Ring World

[Gforce]

Epic project

[cyphyr]

Another Update.
Finally I'm able to get onto a more powerful PC.
A long way to go but the detailing stage is here now (that would be the long fiddly stage! lol)
C&C as always very appreciated
Enjoy
Richard
PS yes it does look very over saturated but I think that's a natural consequence of the atmospherics.

[Henry Blewer]

Looks very good. The over saturated colors can be calmed down by reducing the saturation with the color picker. (State the obvious)

Some more detail on the building would be great. It's been wonderful watching this develop.

[Zairyn Arsyn]

wow. this looks awesome. 

i also like the hexagonal roof you made for it too,

[domdib]

Exceedingly cool. I'm not sure about the actual details, but methinks because of the limited atmo height one would expect to see much less blue in the atmo, and the dark of space more evident through the roof?

[cyphyr]

Your right about the "dark of space through the roof", I want it there for realism but I just don't like the effect. Searching for a compromise now
Richard

[Blonderator]

So is this thing a complete ring, or just a partial ring for your render? What would happen if you zoomed out and viewed the ring from the outside?

[cyphyr]

Ah, yes and umm Unfortunately as the ring results in an inside out atmosphere Terragen was never written with this in mind. There's an atmosphere "cut-off"  about 15 to 20 degrees round from the camera vp. It looks to be cut off where the planet "would" be if its surface were enabled.
Richard

[Dune]

This is absolutely stunning, Richard. I very much appreciate your progress! There's something strange about the clouds, though, they don't follow the curvature of the ring. But why have clouds at all? They wouldn't be present in a Ring World, I'd expect. If this world is floating in space, you'd need a starry black 'sky', viewed through 'glass' in the hexagonal roof (which is very nice, but perhaps too clean?). Perhaps an occasional meteorite passing by 

[choronr]

Richard, this is absolutely stunning. The scale of things are right on the target. Just a few fine tweaks as Ulco suggests and I think it would be complete. I feel this is headed for a SciFi cover.

[JimB]

For the atmosphere, what if you got rid of the Planet Atmosphere and used a solid cloud layer (unplugged Density Fractal) instead, with a depth that matches the height of the ringworld section (not to the local roof but the entire section). Then localise it using a side profile mask that matches the upward curving profile of the ringworld, and graduates out at the top (projected as a mask from the side). Also merge an additional mask to soften the sides, but that one projected from the front.

Just a thought. Really nice work so far.

[cyphyr]

For the atmosphere, what if you got rid of the Planet Atmosphere and used a solid cloud layer (unplugged Density Fractal) instead, with a depth that matches the height of the ringworld section (not to the local roof but the entire section). Then localise it using a side profile mask that matches the upward curving profile of the ringworld, and graduates out at the top (projected as a mask from the side). Also merge an additional mask to soften the sides, but that one projected from the front.

Just a thought. Really nice work so far.

Thats exactly what I'm doing, with the caviat that it only just works see the image posted 4 up about the cut off points. Actually I'm using an cloud layer centered on the lowest point of the x-section of the ring. In order to avoud the 20deg(ish) cut off I have had to make the cloud layer very thick (not dense), I think its about 15000 meters, invert its profile and set the base softness and wispyness to about 5 (I think, I'm away from the pc atm)
Another image tomorrow I hope. I also have some new ideas for the roof
Richard

[dandelO]

You could try sticking a cloud layer in the very centre of the planet and popping a second camera bang-on centre too to use for a spherical distance shader. Then, there will be no cut-off at the top. By the looks of it, though, this is a very large planet and the samples would be pretty immense, I'd imagine.
I didn't use a distance shader when I made the 'boost power' image but my planets were only 2000m radius in that image.
Looking forward to the next one, man!

[cyphyr]

Still plodding along with this one. I've had a little more time this week so some progress is being made.
C&C welcome Its by no means finished.
Richard

[Tangled-Universe]

Wow that's pretty awesome Richard
Keep'm coming!

Martin