How did they do it? (3Ds Max+VRay)

Hi, people. Here you see 3D Max+VRay. Two questions: 1) How did they do the soil with little stones, super extra bump or displace or something else? 2) The dust on the plants, is just texture with dust?

Want to hear any smart ideas. Thanks!


Photogrammetry scanning.

So a bit of model ( scanned from photo ), and textures ( normal + displacement mapping )

forestpack, I think.

Couple of years old, IIRC from 2011… maybe try looking at cgarchitect’s or ronenbekerman’s forums

Studio Aiko - Desert Villa (home)

Most that i found at this moment is an excerpt from Desert Villa @ archello

The most challenging task was to create a believable surrounding terrain with rocks and sand in order to achieve a realistic look. We used different types of scatter techniques on rocks and vegetation - a thing that cause us lots of RAM peaks. For the setup of this scene we used V-Ray sun and physical camera. this gave us great results for the exterior shots. The final achievement of the feel and mood was done with the post work which gave a subtle and calm mood. V-Ray displacement gave us the ability to create the detailed terrain and the rock fence. It required some extra use of RAM so we needed to work smart and to optimize every progress of our work.

probably as already mentioned above railclone & forest pack… also with some textures & shader work

PS
nowadays if it was up to me i’d go by this