Smooth and Rough "Brush"

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SilverSurfer1221
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Smooth and Rough "Brush"

Post by SilverSurfer1221 » Tue May 25, 2021 3:03 pm

So, this is just an idea -

Sometimes after creating a landmass using Fractal, I see areas that I would like to be a bit smoother or less jaggie overall. In cases like this, it would be nice to have a Smooth brush. A Smooth brush would be a tool that you could drag, like a brush, over an area of a fractal line and it would reduce the jagginess of the line a bit. Perhaps a "strength" could be set to determine how much of a reduction there would be or perhaps the end-user would just have to keep brushing until the line is more to their liking.

And the opposite would be good, too - a Rough brush for when a landmass is created using Bezier Curve. This would add jaggedness to the area brushed.

Something like this could give the end-user more control over their maps. I like using Fractal to create landmasses, but I find that it is just lacking at times. And while I can get the general shape I want with Bezier Curve better, it just produces too smooth of a landmass. There is Bezier Fractal, too. It's great! But it would be good to be able to both smooth and roughen areas created via this method, in my opinion. :)

nDervish
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Re: Smooth and Rough "Brush"

Post by nDervish » Wed May 26, 2021 7:23 am

In the "Edit Shape" tool, you can select "Shape Control Points" and "Edit Point or Segment", select a segment, and then use the buttons on the far right of the toolbar to apply a "New Random Fractal" or "Nested Fractal".

There are also options on the toolbar to set the fractal Factor, Tension, and Amplitude, but, in playing with them just now, these controls don't appear to actually do anything. (Bug?)

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SilverSurfer1221
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Re: Smooth and Rough "Brush"

Post by SilverSurfer1221 » Wed May 26, 2021 10:04 am

Thanks for the help, but that's not what I'm wanting to do or suggesting a "smooth" or "rough" brush would do. I don't want to necessarily generate a new fractal, hoping to eventually get something closer to what I want, but want to use a brush-like tool to go over the area and adjust the smoothness or roughness of an area.

So, let's say I create a landmass or region, but I've used a non-fractal tool to do it. The generated landmass or fractal would be smooth (no fractals at all). Now, let's say that I want to make some areas (or all areas) appear to have fractals. I could take such a tool and brush over the edge and the brushed area would add roughness (perhaps fractals). Depending on the strength of the brush, the fractals could, at first, be minor. More brushing would add more of an affect. This way the end-user could control the amount of roughness of the edge of a landmass or region, making some areas rougher (more fractalized?) than others.

Now, the inverse would be true with a smooth brush. You create a landmass or region with a fractal tool, but find some areas are too rough (to many jaggies). So, you use a smooth brush to go over the area and reduce their size a bit, slowly smoothing it out as you brush (again, how much and how fast would depend on the brush strength). You could also use the rough brush to make a fractal area even more jaggy.

Having a tool like this would require a heck of a lot less key presses than having to go to Edit Shape, select the control point or points, and then clicking away on New Random Fractal hoping to get something closer to what you want. Instead, the end-user would just select the brush and brush on their landmass or region.

BTW - A tool like this could work on things other than landmasses and regions. It could work on rivers, roads, etc.

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Kyete
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Re: Smooth and Rough "Brush"

Post by Kyete » Tue Sep 07, 2021 10:54 pm

I definitely agree that there should be some way to increase/decrease the amount of fractalization for an existing item without creating a completely new fractal. We will look into adding something to do this, whether it's a new tool or a redesign/addition of the edit shape tool.
nDervish wrote:
Wed May 26, 2021 7:23 am
There are also options on the toolbar to set the fractal Factor, Tension, and Amplitude, but, in playing with them just now, these controls don't appear to actually do anything. (Bug?)
The fractal options on the edit shape tool are just the settings for the New Random Fractal, which is confusing when it seems like they should apply to the selected item/segment and nothing happens when they change.

We'll let you know once we've done some investigation. Thank you for the feedback!

-Katie

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