You can also create your own rocks in Vue using displacement materials. This is very exciting, since it allows for different kinds of rocks and minerals.

Working with materials in Vue is really an important aspect of making realistic terrains. For instance, a couple of months ago I discovered using slope constraints with filters in a bumpy and colored material to get a great looking layered plateau with soft rock layers and hard rock layers of different colors. Have to play around with that some more now that I have a bit more time.

Also, for the terrain chapter in our book we had the goal to create something great looking using terrains only that could be explained in a single tutorial. I think we've accomplished that. Our opening chapter image was pure Vue as well and features dramatic, stark mountains with snow in them that are incredible.

Resolution in terrains (and plants) count and can often be the reason for less satisfactory results.

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3D Art Essentials: The Fundamentals of 3D Modeling, Texturing and Animation Vue 7 From the Ground Up