I cannot figure out how to post an image on the forum. Maybe a block due to not having enough posts. But, I did not know about the transform tool that's awesome!
So, I did a couple tests.
Test 1) I used the transform tool to put a large mountain 1/3 the plane of Gaea and a smaller duplicate of the mountain nearly 1/6 the size. Then I ran it through a Wizard node. At the maximum 4k resolution displayed in Gaea there is large noticeable differences in geographical detail.
Test 2) Using the same setup, one large mountain and one duplicated smaller one, I ran it through the snowfall node. Now when I did the same test there were LARGE differences in snow placement. The snow was filling smaller cracks and sticking to different slopes on the large mountain as compared to the small mountain.
Test 3) I exported this snowfall node to a 8k resolution .tif map and scaled the smaller mountain up to the larger one. They were two different maps altogether. Not only was resolution bogged down on the small mountain, but the snow accumulated in entirely different areas. But, I remembered what you said about Terrain Definition. So I jacked the terrain definition up 3x and ran the Snowfall node again in 8k. This time the detail was upscaled significantly. But the original problem still stood, the Snow stuck to very different areas in the large mountain as compared to the small mountain.
Test 4) I exported the snowfall node in 16k and scaled down the small mountain to fit the large mountain in 8k. I felt like this would remove up-scaling distortion and leave me with a fair comparison. This was the image I wanted to share. The detail of the 8k Large Mountain trumps the detail of the 16k Small Mountain drastically. Not just the detail specifically, the entire placement of snow, flow lines, blending from heavy snow to light, all of the precise details I would like to have when I am standing on the mountain are best suited to when Gaea is exporting chunks of the continent at a time as compared to the entire thing.
Test 5) For another theory, I created a centered mountain at 100% scale and duplicated mountain at 50% scale. I exported the snow map at 100% scale at 4k resolution with the terrain definition of 2600h x 5000s. Then I exported the snowmap at 50% scale at 8k resolution with the terrain definition of 5200h x 10000s. This seemed like an equal ratio on all sides. This test made me realize that the snow line needed to be 1/2 the height as well for the smaller mountain because the snow stops early on the small mountain. But nonetheless, the flow lines in particular take on whole new shapes and routes in the large mountain as compared to the small.
Test 6) Curiosity again, I put the 50% mountain in the top right corner and exported a tile build (2x2) with selecting only the top right tile to export. Honestly, this was the worst in terms of flow lines.
I think what I am getting at is it seems to me there is a limitation based on the decimal points of slopes or something when you scale landforms down. I wish I could upload the image, I feel like what I am saying sounds tedious and nitpicky.
The terrain definition and transform nodes are brilliant and I am excited to see how much detail changes when I jack the terrain definition up - I thought because the preview in Gaea didn't change that it only affected verticality so I have been leaving it at 5000m. But I am at a loss for the physics based calculations when scaling landforms down and I think ultimately Gaea is locked into a certain specific scale, unless of course there's something I am missing.