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General => Image Sharing => Topic started by: Hannes on March 31, 2017, 10:19:23 AM

Title: ISS
Post by: Hannes on March 31, 2017, 10:19:23 AM
I found this beautiful model somewhere on the NASA website. Unfortunately I forgot where exactly it was. The only model of the ISS in high res I can find now is the .lwo here:
https://nasa3d.arc.nasa.gov/detail/iss-hi-res
Somewhere at NASA's I found the whole thing as a blender model with an extra folder containing lots of textures. However, it seems to be the same model.

When I first opened the model after I had converted it, I was blown away. It's incredibly detailed and I thought, man, this must have been a lot of work!
After I saw, that this model has more than 1300 (!) different shaders, I thought, man, this is going to be a lot of work!
Actually, this amount of textures is absolutely unnecessary. For example there are hundreds of similar plain grey shaders, sometimes one shader per bolt, so I tried to reduce the amount of shaders to be able to edit the whole thing.
It took me about two weeks to reduce the shaders to a total of 58. I threw out even a lot of those that contained texture maps. Some of the maps only showed simple colors, so this was easy to do.
I had to recreate some of the structures, because some of the normals were completely messed up, and even PoseRay couldn't fix it. Then I created some bump maps out of the existing ones, and I made a completely new texture map for the large solar panels, because the original ones were too lo res.
I had a look at lots of reference images and tried to make it look as photoreal as possible. The earth has some very high resolution texture maps. The cloudmap for example is a 43K texture. Additionally I added a cloud fractal to the cloud layer's depth modulator.

Title: Re: ISS
Post by: Beliss on March 31, 2017, 10:53:14 AM
Excellent work :)
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: archonforest on March 31, 2017, 11:12:34 AM
WOW! Stunning render!! 8)
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: fleetwood on March 31, 2017, 11:20:45 AM
Amazing, beautiful work.
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: Dune on March 31, 2017, 11:33:40 AM
Waste of time. Haha, no I didn't mean that. Incredible job, Hannes. I know some of these models with all the 'wires'. Lots of work indeed.
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: luvsmuzik on March 31, 2017, 11:49:50 AM
AWWWSOME!
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: sjefen on March 31, 2017, 11:52:44 AM
Just to be clear, the image in your post is a TG render???

It is stunning!  :o
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: masonspappy on March 31, 2017, 11:53:17 AM
Wow!!
Outstanding!
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: bobbystahr on March 31, 2017, 12:32:05 PM
Beautiful work and compliments on your patience wrangling in into shape. I've done that to some models as well but rarely with as good an effect...Have you sent a link to NASA?, they might like this for some promo work, seriously.
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: j meyer on March 31, 2017, 12:48:35 PM
Great render and a remarkable amount of shader optimizing.
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: DocCharly65 on March 31, 2017, 12:56:43 PM
What a hardcore job! And what a impessive and good result!
An absolutely amazing job, Hannes! Congratulations!

And believe me! I know, what you did! I gave up exactly the same job a week ago!  ;D ;D ;D

I started with the single modules version. I think it was an idea from a time when no of my PC could open the whole model at once  ;D
It consists of 47 single objects which must stuck together. Rest is identically to what you told. I gave up after 7 Modules...

Title: Re: ISS
Post by: Oshyan on March 31, 2017, 03:27:06 PM
Wow Hannes, this is spectacular! I played with a bunch of different ISS models a year or so ago trying to find the best one, but never had one of this quality, detail, and realism. For the Earth textures, are you using the high resolution cloud map to mask TG clouds? Also, what is the bright white folded section on the right? Is that untextured or just very bright/exposed?

- Oshyan
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: cyphyr on March 31, 2017, 03:34:42 PM
Full marks for perserverance! well done.
Could it be this model ... https://nasa3d.arc.nasa.gov/detail/iss
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: Hannes on March 31, 2017, 04:35:57 PM
Thank you all!
Oshyan, yes, it's a high resolution cloud map. I don't remember, how these white things are called (I'm not at home atm), but it is some sort of heat reflector, and looking at the reference images, it seems, it's some sort of white fabric (?). Even on close up images there is no noticeable structure, so yes, it's just a plain very bright grey shader.
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: inkydigit on March 31, 2017, 05:29:39 PM
This is so FAKE!
I thought.... but no, not so... I am happily agog, dribbling...
Phenomenal effort, and an exceptional result... this is PHOTOREAL!
Hello @NASA!
Brilliant!
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: Jo Kariboo on March 31, 2017, 09:04:47 PM
Very impressive, I thought for a moment that it was a real photograph.
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: Hannes on April 01, 2017, 12:43:44 AM
Quote from: cyphyr on March 31, 2017, 03:34:42 PM
Full marks for perserverance! well done.
Could it be this model ... https://nasa3d.arc.nasa.gov/detail/iss

