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Got a big plane, sculpted some hills, put a displacement modifier on the plane, the coordinates are a uv map for just the hills. Now there is these nasty artifacts at the borders of the whole thing. Also notice how high the strength is, usually you have to set it lower than 1.

Is there an easy workaround to get rid of the artifacts or do I need to sculpt it?

What is the reason for the high strength of the modifier to see results of the displacement?

displacement artifacts

The sculpted hill. The selection is the uv map which the modifier gets applied to. (one won't see the back of it)

sculpted hill

The displacement map. Don't worry about the upper part it's from a hill somewhere else.

displacement map

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    $\begingroup$ Try to place a Subsurf Modifier below a Displacement. $\endgroup$
    – Paul Gonet
    Commented Aug 20, 2015 at 16:43
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    $\begingroup$ It's not obvious to me what part is sculpted, how much is sculpted, what the displacement map looks like. Can you clarify with some more screenshots? $\endgroup$
    – Gunslinger
    Commented Aug 20, 2015 at 16:44
  • $\begingroup$ @Gonzou Nope, sadly this doesn't solve it. The order of the modifiers is better this way or the subsurf will take away detail from the displace. $\endgroup$
    – Jonathan
    Commented Aug 20, 2015 at 16:44
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    $\begingroup$ @Gunslinger Sure, I'll add a screenshot of the sculpted hills and the displacement map. $\endgroup$
    – Jonathan
    Commented Aug 20, 2015 at 16:45

2 Answers 2

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If I understand you correct, it is the sudden drop in the terrain and the jagged edge that you want to avoid. You must smoothe the edges of the heightmap.

The transparent portion of your texture is treated as white. So it goes quite abruptly from dark to white.

One way to do this is in photoshop.

  1. Duplicate the layer.
  2. Smooth the bottom layer. (the smaller blur radius the better result)
  3. Merge the two layers.
  4. Repeat this until the entire image is filled.

It is handy to make this an action (a macro or a script) in photoshop. It can easily be recorded.

Photoshop action

Halfway step: Halfway step

Final result: Final result

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  • $\begingroup$ That is the answer I was hoping for, like how to avoid it mapwise. I'll definitely try this with a macro in PS. Thank you man! $\endgroup$
    – Jonathan
    Commented Aug 22, 2015 at 11:35
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Ok, if there is no simple workaround at least there is the difficult, manual way:

Just flip the plane upside down (bottom view with Ctrl+7) and use the Smooth brush on the inner normals of the edge, works like a charm.

In the end there is still a little bit of a hollow, just go into top view and use the Flatten brush (with caution) on the outer normals, et voilà.

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  • $\begingroup$ @Ray Mairlot Thx for the fancy keys :* $\endgroup$
    – Jonathan
    Commented Aug 20, 2015 at 18:02
  • $\begingroup$ look at the source to see how to insert your own buttons. PS any time you see some neat formatting in a post, you can hit the edit button to see how it is done. $\endgroup$
    – David
    Commented Aug 20, 2015 at 19:41

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