Cracks
Last updated
Last updated
The Cracks primitive creates large, cracked patterns on a flat base. You can use it to mask other nodes or subtract it from other primitives using the @Combine node.
Basic Technique
By using @Combine to subtract out the Cracks output, you can cut out the pattern in the main terrain.
Nested Patterns
The default pattern may seem to geometric and simplistic. This is by design so you have broad room to make modifications.
Create 3 different nodes, one with large cracks, one with medium cracks, and one with small and combine them for a more believable effect. As a rule of thumb, you can take the largest size, right-click the Scale slider and select the Halve button. Duplicate the node and halve it again for the next node.
This may still look too simple for most usage scenarios. So you can add distortions to the nodes by using the Displace option in the @postprocess. This will create more natural-looking cracks.
When subtracting this pattern out of another terrain, you can get complex, subtle effects.
If you need more elaborate distortions in your patterns, you can add a @Warp node to each Cracks node.
Style
Normal: The default style that creates cracks that gentle slope inward.
Hard: The edges of the cracks are not refined and may show aliasing. This may be useful if the softer edges create artifacts in other nodes.
Classic: The default style from previous versions of Gaea. This is creates very thin cracks without a slope curve.
Octaves: The number of crack pattern sets to generate.
Scale: The overall size of the cracked pattern.
Depth: The depth of the cracks. It also widens the cracks.
Jitter: Control the offset of the cracks between symmetrical and chaotic.
Warp Strength: The strength of the warp distortion applied to the cracks.
Warp Size: The size of the warp distortion applied to the cracks.
Seed: The randomization pattern or seed for the node's process.
Scale X: The non-uniform scale on the X axis.
Scale Y: The non-uniform scale on the Y axis.