Yes!!! That's it. Thanks!
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: Hannes on April 01, 2017, 10:35:38 AM
By the way, here is another very detailed one:
http://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/71861
The untextured mesh is free, so it might be interesting to play with it.
You need to register there, but it's OK. I registered a few months ago, and they didn't bother me with ads or stuff.

It's a Blender file. I opened it in Blender, and tried to export it. Unfortunately the main truss doesn't export, no matter what I do. I selected all parts including the truss, but when I open the exported OBJ or even 3ds, the truss is missing. Any Blender specialists out there?
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: masonspappy on April 01, 2017, 01:27:02 PM
Hannes, pretty sure I'm not what you would call a "specialist" but I'll download it in a bit and see if I can figure out what the problem is.
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: luvsmuzik on April 01, 2017, 02:13:46 PM
Make sure it is a mesh and not a curve that has not been converted to mesh also. (By no means a specialist either)
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: Hannes on April 01, 2017, 02:49:42 PM
Thanks in advance!
I also opened the object in PoseRay. The truss is missing, but the rest looks good. But there's an issue with normals after you reimport the mesh into other apps, even after recalculating them.
In 3dsMax there are some flipped normals. In TG it looks good at first sight, but if you look closer you can see, that there's something wrong with them. Even with the same shader they look different somehow.
I read, that this occurs quite often, when you export meshes from Blender.  :(
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: luvsmuzik on April 01, 2017, 03:36:27 PM
Can you identify the mesh as a single mesh, or is it about 50 in a group to make the truss? You might try selecting and make a new group then join to whole again...

If you can identify it as one mesh, could you, in a new file, append that mesh and then export as a new object, just the truss?

There are all sorts of professional methods which I do not know, but I too cannot get an arch to stay attached to my hotel object....it is a simple mesh but made in a quick easy method that obviously does not export well. I am sure it is my method of joining it, as it will export as a separate mesh just fine.

I am sure you already tried all this simple stuff.
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: Hannes on April 01, 2017, 03:53:34 PM
Actually I feel a bit lost in Blender. I only installed it to convert Blender objects. Otherwise I have absolutely no experience with this program. I'm sure it's fantastic, but not very intuitive.
Thanks for your tips! I'll try to find out how to do what you mentioned.
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: masonspappy on April 01, 2017, 05:22:17 PM
ok, I've attached two renders of the  ISS, with no modifications made to the Blend file.
Hans, can you please reference the ISS1-Blender file below and tell me what's missing?
I've circled what I "think" is the section you referenced.
Thanks.
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: Hannes on April 01, 2017, 05:55:48 PM
Yes, that's exactly the part that's missing!
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: masonspappy on April 01, 2017, 06:00:21 PM
ok, could you re-download the blend file  from the link you provided, export as OBJ and try to render in T4 again?
I didn't make any changes but it rendered ok for me in the second image. Might have been noticed and fixed recently.
If that doesn't work I'll send you the OBJ file I just created and you can see if that renders correctly on your machine.
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: Hannes on April 01, 2017, 06:27:14 PM
OK, thanks a lot! I'll do that as soon as I'm home.
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: bobbystahr on April 01, 2017, 07:26:12 PM
I dl'd the fbx and fbm files and am going to try them in DAZ which has handled all my fbx files so far. When my current render finishes that is.
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: Hetzen on April 01, 2017, 08:06:18 PM
Great render Hannes!  :)
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: Hannes on April 02, 2017, 09:14:19 AM
Thanks again, Masonspappy!!! I gave it another try, and found what was going on. The first time after I had exported the .obj I opened it in PoseRay and got some sort of a giant bathtub, which looked weird, so I converted it to .3ds and then back to .obj, and in the end the truss was missing.
So I exported the file again from Blender as .obj, opened it in PoseRay again, and took a closer look. See attached image, what I got. When I imported it into TG, the structure was there too.
OK, now I saw, that everything was there, including the truss, and the extraordinary orbital bathtub. I could easily delete this part in 3ds Max. Still no idea what this is. I hope, that it's no blown up representation of some crucial part, that's now missing, but it looks OK so far.

