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Relief3D Cookbook

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Bradley Brown edited this page Aug 13, 2026 · 1 revision

Relief 3D Cookbook

Copy-paste recipes for turning 2D fractals into lit relief and 3D terrain. Each lists exact controls, explains why it works, and offers variations. For what each control means, see the Relief 3D Guide.

All controls are in the Relief 3D panel (Control Center → Color & Light → Relief 3D…, or Fractal Params → Open Relief 3D…). Some recipes also use the Lighting & FX dialog (reachable from the panel's Open Lighting & FX… button). Colors are AARRGGBB hex.

Companion pages: User Index · Relief 3D Guide · Volumetric Lighting Cookbook

Contents

The two modes at a glance

Screen-space relief Oblique 3D raymarch
Speed Fast Heavier (GPU by default)
Framing Keeps the exact 2D view Tilted 3D camera + silhouette
Perspective No Yes (or orthographic)
Fog / god-rays No Yes (via Lighting & FX)
Mesh export No Yes
Enable with Enable raised relief + cast shadows … + Oblique 3D raymarch

Start with screen-space relief to judge the height; switch on oblique raymarch when you want a real 3D scene.

Tuning workflow

  1. Pick a smooth theme. Relief reads best on low-noise palettes — try Gold Relief, Marble Relief, or Neon Relief.
  2. Enable relief, set Height scale until the terrain reads (2–3 is a good start), keep Height curve = Log.
  3. Light it low. Drop Light elevation (screen-space) to ~25–35° for long shadows; raise Shadow strength to taste.
  4. Go 3D (optional). Tick Oblique 3D raymarch, set Camera elevation ~35°, tick Auto lighting defaults.
  5. Add atmosphere (optional). Open Lighting & FX, add fog + volume steps (Recipe 6).
  6. Quality pass. Raise Anti-alias to 2–3; turn on Hi-res height field if the window is small.

1 · Quick emboss

The 2D image gains raised relief and shadows without changing framing.

Control Value
Enable raised relief + cast shadows on
Oblique 3D raymarch off
Height scale 2.0
Light azimuth 135°
Light elevation 45°
Shadow strength 0.5
Relief strength 0.8

Why: screen-space relief embosses the height field and drapes cast shadows over the flat themed image — instant depth, minimal cost, same composition as the 2D view.

2 · Dramatic raking bas-relief

Long, theatrical shadows carving the filaments — a coin-relief / carved-stone look.

Control Value
Enable raised relief + cast shadows on
Height scale 3.5
Light azimuth 160°
Light elevation 22°
Shadow strength 0.8
Relief strength 1.0

Why: low light elevation stretches the cast shadows across the surface; high height scale deepens the carving. Zoom into filament structure first — flat regions have nothing to catch the light.

Variations:

  • Rotate the light: sweep Light azimuth for different shadow directions.
  • Softer stone: drop Shadow strength to 0.5, Height scale to 2.5.

3 · Full 3D landscape

The fractal as an orbitable terrain with real perspective and a sky silhouette.

Control Value Control Value
Oblique 3D raymarch on Camera azimuth 20°
Camera elevation 35° Camera FOV 55°
Frame-fill zoom 1.0 Anti-alias 2
Height curve Log Base ground plane on
Auto lighting defaults on Edge fade 0.1

Why: a mid-low camera elevation gives depth and a silhouette; the ground plane grounds the terrain so shadows land on a floor; auto lighting seeds AO + soft shadows + specular. Edge fade keeps structure from streaking off the frame.

Variations:

  • More drama: Camera elevation 20°, Height scale up.
  • Flatter map: Camera elevation 70°.

4 · Clean orthographic relief map

A precise, distortion-free relief map — engineering/architectural feel.

Control Value
Oblique 3D raymarch on
Orthographic camera on
Camera elevation 45°
Frame-fill zoom 1.0
Anti-alias 3
Height curve Log
Base ground plane on

Why: orthographic projection removes perspective stretch (which otherwise grows with FOV and frame-fill), so the terrain reads as a clean, measured relief map. Higher anti-alias keeps the parallel edges crisp.

5 · Isolated filament sculpture (transparent cutout)

Keep only the fine fractal filaments as a standalone 3D object on transparent background — ideal for compositing or a cutout export.

Control Value Where
Oblique 3D raymarch on Relief 3D
Isolate object on Relief 3D
Drop low-detail (keep filaments) on Relief 3D
Drop amount 0.6 Relief 3D
Base ground plane off Relief 3D
Show sky backdrop off Lighting & FX (Sky)

Why: detail culling removes the flat background and smooth plateaus by height gradient, leaving the sharp filaments; turning off the sky backdrop and ground plane leaves a transparent surround the export preserves as a cutout.

