There's no need to scatter or paint bedded rocks.
You can use height maps instead to sculpt them.
With a gentle displacement effect and high-resolution stone texture,
bedded rocks can cast a shadow.
After all, the resolution in the ground is so high, so why not use it.
I didn't add geometry or use a paintbrush. I just used Unreal mechanisms and double
utilization of the material map - one for painting and one for sculpting.
The biggest virtual library of bedded rocks exists within Arbel's Material maps.
From the Material map of each tile, the “Bedded Rocks” index can be isolated and
saved as an initial height map.
But nothing is perfect, nor is the Material map.
With only one gray color and stains with hard edges (No Anti-Aliasing), the results
are like a collection of boxes with rock texture.
So, to enhance the height map, I use Photoshop to "shove" as many shades of
gray into one Material map, which gives you various heights, noise, and cracks on the surface.
The process takes less than half an hour for each tile.
And if you send me the material maps for all the tiles, I can generate
height maps for all the Arbel in a week.
I know you have doubts, and maybe it's hard to believe it's possible.
Well, I thought so too, until I saw the results on one tile.
And if you have separate control over each of the three axes, you can inflate
geometry to the top and to the sides, and to create bedded rocks that you can
stand on without slipping.
The mechanism for sculpting stairs and rock surfaces lives and breathes within
our Landscape material.
All you have to do is paint the soil using - “Limestone_Bedded_Rock layer” and
get similar results to the images below.