In some areas this mesh is more detailed than the NASA one, but there are other parts, where NASA is winning. It's probably way more complicated to texture this one, since there is NOTHING set so far, but maybe I'll give it a go.
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: luvsmuzik on April 02, 2017, 09:31:53 AM
You know, I got that same sort of thing in a simple plant I imported, looked like a pacman maze overhead. I put it a zero opacity at first....but still wondering what the heck is that?
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: masonspappy on April 02, 2017, 09:42:50 AM
Glad I could help. I got no idea about the 'space bathtub'.  :D
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: bobbystahr on April 02, 2017, 02:57:14 PM
Well, at that same page ther are downloads for the ,fbx  and the textures, .fbm so I dl'd em and put everything in an ISS folder and opened the .fbx with DAZ Srudio 4 and tickety bo it appeared fully textured in DAZ but after exporting to .obj I tried opening it in TG4  and it loaded fine but clicking show textured crashed my TG4 with 16G of RAM..wtf is up with that? Trying to load it into PoseRay but it's been struggling with it for at least 5 min. so far....finally on Loading model.... I'll post what happened later.

was still trying to load in PoseRay at 15 min so I cancelled, managed to get it back in TG4, checked the first material in the left panel and it was there so I tried a render and it got to starting render and just went unresponsive...good thing I am not really wanting to use this model but was just curious I guess. But DAZ does seem to be a handy alternative for those with it when .fbx comes up.
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: Hannes on April 02, 2017, 03:05:24 PM
Bobby, you're talking about the NASA model, right?
As I wrote,  there are more than 1300 shaders. That was the first time, TG refused to render. It loaded, but after I hit render, TG crashed on my machine as well. It worked, after I reduced the shaders to 58.
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: masonspappy on April 02, 2017, 03:17:10 PM
Quote from: luvsmuzik on April 02, 2017, 09:31:53 AM
You know, I got that same sort of thing in a simple plant I imported, looked like a pacman maze overhead. I put it a zero opacity at first....but still wondering what the heck is that?

Don't know if this applies to you, but I noticed that when I imported some of my Blender-made models into 3DS MAX, pieces were missing. I had to tick a box to force all parts to appear.  Maybe something like that is happening with you as well?
Frankly, I think much of this stuff is magic..... ;)
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: Hannes on April 02, 2017, 03:29:01 PM
Which box did you tick?
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: bobbystahr on April 02, 2017, 03:47:01 PM
Quote from: Hannes on April 02, 2017, 03:05:24 PM
It worked, after I reduced the shaders to 58.

Yeah, I sussed that out, as I said I was just curious, and as I've no MAX I'd have to beg the model from you were I to want/need it but I'm terribly terrestrial of late it seems...and speaking of terrestrial I inspected my yard as a flash of colour appeared at the foot of my peonies and whoop whoop, my prairie crocus' have risen and bloomed...this year I caught 'em before they disappeared.
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: masonspappy on April 02, 2017, 05:02:50 PM
Quote from: Hannes on April 02, 2017, 03:29:01 PM
Which box did you tick?

Render Tab > Render Setup >  "Force 2-Sided"  checkbox
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: Hannes on April 02, 2017, 05:48:00 PM
Ah, thanks, I hadn't thought of that.
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: Hannes on April 03, 2017, 11:08:48 AM
Here is a (quite large) comparison between the two models. Both have the same plain grey shader applied to see nothing but the geometry.
It seems, the free model by Chris Kuhn is even more detailed. I just started to tear the model apart to see, if it's doable to texture it. The textured mesh costs $159,99. Not too expensive, when you think of the work he put into this.
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: Oshyan on April 03, 2017, 04:18:41 PM
Oh wow, even *more* detail! Although Chris's model is missing some modules, eh?

- Oshyan
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: Hannes on April 03, 2017, 06:01:29 PM
Yes, as far as I remember he was talking about the actual configuration. There seem to be changes over time.

I'm thinking about combining the models... Maybe, if texturing isn't too tedious...

