Attached Link: Le Cians (revisited)

I was wondering if anyone user of Vue 6 has ever attempted to get this kind of complex detail within Vue without any importing of image maps for bump or color. I can honestly say i have yet to see anything close to this. I refuse to use Terragen 2 because it's just to slow and Vue is very easy to use and more fun for me.

Now that is very realistic, awesome detail. I'm sure this could be achieved with Vue if the right light & render settings were used.

Are you sure they didn't use overlays?(.bmps/jpgs)  It sure looks that way;) Aside of that why not use jpgs/bmps then add displacement - that should do the trick.  You could always forumulate your own procedurals as well & get into the function editor to take care of such details.

No overlays. Just layers and layers of micro-displacement and various other shaders like fake stones are used. I tried displacement but Vue slows down a lot and at times crashes with using this feature. Getting into the function editor is easy enough. I was just wondering if anyone ever tried at such small details of barrens terrains close up like this.

To me it seems to take longer to render using displacement although i may be wrong about this. Had anyone else experienced a slow down using displacement?

Attached Link: Monsoon's place.....

It can be done. Displacement is indeed slower getting started because of the calculations but it's compounded greatly by atmospheric effects. So I've been sticking with the standard models. The only crashes I have now are when using layers with displacement. We'll see what the next upgrade brings in that area....

Here's an example using only mixed materials and only procedurals. No bitmaps although I am quite fond of using them. Here the work was done mainly with the wavelengths in the function editor and with filters. I'm really liking filter play...

Only one of the mixed materials is displaced..the other rides on the bump....

The mat is available in the download section of my website. Please help yourself and take it apart to see what I did and experiment. The render time for this pic on 'final' was just over 12 minutes.

Monsoon

Thanks for freeB..But also thanks for leading me to your site..I enjoyed your start up screen (except the bugs..I hate bugs) I actually watched it...

Concerning colour production, yes, Vue can do as well as TG, with the new layering system for mixing materials. About displacement, I haven't been able to create anything that remotly looks like the TG2 render, yet.

I agree. Color, bump and displacement for surface detail like grit and stone and dirt can be done as well in Vue as TG without bitmaps. That's what the above sample was about. However, the sculpting of the terrain itself is a different story in Vue than TG. I don't think you can get close to this particular TG render without using bitmaps or grayscales from World Machine or Geocontrol or TG itself. I think the underlying structure needs to be done in the terrain editor as opposed to mat displacement and then surface detail applied. In Vue, I think the ideal solution is a combination of bitmaps and procedurals. I doubt it can happen with procedurals alone. Just mho...

That is a nice image Monsoon. Thank you for providing the file. Indeed this is getting close to the detail of the terragen image. The only thing i would add somehow is a small grain detail like dirt, only because there are still smooth elements to the terrain and not enough roughness in the sub-details but with procedural work using the granite noise this can be done i believe.

Displacement does take a long time to calculate unfortunatley and if i add to many layers of displacement i run out of memory which begs the question on why does not Vue 6 use hard drive space as memory and only RAM? This most certainly would be most helpful for everybody.

I only have one gigabyte of ddr-ram and even this is not nearly enough.

This image here took 16 hours to render. High resolution size is at 3200 across. All parts of the terrain has displacement, both large and small elements. No image imports. 100% procedurals.

How did you get those slanted peaks? 

I'd forgotten that you can use the function editor in the terrain editor...duh...but I can't get anything but vertical...if I lean the terrain itself, then the materials don't fall accordingly.

Are your displacements for the peaks in the terrain editor or from the mat?

An interesting challenge for sure......

To get slanted peaks you twist on Z = > Y :)

Z = > Y is right on the money.    :)  

Displacement is for the mat only. I do not know if modifying the terrain the way i did can be considered a form of displacement?

Also i wish i can do more extreme forms of displacing the terrain like what i used to do in Terragen 2 but the more displacement i use, the more Vue 6 has a difficult time dealing with this feature. E-On really needs to optimize this feature as it was easy and fast in Terragen.

Not fair!              :(

www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php

How does one make fake stones on these levels in Vue. I tried and can not figure this out. Displacement materials on several alpha channel layers perhaps?

I don't think it's going to happen the same 'way' it does in TG2. In Vue, layers and alphas are a blending operation and are great for color and bump channels but I think (and I can't be sure because Vue crashes when I start horsin' around with displacements and layers) that you would get blending and your displacements muddied. I also think we could beat ourselves in the head trying to get renders from Vue that look like TG2 because after all, the two tools take different approaches and are different animals. Again, that's just my opinion.

However the same effects can be achieved readily in Vue and in some cases, might even look better upon close inspection...

The first way, of course, is to just use ecosystems and eco rocks all over the place.....but you are looking for the 'fake' rocks or the implication of such.

This second way is something I call 'outcropping' wherein you duplicate your terrain and lower it ever so slightly below the first one and change the color or mat or what have you. Then, with the softness way down, paint your terrain with the effects tool in the terrain editor. Start with pebbles and then use stones where you want them. Presto...instant rocks on your terrain. Also, you can use the raise tool and make other kinds of rock formations jutting out. 

It's not done like TG2 but the effect is the same come render time.

This third way is by using mixed materials with displacement on one of them and that one is the one that comes with Vue called Sick Rock.  But you have to tweak it. The bump in that material is negative so you have to bring it up to +1000 or so. Now just change the color map to your preference and blend with your other ground material. It's the one I used in that first mat sample. 

You can also tweak the function in the editor and play with the filters.  

Again, done differently than TG2 but the effect is there. 

These are both favorites of mine.

Hope this helps some.....

M

This does help greatly. Hmmm... i was thinking about out cropping. It is very much worth a go but i will have a try at all of your options. I am so used to Terragen 2 so it is taking a lot of getting used to Vue's work flow but thus far it is still fun even though at times frustrating.

The Sick Rock looks very nice.

Your results look very promising.      :)

Thank You much.

Also i was considering placing/painting eco rocks everywhere but Vue has not so good looking rocks and i wish there was a nice rock editor inside Vue. Something for Vue 7 perhaps to have implimented so hopefully with enough demand for something like this maybie e-on will have this if the demand is high enough. I was thinking about compiling a wish list for Vue 7 in the next several months.