On frozen pond (ver1)

[Kevin F]

Here's a first version of an attempt at a decent frozen lake scene.
This uses the ice shader that I made with Hetzens help last year but using TG2.2.
I've discovered that the render time can be greatly reduced by simply reducing the size of the lake object to the smallest usable size.
This one rendered  in just over 10hrs at 1280x960, AA6, GI 2,2 and quality 0.5, still not fast but better than previous The lake size here was just 125.

Lots of things to change/add - Ice too smooth and shiny in places needs to be "crisper", more fake stones needed between trees and pond, some raytraced mist hanging in central area just above or in the tops of the trees, to give rays through the trees etc etc...
Any thoughts or comments welcome.

trees from X frog.

[domdib]

One more improvement (but it really adds to render time) - soft shadows, for the trees.

[Henry Blewer]

You can sort of fake the soft shadows by using some ambient occlusion enviro lighting.

[dhavalmistry]

I cant figure out what happened to the shadows?

but the lower right corner where ice meets water is looking great!....

[Kevin F]

Here's a first update with all the extras (inc soft shadows, thanks domdib). The render quality is really low though - AA3 , quality 0.3 because I thought it would take ages to render, but at 8 hrs for this, I'll render a higher quality version without ray traced shadows in the atmo and clouds since there's very little effect. (or is that because the AA & quality were so low?)

[Dune]

That is a great update, much better than the first. I really like the ice and lighting. Perhaps you should change the POV to a more widescreen image, it seems a bit 'closed in'. Or angle the camera towards the left, but then you'd have to change the sun to keep the shiners. Keep the soft shadows!

[Henry Blewer]

The ice really looks great. I like wider screen renders, so I agree with Dune. The shadows look much better also.

[dhavalmistry]

love the pond in the new version...good work!

[rcallicotte]

Love it all, but want to see more in the trees.  Is that just me (my preference) or do you need some softer lighting in there?

[domdib]

The ice is really superb now. What effect were you looking for with ray traced shadows in the clouds?

[Kevin F]

The ice is really superb now. What effect were you looking for with ray traced shadows in the clouds?

Thanks for the comments.
The effect I was hoping for is something like this http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=9775.0;attach=24444;image
With raytraced shadows on though it didn't work at the detail level I had. I'll try again after the current render with higher values.
The ice actually looks better (crisper because it's more pixelated) at lower quality settings! So I'll be crop rendering the two halves.

[Kevin F]

Thanks for all the comments and ideas guys.
Here's another version, different POV and wider screen with higher quality settings.
C&C welcome

[Hetzen]

Hi Kevin, you've got a nice scene going on there. I've had some further thoughts on your ice shader which may help add a little more realism to the water ice. It goes along the lines of having a vanilla water layer, ie just the water shader with no distortion, then have a second water layer 10cm lower, that has your displacements on it which protrude 20cm. At the base level of your lower water level, use a default shader to make the base altitude transparent. The idea, is that your ice lives just below the water level, rather than morping into the top water layer, as it is now.

Send me a tgc of your water via PM, and I'll show you what I mean.

[Kevin F]

another incarnation. A crop of two halves: high quality top, lower quality ice water half.

[Naoo]

Hi

The ice in the middle is absolutely photo realistic WOW


ciao
Naoo