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If you restrict yourself to single levels, the rendering speed doesn't seem to suffer. For example, a color gradient with a lumberyard shader. But since you can stack them up to whatever depth you desire, it's easy to compound the calculations required. Such an approach enhances realism, but you can take a hit in speed.
The real advantage with procedurals is that they don't depend on UV mapping and thus provide uniform texturing over the entire surface of the model. I happen to be a big fan of Carrara's procedurals, particularly when enhanced by DCG's Shader Ops and Shaders Plus, and Inagoni's Veloute. But it is true that to coax realism out of them, requires a lot of calculations.
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