Of course this thread is about a great clip file made by user, DandelO.
I tried to find the answer I am looking for by search, but it turns out nearly everyone uses DandelO's clip file of surface cracks and also gives credit. I could not find the original thread for the file share in my bookmarks.
Specifically, my question is about the width of the cracks (the spaces between non displaced surfaces) created by the clip-file.
I would like to make the cracks wider and maybe even deeper, to the point where there is much more crack than surface area by %. From looking at the clip, this would mean a redo of the file.
If you are reading this martin, that clip-file is one of the most useful I have come across, and what I am trying to do to it will make it an even more diverse tool for me.
If anyone can help, I would appreciate it.
Hi, Michael. I haven't looked at those files for years but if you just take the one called (something like)1m Cracks and route it through a Transform Shader you can rescale them to any size.
I'd probably just start from scratch, they're bound to be well outdated and sillily constructed clipfiles by now. No?
A single Voronoi Fractal colour function should do everything those old files do, and more. Bin them! :D
Quote from: dandelO on May 26, 2015, 08:31:21 AM
Hi, Michael. I haven't looked at those files for years but if you just take the one called (something like)1m Cracks and route it through a Transform Shader you can rescale them to any size.
I'd probably just start from scratch, they're bound to be well outdated and sillily constructed clipfiles by now. No?
A single Voronoi Fractal colour function should do everything those old files do, and more. Bin them! :D
Those voroni PFs are really a useful add in as well.
What an unfortunate yet humorous thread title, heh heh heh.
Unfortunate? I thought I was up there with comedy central! Lets never get too old for South Park level humor! ;D
@martin
Thanks for getting back. I'll take a look at the newer option, Im just used to using your drop-in solution. But just to make sure that we understand one another... The thing that looked complex to me was to make the crack part wider by meters, so that there was much less surface than gap...
Ill have to use the Voronoi just to see what I can do with it.
What does "bin them" mean?
He probably meant bind them.
File 13................. :P
Nope, I literally meant, throw them in the bin! :D
I see what you mean now. At first I thought you just wanted to rescale them, not widen the crack lines.
I'll have a look later but I think there might be a final Colour Adjust node inside it that could possibly make the white(crack) area wider, without scaling the size, I'm not sure.
I think I should have it in a clip file folder somewhere, we're going back a few computers in time, talking about these, though!
Learn something new every day. ;)
Well, I had a look but can't really see any easy way to enlarge the crack patterns in those files without rescaling the entire cell sizes. They don't work the way I thought with that Colour Adjust idea. ^^
You could likely somehow take a Voronoi ridge fractal's colour, without such hard edges as these crack files and Subtract or Difference its inverse from it with a Mix, or Merge Shader to widen the visible borders between the cells. ???
Give it a go...
HA! At first I was like, I don't want to post this question, cuz it will be easy for everyone else, and make me look stupid for having to ask about it. But now I am like, GOOD! I hope it hurts you bunch of Geniuses! Know my pain! :P :D
No but seriously, I'll try your ideas and see what I can get it to do. Thanks man .
There are no stupid questions, Michael... well some ;) Not this one. It's quite simple actually. Set it up like this and play with sizes (add more sizes if needed), and warp and color adjust. You can also add a transform shader to stretch, a merge to combine different stretched lines, etc.
Not long ago I reworked Martin's crack ( :P) to create a randomized road network, sharpening the borders of the "streets". Here's the thread about it;
http://www.planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,19429.0.html
I may yet rework it once again to solve my cloud problem. :P
@ Dune - what I see above is also helpful!
@ Dune
Do I only have to drop those blues in, or do I have to know what the hell they do?
You don't need to know, except that the constant is the average size of the structure (5 in this case). The others I opened for you to see the settings.
Thanks. :)
Hey, another question about this.
I got it to do what you did, which is nice. But I see that to work with it I need to have it plugged in after the compute.
In my file I will need it above the compute because that is where I did all my major work. It is a mask of terrain after all.
So my question is, will it work the way it look like it will, when used above the compute, since as it is now, I cant see how it looks when above the compute the way I can below.
Yes I know I can try it. But its not that simple... yet.