Variations:

  • Cull by color instead: tick Drop colours, add the background hex (use Pick to eyedrop it), raise Colour tolerance until it clears.
  • Keep more structure: lower Drop amount to 0.4.

6 · Foggy valley with god-rays

Relief terrain wrapped in volumetric fog with light shafts — atmospheric depth.

Control Value Where
Oblique 3D raymarch on Relief 3D
Camera elevation 28° (low) Relief 3D
Base ground plane on Relief 3D
Show sky backdrop on Lighting & FX
Auto lighting defaults on Relief 3D
Fog density 0.6 Lighting & FX (Fog/Volumetric)
Volume steps 32 Lighting & FX
Shadow steps 24 Lighting & FX (Shadow)
Anisotropy 0.7 Lighting & FX
Height falloff 1.0 Lighting & FX
Light 1 azimuth/elev put it behind the ridge, low Lighting & FX (Light)

Why: the shafts form where the view ray crosses lit fog next to shadowed fog. Aim Light 1 low and behind the terrain silhouette so the ridge chops the light into shafts; the low camera makes them rake across the sky above the ridge. Height falloff pools the denser fog in the valleys. Anisotropy is what concentrates the haze into distinct shafts — without it you get flat fog.

Warning

Relief god-rays behave differently from the 3D-fractal scenes the Volumetric Lighting Cookbook was written for. Read these before copying its numbers onto a relief scene:

  • Shafts against the sky need a backdrop to show against. Keep Show sky backdrop on (or use the dark drop). Shafts appear in the band of sky just above the terrain, where the ray still passes through the fog layer — not high overhead, where there is no fog.
  • The fog lives in the terrain's height band. Fog is bounded to the terrain bounding box, so it hugs the landscape rather than filling the whole frame. Raise Height scale to give shafts more vertical room.
  • Relief needs more fog than a Mandelbulb. The air path over terrain is short, so densities that read well on a unit-scale 3D fractal look like nothing here. Start around Fog density 0.4–0.8 and go up.
  • GPU relief uses the key light only for fog (Ctrl+Shift+G, the default). Lights 2/3 still light the surface, but only Light 1 carves shafts and tints the haze. Turn GPU relief off (CPU) to get all three lights + full volumetric color in the fog.
  • Palette-mapped fog (Palette map slider) does nothing on relief yet — it is a 3D-fractal-only feature for now. Use Fog color to tint relief haze.

7 · Metallic gold plaque

A polished gold bas-relief medallion.

Control Value Where
Theme Gold Relief Theme combo
Oblique 3D raymarch on Relief 3D
Camera elevation 40° Relief 3D
Auto lighting defaults on Relief 3D
Metallic 1.0 Lighting & FX (Material)
Specular 1.5 Lighting & FX
Roughness 0.3 Lighting & FX
IBL strength 0.5 Lighting & FX (Sky)

Why: the Gold Relief theme colors the height, and metallic + specular + low roughness give the polished-metal highlight; a touch of IBL adds environment reflection so the gold looks lit by a room, not a lamp.

Variations:

  • Brushed gold: Roughness 0.6.
  • Bronze: pair with a warmer HDRI environment / sky.

8 · Marble bas-relief

Soft, matte carved-marble panel.

Control Value Where
Theme Marble Relief Theme combo
Oblique 3D raymarch on Relief 3D
Camera elevation 45° Relief 3D
Bicubic height sampling on Relief 3D
Auto lighting defaults on Relief 3D
Sub-surface 0.4 Lighting & FX (Material)
Specular 0.3 Lighting & FX

Why: bicubic sampling smooths the terrain like polished stone; a little sub-surface gives marble its soft internal glow; low specular keeps it matte.

9 · Neon crystal spikes

Sharp, glowing crystalline spires — sci-fi / synthwave.

Control Value
Theme Neon Relief
Oblique 3D raymarch on
Height scale 4.5
Height curve Linear
Camera elevation 25°
Anti-alias 3

Why: the Linear height curve keeps the raw boundary spikes (instead of taming them to terrain), so the fractal edge becomes sharp needles; the Neon Relief theme lights them like glowing crystal. Higher anti-alias tames the sharp edges' aliasing.

Variations:

  • Add glow: Lighting & FX → Bloom strength ~0.4.
  • Tie into fog: Recipe 6 with a colored fog.

