Road Trip 2013

Started by gregsandor, March 04, 2013, 02:36:57 PM

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Tangled-Universe

Wow, truly awesome to see this is almost 1:1 to the reference in terms of layout and scales!


I agree it could use a bit more dirt and randomness, but I feel confident you can add these touch ups before the deadline as the majority of preparation and work is done.


Happy tweaking :)

Gannaingh

This is really impressive. Good work!

TheBadger

It has been eaten.

gregsandor

#33
Nothing that anyone would notice in a render, but I've consolidated a couple of .3m res displacement maps into one, and have been detailing them at .15m.

gregsandor

#34
Here's a view with the shaders stripped off, just using Base Colors to see the displacement.

For those of you following the construction process, this illustrates why I originally used two separate displacements, one for terrain and one for potholes and other small-scale pavement detail and why I'm going back to that method.  There are ditches and other features that don't require much detail, and there is the parking lot, which not only is the focal point, but has a lot of very shallow but highly varied displacement.  A 256 bit depth map is fine when (black through greys up to white) stretched over 1 meter, the approximate depth of the ditches.  256 colors divided by 100 centimeters for main features.   For the shallow detailed parking lot paving and potholes though, by compressing a 256 color map down to a tenth of a meter, the result is a far more fine resolution for that 10 centimeter cross-section.

So it's back to the drawing board to recreate something I figured out a long time ago but forgot why I did it that way (until early this morning when I saw the rendered result of what yesterday I thought was a better simpler way to do it).

gregsandor

Split the maps up again and have basically repainted the pothole mask at 8192px sq.  for a horizontal resolution of about 6 inches per pixel.  Also worked on the pavement surface and am pretty happy with it.

I've made a mask for the water in puddles and ditches.  Not having worked much with water, can anyone suggest settings to help me get it to look like very still shallow water? 

Dune

This is not a water shader by the looks of it. The problem I encountered by using a water shader on a lake or plane area, was that in very shallow areas the water had black patches (bug). For a height like this and not detailed close ups, a RT reflective shader will do I guess (on a lake object or plane if you want level edges), you can always add some fake underwater color fractals before the reflective shader to give the impression of depth. If you use a water shader I would completely zero the waves.

By the way, that road looks awesome!

gregsandor

#37
Quote from: Dune on April 09, 2013, 02:01:20 AM
This is not a water shader by the looks of it. The problem I encountered by using a water shader on a lake or plane area, was that in very shallow areas the water had black patches (bug). For a height like this and not detailed close ups, a RT reflective shader will do I guess (on a lake object or plane if you want level edges), you can always add some fake underwater color fractals before the reflective shader to give the impression of depth. If you use a water shader I would completely zero the waves.

It is a water shader, just masked onto the terrain not geometry.  I'll try the reflective shader you suggest, it's a minor part of the whole and not very visible, but there are bits where it shows.  I'd like to make it look a little muddy, so I'll mess around with it and see what I come up with.

I'll start by zeroing the waves on the water shader but is there a savings in processing speed if I use the reflective verse the water shader?

Quote from: Dune on April 09, 2013, 02:01:20 AM
By the way, that road looks awesome!

Thanks!

FrankB

Quote from: Dune on April 09, 2013, 02:01:20 AM
By the way, that road looks awesome!

I agree! From this altitude, the shapes, the patches, the color and reflectivity, are top notch.

I recall that in previous version, from up closer, the textures were too visible as repeating textures, but it seems you have either changed that, or I can't notice it anymore from this perspective.

Either way, the road in that render looks really awesome!

Cheers
Frank

Hannes

This is really fascinating (raising my right eyebrow)! Can't wait for the final.

Dune

It'll render faster if you don't have transparency, so you might as well take the reflective shader. If you assign a water shader to the main surface you won't have transparency anyway. So in your case, not needing deep ditches or ponds, I would add a RT reflective shader to the masked watery areas.

gregsandor

#41
Here are a couple of views from Highway 52.

Dune

Incredibly nice, Greg. You'll have a very good chance.......

Hannes


inkydigit

I echo Ulco and Hannes.... Superb realisation!
Cheers
Jason