ROCKS! cool looking photorealistic rocks-how do you go about making them?

[DominikMateasik]

So,as the title says, im interested in how do people make ROCKS- in 3d especially. Ive seen some cool rocks,presumably not by photobashing nor AI, over last couple of months years but it seems quite a challange to make beautiful real-looking rocks in 3d that would work in most of the situation (most light scenarios). Of course there are the obvious answers as- Megascans, but...is it really the answer? Ive went through lot of them and they are .... not actually that good looking usually, especially when one doesnt have the best and nicest light scenario the Megascan rocks kinda fall apart and are looking too unrealistically sharp or bubbly sometimes and definitely cant be used in close-ups (at least most of the ones ive tried). There is always an option to download the original super high res 3d geo scan of the Megascan rock,which is the best,but it should work also with displace only, no original mesh(which is maybe another question more related to vray-what settings do you use, maybe some of you have some magic mix of ...numbers? which i highly doubt exist but hey thats why im here asking). For example ,already a better 3d scan of a rock proved to be, surprisingly, from textures.com - unexpected winner but that rock rocks! and can be used in closeups,far away sized up dozens of times and still holds way more photorealistic look then most of the megascans (somehow). This is obviously just my opinion. There are also dozens and dozens of other ways to go about rocks and im really interested what works for you, what you find is either the best way or economically good enough looking way you usually use. Or maybe just slapping photos on bad 3d is your preferred way then feel free to share ideas about that too. Maybe layering different displaces/textures on one geo to make it more believable is the only way to achieve something bearable - basically im interested in anything anyone cares to offer and share, and ofc would be super nice to even show the results of preferred way if possible. Im of course talking about all kinds of rocks but these last couple of...years already..its a LOT about big rocks in saudi projects etc so that would be interesting the most to me, the big damn rocks that could be used in closeups too though. And please be specific as much as you can, if megascans what settings,what LOD models or whatever might help or explain it more to the depth. I am attaching some examples of nice looking rocks ive come across in recent months just to give you a rough idea what kind of rocks i mean (hopefully they arent AI or AI enhanced, then the answer would be pretty straightforward) The credits should be mentioned on the screenshots.

Even though i highly doubt this thread will get any answers but hey at least i tried and THANK YOU, to anyone chipping in in advance. and sorry for chaotic post

[Vizioen]

Just a tip for next time please add some new lines (paragraphs) to your post, that makes it a little easier to read. Right now I really had to make an effort trying to read your post.

This tutorial from Jonas explains pretty well on how to use Megascans assets with V-Ray: V-Ray | How to use MEGASCANS | QUIXEL Bridge - YouTube

I would either use megascans or some other scans like you suggested enough rock/cliff scans on the internet, maybe enhance the textures a bit if necessary (depending on the size or distance, you could use topaz Gigapixel AI for instance). If needed add some extra layers of dirt or other materials in a vrayblend map, scatter some other smaller rocks or plants on top of it (depending on the type of landscape you're after) and in the end I would probably use an AI upscale enhancer, like for instance Magnific, to get extra details here and there.

Edit: For bigger landscapes and such you can use software like Terragen, World Machine or tyFlow (Terrain)
Edit2: I also remember this script by Aaron Dabelow: https://vimeo.com/102691168 you can create rocks with it as well, but you need to create your own materials for it. I can't seem to find the download anywhere but I still have it on my server, so if you want it, I can share it.