Using 2D gradients for terrains or lattices - problem with banding

Past as Future

So I decided to try drawing gradients in 2D software (e.g. Adobe Illustrator) with purpose of using them in Bryce for terrains, but I'm having a problem with gradient banding. No matter how much "blur" I would apply in Photoshop, or how much would I use "smooth" command in Terrain Editor, I still get effect of terracing which I don't need in this case.

If any of you was exploring this topic, please share your experience. I think the problem with output that I'm getting from Adobe software, however when I try searching for infromation of how to deal with that, I mostly arrive at solutions that are made to "hide the problem visually" aimed at print production or web design via using a mixture of blur and noise grain or blur and dithering. Howevever, I wonder if there is a way to get those gradient morphs (transitions) as smoothly as possible. Now, I understand there still will be some colour/tone gradation especially if my terrain target is 1024 x 1024 pixels. However, I'd prefer it to not have "terracing" and instead do all the needed changes between each pixels instead of lumping them together into terraces.

I think in late 90s and early 00s "brycers" maybe had solution to this problem, I think perhaps that was one of applications of BSmooth software (just my guess). But I don't have an old Macintosh with it, so...

Anyway, here is a picture of results I'm not satisfied with, and I also attach my original gradient mesh vector file (saved to PDF) and rasterized picture.

P.S.

I also don't know why I got those "low poly" looks on the hills...

Electro-Elvis

Hello Past as Future

I faced a similar problem. I remember that Horo stated that you have to store a grayscale picture as TIFF file format with 16-bit. I have just made a few test in PaintShop Pro with this knowledge. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it did not. I'm afraid I could not figure out a meaningful pattern when it works and when it doesn't. I only recognised, when I used the function "gradient fill" for the whole image, I got gradient banding in Bryce, even with TIF 16-bit grayscale format. When I filled the whole picture with a dark gray and painted with a small brush a few brighter areas, the bryce terrain showed no banding, but with a large brush, e.g. 300 pixels wide I got banding again. It remains a bit mysterious. I used PaintShop Pro but to be honest, this piece of software and me will never become friends.

Past as Future

Electro-Elvis, thanks for sharing your experience with PaintShop Pro. I have never used it as due to my job I'm familiar with Adobe's software, mainly Photoshop and Illustrator.

I've also tried to make a funnel object with Bryce using gradient heightmaps. Results were similarly bad:

Later I decided to use an interesting software called ImageMagick to generate the needed gradient instead. Results were much better in regards to smoothness of surface, however I've lost the curved shape of the funnel I had before as it's now as straight as cone figure.

Later I've exchanged some messages with Horo and he made a suggestion that despite saving file as 16-bit TIFF, gradient itself was 8-bit. After that I've tried doing a gradient (again, a very simple radial gradient from black on the edges to white in the center) while making sure that image mode is 16-bit from the start. After that I've got results similar to an experiment in the ImageMagick.

And while it sounded as a solution, it's not fully... as I need to use Illustrator for making gradients because of the "mesh gradient" tool which it has and Photoshop doesn't. Here is heightmap of that unfortunate terrain from the first post of this thread (I've also attached both TIFF export and PDF vector file there):

And here is how it's done:

So it's a nice instrument to create such complex gradients and from what I know there is no an easy way to do it like this in Photoshop. As you're getting a grid where you can move points and assign colour or tone to each of the points, and gradient effect appears between them. The problem, I couldn't find any info about how to force Illustrator to generate gradients in true 16-bit mode, so when I export or ctrl+c/ctrl+v it into the Photoshop, banding is presented... and the way it looks in Bryce, well, see the first post. Sad, as I've thought this technique will help me doing interesting looking terrains for Bryce