Method for using displacement on huge areas of paving

[tricky]

I'm in the process of giving displacement a try for a large area of paving. I have a few different renders to produce from all different locations. Obviously, the displacement on the paved surface is only going to be apparent close to the camera. What is the best way to approach this from a speed point of view?

To displace the entire area each time will take a while. I only need the 10m or so in front of the camera to be displaced, and beyond that, a simple bump would suffice.

Is there a good trick for this or is it a matter of region rendering the foreground areas with displacement on, and rendering the rest with displacement off? Problem with this method, of course, is that it still spends ages presampling all the paved area even though I only need the foreground...

[pixelplume]

just off the top of my head....what about breaking the pavement mesh apart or using volume select?

[Morbid Angel]

only way i can think of is use a falloff map with distance blend (use object) which will blend the displacement intensity based on object distance.

[tricky]

just off the top of my head....what about breaking the pavement mesh apart or using volume select?

- breaking the mesh apart would work, but I'm after a more streamlined, interactive, procedural approach so that I can move cameras around and the optimizations will occur automatically.

[Raven]

I have a similar problem, the only way I can figure it is to have 2 materials. 1 with displacement and 1 without.
Then use a falloff map set to distance blend camera-z depth as a mask on a blend material (you have to play with the curve a bit to get a smooth transition between your materials).
So you would have to use material displacement and not the displacement modifier.
I'm using it for an astroid belt with particles so I have many different objects, however I don't know how material displacement actually handles
a single object. ie if there is displacement anywhere on the object it sub divides the whole mesh or just where the displaced material is.

[^Lele^]

Trust Vray's displacement.
Using 3D mode, with a SCREEN SPACE edge length will allow you to keep the visual detail constant, while the actual amount of micro-poly generated will remain low for distant parts.
I used this method with success for HUGE amounts of water, and terrain: not a glitch, rendered faster than i could possibly imagine.
EDIT: for the distant parts, VRay will automatically switch to bump where the detail in the disp map is smaller than the edge length, hence mantaining the aforementioned perceptual quality.

[tricky]

Trust Vray's displacement.
Using 3D mode, with a SCREEN SPACE edge length will allow you to keep the visual detail constant, while the actual amount of micro-poly generated will remain low for distant parts.
I used this method with success for HUGE amounts of water, and terrain: not a glitch, rendered faster than i could possibly imagine.
EDIT: for the distant parts, VRay will automatically switch to bump where the detail in the disp map is smaller than the edge length, hence mantaining the aforementioned perceptual quality.

This project has come live again, so I will investigate. Your explanation is good Lele - I didn't realise it worked so intelligently. Vray is quite clever, isn't it?

[^Lele^]

This project has come live again, so I will investigate. Your explanation is good Lele - I didn't realise it worked so intelligently. Vray is quite clever, isn't it?

Nearly cleverer than its author.
I think it's getting closer to the first, real, Artificial Intelligence :P

[3DMK]

Have you thought of using actual geometry??????

There is an awesome script [Have a look at scriptspot] for doing this sort of thing called 'Floorboards' or something like that.
Easy to use & gives loads of options to create virtually any type of flooring [OR PAVERS] you want. [Although you are limited to rectangular shapes so no good for organic stuff]

If your pavers are not organic shapes then you are actually far better using this method if you are worried about too many polys/RAM.

One optimized 3D paver = 12-20 polys
One displacement 3D paver = 1000+ polys
Multiply that by hundreds or thousands of pavers & see what you get. [Even with view dependant 'ON']

You can vary the geometry pattern over a much larger area than a bitmap is capable of as well. [The script can randomize size, rotation, etc & throw a material by element modifier on it and you have random pavers as far as the eye can see.]

And the best thing is what you see is what you get!

I love textures but I always build geometry if it's easier & gives better results.


Hope this helps

[Pictor2]

I think this is what 3DMK is talking about

http://cg-source.com/floorgenerator.php

and I agree it's the dog's. Just used it to create limestone paving, works brilliantly.

[Polygonstate]

I think this is what 3DMK is talking about

http://cg-source.com/floorgenerator.php

and I agree it's the dog's. Just used it to create limestone paving, works brilliantly.

Cheers for the link.
Awesome scripts.

[CA Portugal]

Yeh ive used that floor generator on a big planar surface - pavement. Its a great plugin.
After getting it right i converted it to vray mesh. Renders fast.

Here´s an image of it. Doesnt show all the surface but you can see it goes beyond sight...
*3d work for Angola done in 2 1/2 days*

[^Lele^]

Err, the fact that the geometry isn't displaced is very visible to my eyes in the closeup: the black spots on the stone texture ar pure black, whereas if the geometry was displaced they'd get some light in there, contributing to realism
Still a nice one-button solution.

[tricky]

Looks like a really expensive marble pavement
Too much variation IMhO

[GLASS-CANVAS]

Trust Vray's displacement.
Using 3D mode, with a SCREEN SPACE edge length will allow you to keep the visual detail constant, while the actual amount of micro-poly generated will remain low for distant parts.
I used this method with success for HUGE amounts of water, and terrain: not a glitch, rendered faster than i could possibly imagine.
EDIT: for the distant parts, VRay will automatically switch to bump where the detail in the disp map is smaller than the edge length, hence mantaining the aforementioned perceptual quality.

Hi Lele,
Any chance you could post a screenshot of your displacement settings? I'm not having much luck getting a large field of grass to render in a reasonable amount of time

Thanks