Walk With Me - Terrains - Part 3

Textures - Min and Max
Copyright 2003 Robert Cox (Meski)

Min and Max

1.  We are going to blow away our Altitude shader by  holding the SHIFT key down and RIGHT clicking on the dart in the upper right corner of the image below.  Scroll down and choose the shader shown outlined in red.  Ok out.

2.  Go into the Deep Texture Editor by clicking on the ball shown outline in yellow below.  Remember this ball.  I won't be showing it again.

3.  Examination will show us that "component 1" is using Spline Interpolation, the Noise type is Fractal 3D, and the Filter is Clip aX+b. 

4.  Turn off the Filter by left clicking on the formula in the filter and selecting None.  I just want you to see what Clip aX+b is doing.  Ok... turn it back on by selecting Clip aX+b. 

5.  With Clip aX+b on, turn OFF the color in component 1 by clicking the "C".  This is very important to do this so that you can see what is going to happen with Min and Max.  Now, it is also important to know what Min is and Max is.  Max is white and Min is black.  What does that mean?... go to 6. 

6.  Turn your color back on for component 1.  It so happens in this example ( component 1 ) that all of the colors are bright and easy to see.  So, what we see pretty much reflects the alpha channel "A".  But that isn't always true, so remember to check if you are having trouble getting what you expect.

Ok, click the "2" as shown by 1.  Select Maximum by clicking whatever text shows up where Maximum is. Shown by 2.  Then click on the button, shown by 3, until you get a color that is drastically different than component 1.

What's this in combination?  When you select Maximum from component 1 to component 2, you are saying, pass whatever is at maximum on to component 2.  As you can see in the combination preview, it is passing Maximum white.  

7.  Now change Maximum to Minimum. 

8.  Now, don't freak out over the next image.  You can set this up in about 3 minutes.  Well, maybe 5.  As you get familiar with the interface, it will go much faster.  Set component 1  color mapping to linear interpolation 3 and component 2 to spline interpolation.  ( Click the dart just below the color circles ) Approximate the color settings they don't have to be exact.  Set component 2 to noise type gradient etc. as shown below. 

9.  Ok out of the Deep Texture Editor.  Click on the ball shown below outlined in yellow and set the scale to 19%. 

10.  Click on Copy and OK out of the texture editor.  Ok out and select your ground plane.  Go to the material editor and select Paste.  OK out and Render.

11.  Congratulations!  You just created a rocky grass shader!

12.  We aren't done yet!  Go back into the texture editor.  SHIFT / RIGHT click on the dart shown below.

13.  Select User.

14.  Bug alert!  If you select something and Byrce exits out of the window and Bryce appears to hang... anytime, hit the Escape and try again.  Geesh!

Click on Add and name your texture.  Ok out.

When you go back into the texture editor, clicking on the dart shown in 12 will only display User.  To put it back, just SHIFT RIGHT click and select Installed shown in 13.  Remember the Bug Alert. 

Whew!!  Next, Putting It All Together