The Tower of Barad-Nerûll

[mesocyclone]

Located in a far and dead region called "Valley of Despair", this tower has seen numerous battles during its millenia of existence. The fallen trees around it tells stories about furious combats beetween many races for the control of Astharthan, the division beetween two vast lands, wich the valley is located exactly in the middle. It is said the tower was built by a powerful necromancer at the end of the First Age after the Great Division of the Waters. It is said too that the lightsource at its top is a spell casted by the wizard, a hellfire ball that will last until the deeps of the times...

Some bards sing in their songs that the spirit of the necromancer still whispers to the ears of those that cross the valley, and his undead servants are still sneaking behind the fallen trees...

a small story made by me to explain the render   

made in Terragen 2 beta, tower made by me in Google Sketchup 7. Trees from Ashundar.

Hope you like it, C&C welcome... 
..eh, well, I'm just a beginner in Sketchup... 

[old_blaggard]

Nice god rays and composition. The light at the top of the tower is cool as well. Overall, nice work.

[rcallicotte]

Ahhhh, this could have been in the LOTR contest.  Good work!

[dandelO]

Pretty cool, should've been in the contest, indeed. There was a pretty low turnout for entries.
Are those crop-stitch lines I'm seeing or render defects? The lower half seems to be split into equal 3rds.

[mesocyclone]

Thanks!

Well, I should've participated in the contest, but I just made this one too late for it... 
If I'd rendered this some weeks ago, its name would be "Tower of Barad-Dûr" instead... 
(with some changes in the composition and no story made by me, of course...) 

dandelO, I see these lines too, but I actually don't know what is their cause. Maybe a render issue. Looks like there are slight lighting differences beetween the "squares" they seem to form... really strange.

[Oshyan]

Those may be GI issues across render tiles. What were your GI settings and did you use "supersample pre-pass"?

- Oshyan

[mesocyclone]

My GI settings were 1/3 and I didn't used supersample prepass this time... I just forgot it.
What are the exact effects it causes to the final render?

[Oshyan]

It basically helps increase GI eveness and consistency.

- Oshyan