When I composed my first hopping cube video
I would have liked to have the camera pitch up enough to show the horizon, except I didn't have enough geometry to extend the cobblestone street and the sidewalk all the way to infinity (mostly because that would require infinite stuff). Even in that shot it is clear that I need to widen the "sidewalk" to cover up the "sky"box.
Contrast with
where the ray tracer can use the procedurally replicated geometry.
http://www.pasteall.org/blend/29031 is a failed attempt at faking out the horizon, even with low detail. It fails because lighting's interaction with the geometry gives it away.
Some techniques that prevent you from having to deal with infinity include
- put the scene in a box (usually a room)
- put the scene in a canyon (which is just a box without a top so you can see the relatively featureless sky)
- route the road into a tunnel, or around a corner and hide the horizon with other geometry (which is really just a variant on the canyon).
- have no detail on the ground at all (flat color or gradient)
Those are all dodging the question of interest to me:
What techniques have people used in blender to fake various kinds of detail repeating into the distance (instead of just obstructing the view of infinity)?