Get rougher looking thermal erosion

Help! How do I...
#1

Thermal Weathering is one of my favorite devices to use, but I’m always a bit disappointed in the size of the talus. No matter how much I mess around with the settings, I can’t always get the results to look the way I want. In some cases, I’d like the talus to look more like large rough boulders that have fractured and fallen than sand. Usually, when I need this look, I’ll pull in the terrain to Terragen and use the talus mask over a fake stones node, but I’m wondering if it’s possible to have a rougher looking output from the Thermal Weathering device in the first place.

If not, I suppose I could always just use another generator masked by the talus mask, but if I can get the desired output with only one device, that would be ideal.

#2

You are aware of this feature?

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And if so, yes, that is kind of the maximum result and I suggest replacing/reworking the talus with a noise generator. Use the Talus Depth to mask where you’re going to put this, probably blend with Multiply or Overlay, whatever suits.

Will hopefully post a demonstration soon, but don’t have much time on my hands right now.

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#3

Yeah, I have tried messaging around with the talus size. I kinda figured that would be the case and started messing around with the noise generators masked by the talus output yesterday, and it worked way better than I had initially hoped!

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#4

If talus size doesn’t produce quite the result you’re looking for, using the talus mask to add in some additional noise should be just what you’re looking for. I’ve had good results taking a simple billowy perlin, cutting off the bottom with a Clamp in expand mode so you only get the mid-tops of the bumps, and then adding according to the mask.

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