LayerSep by Function Store

{{{ IMPORTANT }}} Not compatible with most Macs, it requires Nvidia!

Note: This component is inspired by the mobile application Glitch/Mirror Lab’s Topology 3D effect

This TouchDesigner Geo component takes an input texture and separates it into bands based on pixel thresholds (very similar to Threshold TOP) and distributes these bands onto different layers (instances) of a SOP geometry. The algorithm is such (by default) that each layer’s texture is also subtracted from the consecutive ones, meaning if you added the layer textures the result would be the original texture. 

The effect is analogous to a Phong’s height map, except in this case the XY resolution is “infinite” and the Z is defined by the number of SOP layers (that can be arbitrarily low detail), whereas with a Phong height map the Z is “infinite” and the XY is defined by the SOP detail (which must be high to get good looking results).