Ring World

[Kadri]

Very nice concepts! Keep it up guys 

[Dune]

I reversed the whole lot, but encountered problems to be solved. I'm now on the South Pole, and experienced what Richard wrote earlier; the atmosphere works 'upside down'. This morning I woke up with some ideas about how to make a road (leveled area), but have to see if that really works. Also the landscape is not good enough to my taste yet, and I'm already thinking of another 'dry' ring world, which I'd very much like to make.

[Mahnmut]

I like that one too.
Altough it looks smaller to me than the ruin suggests.
The reflection in the water is great, it gives us a look up the ring!
Is it the tube you want to flatten for the road or the fractal displacements?
I am curious to see your next versions!
Jan

[Henry Blewer]

I have an idea. It hit me looking at your last render here. You have the water/lake conforming to the circumference of the ring. Why not use this method to make you flat area for the roadway? Just change the shaders.

[Mahnmut]

That would work , njeneb, but if you only need a flat part in your otherwise round crosssection, it is easier than that.
Simply give the "displacement edge width" in your simple shape shader a value that is smaller than the displacement amplitude and it will leave a flat section in the middle.
In this example amplitude is 50, edge width 40, profile is set to "radius" in the floor, to "bevel" in the ceiling.
And I am standing on the inner side here.

[Henry Blewer]

Crazy program... Just when I think, ah I finally have a good grasp of the program. Someone comes along and shows me more to explore.
That would work. It is also much more predictable.

[Mahnmut]

Don´t worry, I have been playing with this simple-shape tube for some days now, I won´t get a nice landscape inside it, but I get along with the basic plumbing quite well now.
And I think, the simple shape shader is way more useful than one might think.
By the way, Cyphir, if you would prefer it, I could open another thread for all this.
Best regards,
Jan

[Goms]

nice one!

[cyphyr]

Please carry on here, its easier to find in the future
I'm still following with interest and have made some small progress my self.
Regarding the "upside down" atmosphere. At the moment I'm using NO atmosphere and a VERY thin (1.5625e-005) 3D Cloud layer, twice the thickness of my lowest to highest cross section and centred at ground level. It is giving the fade out at height that I was missing from the real atmosphere but its coming up short on some of the "real" atmospheres finer features. Still it's not as if I'm going to need to tweak a sunset in here!
I'm also working on a different scale, much larger. The tube is 5km wide, 1.5km high (x-section) and the entire "planet" is now 500km radius. Pics to follow soon
Richard

[freelancah]

Wow. Some really exciting stuff here. Love the field version!

[Dune]

@ Henry: flattening the center is easy, as Mahnmut pointed out. But I was thinking of a ridge, slightly higher up the slope. You'd have to work with another simple shape and somehow flatten that area by reversing the downward displacement.

But for now I have some other problems, still to do with the atmosphere. No atmo is too harsh, as you can see in this iteration. I also find it very frustrating to get the lights to give interesting strong shadows on ground and still not bleach the direct point of emission. I ditched my trees for the time being. South Pole is a tough area   But I just got another idea, which I will pursue today...

I did make a special 'lantern' to light the tunnel, including a watch cubicle.

It is 'good' that our new government cuts spending in the business that I make a living of   as I will have plenty of time to play...

edit: I also found that tapping the 'add cloud layer' didn't work anymore (it just didn't do anything), had to add cloudlayers manually, which weren't visible after all... aaarghh

[Oshyan]

The creativity and cooperation shown in this thread is phenomenal. You guys are awesome! And the more recent images from Ulco and Richard are both looking great. I especially like the fields Richard!

- Oshyan

[cyphyr]

Ok heres an update, had a powercut overnight so I think I lost the actual TGD file No matter this is all very experimental.
Still no atmosphere, I agree it does make everything slightly too harsh but I like the effect of seeing through from benieth the layer to above the layer (err. if you see what I mean!)
I'm using an Alpine PF for the mountain displacements, this avoids the negative displacements dropping below the lowest part of the ring and gives some nice ridge structures.  think I may have gone a little ott with the warping as can be seen in the "roof" where it meets the walls, some very twisty stuff happening there!! Currently theres 19 light sources @ 400000 (lumens/watts?) each and 2 enviro lights (one of each) @ 4/4.

Today I want to go back to texture basics and get that nailed down. Getting interesting lighting is a pain too. I guess you've tried making parts of the celing transparent too, Ulco. It don't work properly does it You can see through but the shadow is cast from the whole object rather than from just the opaque parts. This is an old "bug" and I think a dead end for the time being.



Richard

Ps I dont actually like this image at all, its all part of the great experiment!

[Henry Blewer]

Wow. Both of these latest renders from you guys are really cool.

Ulco, the lamp has a very new technology look to it.

Richard, I think your use of the Alpine fractal shader is quite inventive. The scale seems to be right for how I envision an orbiting habitat as well.

[cyphyr]

Partial solution, partialy solving a partial problem Use a sphere instaed of a planet! Shadows work better ...
Having lunch, pic soon
Richard

ps of course this just throws up a new bunch of issues  
for example, populations dont seem to like using a sphere as a planet. looks at the moment as if the disabled plante will still work ...

pps horrible example