Ryan's Woods

[choronr]

I gave Ryan Archer's 'Golden Forest' tutorial a try; and, must say that it was a very informative lesson. I learned a number of techniques I wasn't aware of.  I also included his 'Dirt and Soil Pack' in this scene available at the NWDA site: ( http://www.nwdanet.com/home )  where his Golden Forest tutorial is also available. You can also get the tutorial at Ryan's site: http://www.archer-designs.com/ .

Some of the things I had to do differently were to eliminate the four populations of grasses suggested in the tutorial. Reason: several trace ray and populator errors. Additionally, I had to reduce the suggested rendered image size from 1600 x 1000 to 1280 x 800 in order to get a successful render. The prime reason for these issues is probably because I'm running a 32 bit OS with 4 GB of RAM and a quad-core processor. It was suggested that a 64 bit OS might eliminate the problem issues. I had also been informed that a 32 bit OS can handle up to 4GB of ram (usually 256-512MB are used by video which gives you 3.5-3.7GB) while a 64bit OS can go up to 8GB.  Perhaps these are specific limitations of Terragen 2 – not sure.

The trees include three different populations of Walli's pines. The fourth tree/bush includes the 'Pinus Negra' which is the lighter colored plant in the scene.

Bob

PS - There is a forest preserve south of Chicago in Beverly, Illinois called 'Dan Ryan's Woods' ...FYI.

[inkydigit]

looks great Bob, i must try that tute...you can almost feel/smell the dank misty air in this one...nice job!

[Henry Blewer]

The image is very good.
I do not understand why you are having render problems. I have tested my P4 HT, 2 gig, system and not had any issues with 2400 x 1200. It may be the number of AA samples. I did one with AA set to 7 at 1680 x 1024. Windows Defender decided to run a scan, and the computer locked up. (I hate Windows Defender) My swap file was overwhelmed. But the image was being rendered with out errors. I have Vista Home Premium, if this helps.

[choronr]

looks great Bob, i must try that tute...you can almost feel/smell the dank misty air in this one...nice job!

Thanks Jason, the tutorial gives me some other ideas for future images.

[choronr]

The image is very good.
I do not understand why you are having render problems. I have tested my P4 HT, 2 gig, system and not had any issues with 2400 x 1200. It may be the number of AA samples. I did one with AA set to 7 at 1680 x 1024. Windows Defender decided to run a scan, and the computer locked up. (I hate Windows Defender) My swap file was overwhelmed. But the image was being rendered with out errors. I have Vista Home Premium, if this helps.

Thanks njeneb, I will be installing the 64 bit system on my PC soon. If this doesn't work, I may install another 4 GB of RAM (after I sell a kidney first). I think after Planetside updates TG2 to 64 bit compatibility, these problems may go away.

[rcallicotte]

Nice.  This reminds me of that cycle chase scene in Star Wars.

[choronr]

Nice.  This reminds me of that cycle chase scene in Star Wars.

Thanks for visiting calico; and, yes it does remind one of that chase.

[Seth]

very good job.
nice atmo ^^

[choronr]

very good job.
nice atmo ^^

Thanks Seth for visiting - glad you liked it.

[Tangled-Universe]

This looks good Bob, very nice!
It only needs some more atmo-samples. How many did you use now?

Regarding your render-problems:

I use XP64 and have 8GB RAM. When rendering my latest project I had to do 2 crop renders to manage the memory.
Each crop used 2.7GB RAM and 3GB VM. This is near the upper limits of the software but certainly beyond the limits of your configuration now.
So an upgrade would help for sure.
However, as you may noticed, rendering crops is an effective work-around as well. Depends on your patience as well (my brand new day image was rendered in 6 passes)

I'd render it @ 1280x800 with 192 atmo samples and with 2 or 3 populations of grass (make them ~2-3 times smaller than the current grasses).
Split the render into 2 or 3 vertical crops and render each one after another with about 10% overlap (0->0.4 + 0,3->0,7 + 0,6->1 ...this always worked for me)
This will reduce the amount of memory needed while you still can use crazy settings or lots of populations.
Ideally, for example, you would also render this image with GI @ 2/4.
So there are still possibilities, it's just a matter of splitting the workload.

Cheers,
Martin

[choronr]

This looks good Bob, very nice!
It only needs some more atmo-samples. How many did you use now?

Regarding your render-problems:

I use XP64 and have 8GB RAM. When rendering my latest project I had to do 2 crop renders to manage the memory.
Each crop used 2.7GB RAM and 3GB VM. This is near the upper limits of the software but certainly beyond the limits of your configuration now.
So an upgrade would help for sure.
However, as you may noticed, rendering crops is an effective work-around as well. Depends on your patience as well (my brand new day image was rendered in 6 passes)

I'd render it @ 1280x800 with 192 atmo samples and with 2 or 3 populations of grass (make them ~2-3 times smaller than the current grasses).
Split the render into 2 or 3 vertical crops and render each one after another with about 10% overlap (0->0.4 + 0,3->0,7 + 0,6->1 ...this always worked for me)
This will reduce the amount of memory needed while you still can use crazy settings or lots of populations.
Ideally, for example, you would also render this image with GI @ 2/4.
So there are still possibilities, it's just a matter of splitting the workload.

Cheers,
Martin

Thanks Martin,

I used 84 atmo samples. Thanks much for the information on the approach using multiple crops to achieve a final image. I recall where Jay had been using this method for beating a cantankerous system and getting the results he was looking for.

I would expect that once Planetside updates their software for 64 bit use, we'll see some improvements that will diminish some of these problems.

Bob

[RArcher]

Looking great Bob.  As others have said your scene does seem to be asking for an increase of atmosphere samples, but the vegetation and light turned out great.

[choronr]

Looking great Bob.  As others have said your scene does seem to be asking for an increase of atmosphere samples, but the vegetation and light turned out great.

Thanks Ryan. Agree regarding the atmo samples.

Each new project, especially like this one is a new learning experience for me. There are elements in the process which will lend themselves very well in the future. Thanks again for your tutorial.

BTW, how is the desert project coming along?

Bob

[domdib]

Very nice - I will definitely be trying my hand at this tutorial soon. And I've got used to working in crops because of the limitations of my set-up, so that shouldn't be a hardship. Just look out for the GI blending issues - make sure the Ray detail region in the Advanced tab is set to Detail in camera, and you'll also probably find you can leave the padding set at 0 (increasing it ups render times).

[efflux]

Nice work. Graininess of atmosphere spoils it slightly though.