Terrain Generator by Orteil

Terrain Generator by Orteil
http://www.filterforge.com/filters/10180.html

This is really beautiful! I would like to take this opportunity though to beg people to stop scrambling their nodes up (making connections go backwards, tightly packing everything so connections aren't visible, leaving unused nodes intact, etc.) because it makes it so hard to tidy up a slow, but otherwise useful filter. For example, I might want to remove some of the variation options so that I can get a faster render, but since its all tangled, it'll be hard for me to find what to remove.

In trying to optimize this for my own use I've found no less than 15 nodes so far that aren't being used in the final output (not connected), which seems like a waste of time for a filter that is already slow to render. Maybe I'm wrong and unconnected nodes aren't calculated in the final result? Either way it makes it tough to see what's going on. Otherwise I love this!

Ooooo...! Awesome!

Yeah, the smudge method is pretty but it seems that adding other complex things down the way can really slow down the thing very quickly. (...if that makes sense.)
Then again, my node-fu isn't quite the best, and this is very much an experimental filter. I'm sure we still have some way to go before we get something fast but pretty.

Lareieli, I'm sorry if my nodes are a bit confusing in that one, I finished it late at night after not having worked on it for a couple weeks. Also, I am pretty sure that nodes which don't actually connect to the final result (such as unconnected trees, or trees behind an unselected switch) are not rendered at all and don't add to the rendering time. I often use that to leave unfinished ideas in the filter, such as (in this one) crops and stuff.
If I recall, there's also an unused system somewhere to the right which allows to use only a single smudge, and then use that with a lookup component to map the normal pictures to their smudged equivalent - however, that method doesn't play nice with the image's borders, and usually leads to the smearing at the bottom displayed in the second (website) preset. I'm sure this can be used to speed up some other applications, though !

nice one, orteil

i too opened this up in the editor. yup, it's a nightmare. like something tim burton would conjure up however, it's not really that bad. a little rearranging does wonders. yes, there are some deadends in there but they dont affect the render time in the main gui. i'm attaching my reorganized version here for those that want it. it's the same filter; i've just put things more in order. i'm pretty sure this wont affect you getting an H.U. on this, orteil. editor's picks tend to go H.U. but, if you want this attachment removed, just say so and i'll ask GMM to remove it.

because of the way filters load and the library and all that, i've renamed the filter. all i did was add 'rev 1a', meaning revision 1a. the author stated "User" because of the way FF names filters, but i've changed this back to Orteil.

and yes, there are deadends. i've moved all of those up above the main filter. one way you guys can check for deadends is to left click the Results component and then right click on it and pick 'sel ect subtree'. this will highlight ALL of the components currently connected to the Results component. then, simply drag this entire component tree a ways off fr om where it was and you will only be moving those components and none of the dead ones. the dead ones will now be off by themselves and easily seen.

if you guys do open this one up, notice how many noise components there are in this. i think if you plan to make this filter faster, that's where you can start. if nothing else, some of those cell components could probably be replaced with perlins, perlins being the fastest noise component as far as rendering time.

again, nicely done, orteil!

Terrain Generator rev 1a.ffxml