Icetoaster <icetoaster_at_gmx.de> wrote:
> I like evaluate values from a height_field image:
> something like
> #declare f=function(x,y) { height_field { tga "mountains.tga" } }

  How would this be different from simply reading the image map directly
(as a pigment function) converted to grayscale?

  Heightfields are, after all, calculated from precisely that info.

> I like to use this function to define colors dependent from the height
> (e.g. starting with blue for sea level, green for middle values, gray for
> high values, and white for snow on top of the mountains.

  Wouldn't it be much easier to simply apply a "gradient y" texture map
to the heightfield directly?

> A second idea is to calculate a gradient from this function, in order to
> define the color from the steepness of the landscape (e.g. on steep
> passages there is no grass because there is no soil...).

  You can create a texture which depends on the slope of an object by using
the slope pattern (details in the documentation).

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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