Is there some kind of a problem trying to smooth heightfields that are too
high-res?

"hf no problem.jpg" looks pretty good. The heightfield it uses was rendered
in POV at a resolution of 1024x1024. "hf problem.jpg" uses a _higher_
resolution height field (4096x4096), but it gets all these ugly stripes and
interference patterns. If I get in closer I can see the landscape appears
stepped, rather than smooth. Both images are done with the same settings,
apart from the res of the hf. And yes, they both have the "smooth" command
and the hf in both cases is rendered to a 16-bit .png file :)

My hunch is that POV's smooth command doesn't compensate for the limit of
colour depth. So if you crank the resolution up high enough or have a fairly
gradual change in value then you'll get this stepping.

Does anyone know what's going wrong and how I might fix it?

Or do I just have to make do with a lower res height field?

Help? :)

--
Tek
http://www.evilsuperbrain.com

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Preview of image 'hf problem.jpg'

Preview of image 'hf no problem.jpg'