I didn't like strata and outcrops shader to begin with but now I see that it's actually very good.
Your render is cool and a good use of the shader. Are the larger steps created with the shader or from the Geocontrol terrain? I'm assuming it's done with the strata and outcrops. I agree with the points about roughness and surfacing but your basic choice of colours is good. One problem with the strata and outcrops is the regularity. I tried tweaking the smoothing setting in compute terrain and found that it messed this regularity up a bit which was nice. I have some other strata graph stuff in the pipeline but not really utilized yet to show it's full potential.
This was my first realistic type test:
Then in more pure form:
This planet shows it used for both colour and slight displacement but it's use is subtle:
I wish I had some more time to make a proper planet to demonstrate this technique better but my next planet is going to be complex and will take some time. It is a much more versatile technique than these shots show. It's been discussed on the Planet Pig thread and there is a file on there.
