Layers vs Masks vs Both?

[Jules Verne]

Just wondering what you guys prefer between these three options. And trying to drum up some kind of posting frenzy, would be nice to see this place more active.



Yes I know layers aren't available just yet in GC2

Layers
I don't hear much said about this method. But there does seem to be benefits with it over masks. Mountains of the same height for example, but with very different appearances, or being able to move sections of a terrain around and fine tune how they all interact with each other, without destroying the other parts of a terrain.

Masks
I'm newer to these, having stuck to other features first before moving onto them. And can see the obvious benefits here, especially for interesting effects based on say wind direction or height, which you wont get with layers alone.

Both
This I would think will be the direction I'd personally be going in once I've played more with masks (and once layers are back), using a combination of both the above to create some very interesting effects, which for the scale I'll be working at will help a great deal.


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What about you? Do you find layers to be counterproductive? Or perhaps Masks confuse you to the point you'd rather not touch them?

Discuss! (for the love of God discuss something, anything!) :D

[Criss]

Both!

Another thing is speaking of mixing terrains seamlessly i was viewing what is being done with mixing terrain tiles in Terragen 2 and to be honest this gives me a headache. Way to much complex work to mix terrains together using there method.

http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=2036.0

I notice that in there tests not only are terrains being mixed but micro-climate variations as well where several different colors are being blended. Now a inquiry for Cajomi. We are aware that GeoControl 2 will mix terrains seamlessly with tiling at some point but can we also have an option to mix shaders of varying types for as well with those tiles. Even in self-similar terrain there will be changes in the ground colors not just by elevation but other means. It would be nice to layer shaders and blend them by masking fractal terrains with alpha opacity control blending from one tile into another or on the same tile region.

[cajomi]

In general I will have to build the tiling so, that all the parts of the underlying/basis terrain will stay. So the isolines, selections, shaders and so on have to be tiled too and will become a part of the new tile.
A colour distribution for greater colour changings over a wider area will be realized by simply colouring the basic terrain.
We will see, how this will be solved. But sure it will be usable.

[Criss]

Interesting. Thanks for the prompt reply. :)