I do have some simplifying to do once I get this and other parts working right on ther own.
My other question is about what you see in your and my image.
If white represents where displacement will happen (being that it is a mask), how can I reverse it, since in the image, I would like what is white to be no displacement, and what is TG grey, to be where my displacement happens....
... It is obvious (I think) that I simply need to reverse the black white numbers some place, but I am not confident that I can say which, or why that would be the right node.
It's a PF right? just reverse the colours I'd think.
You can test the workings before or after the compute in a simple setup like you showed. If the displacement is kind of minor in relation to the whole terrain, I wouldn't worry about the compute, just put it after. And for reverse use the color adjust, slide black left again and white up, and play until you have the blobs white, the cracks blacker. You can also reduce gamma if that helps to achieve what you need. For displacement, you can uncheck the clamps if needed, so white will go up without restraint at 1, black under 0 instead of clamped at zero.
Ok. good.
But about the compute.
As it is seen here, it is below the compute. In the file I am making this for, it MUST go above the compute (because that is where the displacement is happing that i want to mask). Why does the clip (as seen above^^) not work the same way when plugged in above the compute as it does below? Or does it work the same, but I just can't view it the same?
Thanks again.
Quote from: dandelO on May 27, 2015, 10:35:12 AM
Well, I had a look but can't really see any easy way to enlarge the crack patterns in those files without rescaling the entire cell sizes. They don't work the way I thought with that Colour Adjust idea. ^^
You could likely somehow take a Voronoi ridge fractal's colour, without such hard edges as these crack files and Subtract or Difference its inverse from it with a Mix, or Merge Shader to widen the visible borders between the cells. ???
Give it a go...
widening the cracks:
@Michael: you could try putting it in front of the compute but add a compute normal before that (with a larger patch size). It might need the normals to work correctly.
@mogn
When your fellow cybernetic lifeforms initiate their conquest of the earth, would you please tell them that I'm alright and that there is no need to destroy me with the rest of humanity.
I would be willing to conspire for a harem of victoria's secret models and a nice house on a hill someplace. Or if the house is too much, the girls and I can just live in a cave or in the woods or something.
@Ulco
I took DandelO's original file and inserted this new build into it. He used a distribution shader as the case, and hooked his work into the internal nets child layer. I deleted the internal clip and put this one in and saved it.
A few things that are strange about it. I don't see a way to do it with a distribution shader that I create from right clicking... I had to use DandelO's file. THe one I get from right clicking has no internal imputs ??? So I dont understand how he created the file in the first place.
Another thing is that I like the results that I get from DandelO's file, I just want to make the effect bigger and more pronounced. Hence, everything else in this thread. But it does not work yet. I will play with it some more though.
About this project. I sat down and decided not to have any big ambition or goal, but just to have some fun and try to enjoy 3D for once... I actually am having fun and even made a ton of progress real fast. HA! That will teach me to have ambitions!
You only get the internal inputs after you've put some stuff into it, then linked them from the outside. The outside inputs will then move inward.
Link them how? I guess by assigning it in the nodes UI? Hmmm personally I think you should just be able to right click in the node window of the internal and assign it in one or two clicks. Since you have to import it in there anyway. But thank you for reply. :)
I think I've explained this before a while ago somewhere, but when you CTRL+X your nodes and the rightclick the 'container node' and go internal, do CTRL+V there, then go outside again and rightclick on the inputs one by one, and find the container inside nodes, you can assign them.
Quote from: TheBadger on May 26, 2015, 09:20:37 PM
Unfortunate? I thought I was up there with comedy central! Lets never get too old for South Park level humor! ;D
@martin
Thanks for getting back. I'll take a look at the newer option, Im just used to using your drop-in solution. But just to make sure that we understand one another... The thing that looked complex to me was to make the crack part wider by meters, so that there was much less surface than gap...
Ill have to use the Voronoi just to see what I can do with it.
What does "bin them" mean?
Easy:
"smooth step"(Voronoi, low, high)*Voronoi
This gives a flat (zero) bottom from values from 0 to low.
A soft ramp between values from low to high
Unchanged above high.