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Mimicking "distance from object" in gradient.

Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2015 9:33 am
by alexos
Hullo,

so, I have my typical mountain range; I want to cap it with snow and have the usual grass-rock texture at lower altitudes. In the native engine, I would achieve this by setting a gradient to "slope" or "y distance from object", or by using a weight map if I want to have more control. But I cannot imagine how to do it in Octane. Any suggestions?

ADP.

Re: Mimicking "distance from object" in gradient.

Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2015 9:49 am
by juanjgon
Perhaps you could use the same displacement texture (or a variation of it with more contrast) as input for the texture mixer node, or a gradient node.

-Juanjo

Re: Mimicking "distance from object" in gradient.

Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2015 11:37 am
by gordonrobb
I've done that in the past. Only works though if that's how your mountains where created :)

Re: Mimicking "distance from object" in gradient.

Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2015 1:57 pm
by alexos
Ah, thanks Juanjo, hadn't thought of that. Except as GR says, it only works if your mountains were created with a displacement map. Hmm. Perhaps I could feed it a bitmap gradient... Bit of a hassle though. It's strange, Octane is such a pleasure to work with and then every now and then you stumble into things that you've always taken for granted but just can't be done. :)

ADP.

Re: Mimicking "distance from object" in gradient.

Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2015 2:07 pm
by CANDITO
You can eventually use a gradient texture from black to white
and use it as alpha in a material mixer node (in the Z or X axis), i use this when i need
to have a gradient color/materials in packaging.
You can use the gamma of your texture/gradient to adjust the height of the effect

Oliv

Re: Mimicking "distance from object" in gradient.

Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2015 2:53 pm
by juanjgon
You can also think in use a raster gradient texture to drive the gradient or mixer nodes. This can work with any object.

-Juanjo

Re: Mimicking "distance from object" in gradient.

Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2015 8:37 pm
by 3dreamstudios
I was just starting to work with the displacement node and ran into this as well. Altough these are some decent options as work arounds...there really isn't anything I see here that can replace the SLOPE node to be ultrarealistic...and that's what we want in an ultra realistic engine like Octane! :D

It's not just how high things are...but on which slope of the geometry does different kinds of materials live on.....Grass on lower slopes.....rocks on steep slopes...and snow on higher things. It's a combination of slope and height gradient.

Re: Mimicking "distance from object" in gradient.

Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2015 9:51 am
by gordonrobb
If you can project onto your landscape using planer on x or z, you can use the sawtooth node (or an image that is just a gradient from black to white) and plug that result into the octane gradient node. You then sue the individual inputs of the gradient node to drive the different colours (at different shades of grey)

Re: Mimicking "distance from object" in gradient.

Posted: Sun May 03, 2015 9:42 am
by alexos
gordonrobb wrote:If you can project onto your landscape using planer on x or z, you can use the sawtooth node (or an image that is just a gradient from black to white) and plug that result into the octane gradient node. You then sue the individual inputs of the gradient node to drive the different colours (at different shades of grey)
Sawtooth..? Hadn't thought of that. Sounds mightily interesting, I'll give it a try tormorrow. I also like the fact that I can sue those lazy individual inputs into doing my bidding :D

ADP.