surf to the coast.

The idea is to select parts of the terrain where the altitude is just below the water plane. This way, we get a mask for the coast. The problem is that there's no way to use this mask for the lake object.
So i took the fractal the terrain is made of (make sure you have appply low/high color enabled, clamp high/low color disabled and warping disabled) and a smooth-step that works as a height selector.

I attached a screenshot showing the network and the results.

moodflow · May 12, 2008, 12:54:00 PM

This is great that you got this to work. I spent some time trying something similar - to cue off the original terrain's altitude below the water level, and the closer the terrain is to the water level's altitude, the thicker the mask. I couldn't get it to work, as the "altitude" cues off of the water level itself, or seemed to. I gave up on it (for now atleast).

Your work looks promising.

rcallicotte · May 12, 2008, 01:45:31 PM

Thanks for the info. This is excellent. I agree with moodflow. Plenty to learn.