Multiple textures and displacement maps on one object

[lukas_kostka]

Hi,
Can someone please explain if using multiple texture and displacement maps on a single object is possible? And if so, how.
I am working on some landscaping scenes, and I would like to have one object, part of the terrain, and in some parts to apply gravel displacements, on other parts bigger stones, etc. Can I use vertex map to drive the displacement? Or mesh selection tags?
Or is there any better workflow for this? I would like to avoid cutting the mesh to parts, I would like to keep it procedural (I have the low poly mesh subdivided with Remesh for a displacement to work better).
Thanks.

[deyan.hadzhiev]

Hey lukas_kostka, sure you can do this, you just need to properly mix (or blend) the displacement textures, depending on exactly what you want to achieve. Basically you can use two approaches (and even combine them):
1. Use a vertex map, which you can then use as a mix or blend mask (in a VRayMix or VRayLayered). If you want a sharp switch (instead of blending) between the displacement textures, you can also use VRayMultiSubTex, but that would be a bit trickier, if you want to use more than 2 textures.
2. Use polygon selections, which then should be used in VRayMultiSubTex's sub textures IDs. Just note, that V-Ray does not support overlapping polygon selections, so you may have only a single texture per actual polygon.
3. It should also be possible to combine the two approaches, so use both polygon selections and vertex maps.

One thing to keep in mind - the displacement amount will be the same for the whole geometry. So you should start setting up the larger displacement first, and the rest should be reduced by reducing the color contribution of the relevant textures.

Here is a simple example scene using a vertex map:


vertex-map-displacement.c4d

[lukas_kostka]

Hi deyan.hadzhiev and Thank you!
I did try this approach with Vray Distance, but I didn´t know how to make it work. So the key is to use VrayMix or VrayLayered, and then any node (curvature falloff, dirt etc?) can be added as a mix/blend map?
If you are aware of any tutorial explaining this in depth I will be happy if you share!

[deyan.hadzhiev]

Hi lukas_kostka, unfortunately, I don't think there is a dedicated tutorial for this. But I'll suggest making something similar in our documentation page.

Also, using the VRayDistance shader should be possible, again by setting it as a mask for VRayMix or VRayLayered. Just keep in mind, that VRayDistance is procedural shader, which means it can not be used for 2d Displacement type. It should work fine with Normal and Vector displacement though.