10 · Deep-zoom filament forest

Zoomed deep into filaments, at consistent quality regardless of window size.

Control Value
Oblique 3D raymarch on
Hi-res height field on
Field floor (px) 1080
Height curve Log
Edge fade 0.15
Anti-alias 2

Why: at small window sizes the display-resolution height field undersamples the fractal boundary into a spiky "needle-forest". Hi-res height field computes the field at the Field floor resolution instead, so any window matches the maximized look; Edge fade stops deep-panned structure from streaking arms at the frame edge.

Note

Hi-res field costs an extra escape-time field render below the floor, and has no effect at or above it (e.g. maximized or Span). Raise the floor for hero stills.

11 · Newton root-map relief

Relief on a root-finding fractal, where height is the iteration count to convergence — terraced basins around each root.

Control Value
Type Newton (or Nova / Halley)
Enable raised relief + cast shadows on
Height scale 2.5
Height curve Sqrt
Light elevation 30°
Relief strength 0.9

Why: Newton/Nova/Halley use iteration count as height, so the convergence basins step down toward each root — Sqrt keeps those terraces readable without over-flattening. Works in oblique raymarch too for a 3D basin landscape.

Also applies to: Buddhabrot (height = orbit density) and Apollonian (height = synthesised dome per disc) — try the same knobs.

12 · Turntable animation

Rotate the terrain for a video loop.

Control Value
Oblique 3D raymarch on
Camera elevation 35°
(animate) Camera azimuth sweep −180 → 180°

Why: animating Camera azimuth over a Scene Engine timeline orbits the camera for a clean turntable. Keep elevation fixed so the horizon stays level. Pair with a slow light or fog animation for extra life.

13 · 3D-print-ready STL

Export the terrain as a watertight solid for a slicer.

Control Value Section
Oblique 3D raymarch on —
Mesh → Height 0.25 Mesh export
Mesh → Smoothing 0.5 Mesh export
Mesh → Detail (grid) 768 Mesh export
Mesh → File size cap (MB) 25 Mesh export
Mesh → Underside 0 (flat back) Mesh export

Click Export mesh (OBJ / STL)… and choose STL.

Why: printing wants a moderate relief height and ~0.5 smoothing so dendrites merge into printable ridges rather than fragile spikes; the file-size cap clamps the grid so the STL stays sliceable. A flat back sits stable on the bed.

Warning

Very high Detail (grid) with low Smoothing produces thin, fragile spikes that may not print. Keep smoothing ≥ 0.4 for physical prints.

14 · Bas-relief OBJ plaque

A double-sided decorative panel with a contoured back, colored for rendering.

Control Value Section
Oblique 3D raymarch on —
Isolate object on (optional cutout) Relief 3D
Mesh → Height 0.18 Mesh export
Mesh → Smoothing 0.6 Mesh export
Mesh → Detail (grid) 1024 Mesh export
Mesh → Underside 0.7 Mesh export

Export as OBJ (keeps per-vertex color + smooth normals).

Why: a low mesh height reads as a clean bas-relief from any angle; the Underside contours the back with the same smoothed relief so the plaque has depth on both faces; OBJ carries the themed vertex colors into a DCC app.

Troubleshooting

Symptom Cause Fix
Terrain looks flat Camera elevation too high Lower Camera elevation to 25–40° (raymarch), or Light elevation (screen-space).
No shadows Shadow strength 0 (screen-space) / no shadow steps (raymarch) Raise Shadow strength, or Shadow steps in Lighting & FX.
Spiky needle-forest at small window Display-res field undersampling Turn on Hi-res height field, set Field floor ~1080.
Boundary is all spikes Height curve = Linear Switch to Log (or Sqrt).
Streaky "arms" at frame edges Structure running off-frame Raise Edge fade (0.1–0.2).
Relief barely visible Height scale too low / busy theme Raise Height scale; use a smooth relief theme.
Title shows [RELIEF GPU OFF] GPU relief toggled off Ctrl+Shift+G (or Control Center checkbox) to turn GPU back on.
Background won't go transparent Sky backdrop / ground plane on Turn Show sky backdrop OFF (Lighting & FX) and Base ground plane OFF with Isolate object on.
Mesh spikes won't print High detail + low smoothing Raise Smoothing to ≥ 0.4; lower Mesh height.
Slow render High resolution × Anti-alias² + heavy FX Tune at Anti-alias 1; raise for the final frame; keep GPU relief on.

See also

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