I had a look at Turbosquid. There is only one model, that's better than Chris's or the NASA model, and it costs $1299,-. which is justified, I guess. But there are some ridiculously expensive models. I don't know, what these people are thinking. These meshes are crappy compared to the mentioned free ones.
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: bobbystahr on April 03, 2017, 08:22:53 PM
Quote from: Hannes on April 03, 2017, 06:01:29 PM
Yes, as far as I remember he was talking about the actual configuration. There seem to be changes over time.

I don't know, what these people are thinking. These meshes are crappy compared to the mentioned free ones.


Hence the difference between business oriented modelers and artists...
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: Ethrieltd on April 04, 2017, 09:30:28 AM
NASA's website has some awesome resources. Some nice asteroid models and lots of other great resources.

https://nasa3d.arc.nasa.gov/

Gotta love these space images, and hate those insane amount of textures/shaders. I had a bake of Hubble in C4D sit remapping groups for 6 hours (and achieve 3%) before I just decided to stop it as I think the heat death of the universe would have come first.
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: DocCharly65 on April 04, 2017, 10:17:39 AM
Quote from: Hannes on April 03, 2017, 11:08:48 AM
Here is a (quite large) comparison between the two models. Both have the same plain grey shader applied to see nothing but the geometry.
It seems, the free model by Chris Kuhn is even more detailed. I just started to tear the model apart to see, if it's doable to texture it. The textured mesh costs $159,99. Not too expensive, when you think of the work he put into this.

Seems that Chris model has not more details. It seems to have different details. In the Nasa model many of the rivets and metal struts on the modules are just general bumpmaps. Chris model looks as if these details are real objects. (or do I have another version?)

These textures are in a central folder and I have to use them for each module - I copied all what I needed to each single module folder:
[attach=1]
After 8 modules I gave up (for the moment :)  )


159 bugs is ok but not cheap for just kidding around with it like I would do  ;)
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: Oshyan on April 05, 2017, 12:32:53 AM
Yes, the ISS has had new modules added (and planned but not added) over time. Various models represent different stages of actual or planned deployment.

And yes I remember the $1300 Turbosquid ISS model. It's certainly a lot of work to create it, yet somehow that still seemed like a crazy amount of money to me. :D Especially when you see the detail level of the e.g. Star Destroyer, etc. models people share for free...

- Oshyan
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: Hannes on April 05, 2017, 12:35:01 PM
In the meantime I managed to get the solar panels and the Destiny module of the Chris Kuhn model textured and edited a bit, after I isolated all the different parts from each other. I took some NASA reference to see which is which (and how they are called). Still a lot of work, and unfortunately there are no material channels in this model. The NASA model had some. 1300!
Some sort of masochism....
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: Hannes on April 05, 2017, 12:36:31 PM
By the way, I created some sort of aluminium shader with a very subtle displacement using a very very small PF as shader, since blurred reflections are still buggy in TG.
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: luvsmuzik on April 05, 2017, 02:04:30 PM
Great progress! Not just a bunch of planes and cyclinders, hey?
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: Hannes on April 05, 2017, 02:15:02 PM
...a little bit more... ;)
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: DocCharly65 on April 05, 2017, 05:56:59 PM
A very nice EMU, Hannes. From NASA as well or from a store?
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: Hannes on April 06, 2017, 01:14:46 AM
Quote from: DocCharly65 on April 05, 2017, 05:56:59 PM
A very nice EMU, Hannes. From NASA as well or from a store?

Nils, I forgot, where I got this from. As far as I remember it was a free download (maybe from Blendswap?). I edited this character heavily, posed him a bit and added some new stuff that was too low res on the original mesh. Years ago...
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: Hannes on April 06, 2017, 01:18:09 AM
Here is a nice one:
http://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/73994
I think mine was a different one, but the images here look quite good. Maybe a tad too bumpy.
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: Tangled-Universe on April 22, 2017, 09:40:46 AM
Great render Hannes :)
Will you show more of these?
Title: Re: ISS New
Post by: Hannes on April 23, 2017, 03:15:09 AM
Thanks Martin,
yes, I will. I just finished to render the Kuhn model. As I wrote, I had to separate the whole thing, since it was just one model, no groups, no whatever and then isolated each single part to texture the whole thing. I downloaded lots of reference images and tried to make it look like the real thing. For some parts I couldn't find any images, so I had to use my imagination.
Since the two models (NASA and Kuhn) show different stages of the configuration, I took some parts of the NASA model and sticked it onto the Kuhn model. I don't know, if this is correct, but I thought it looks cool.
Title: Re: ISS New
Post by: Hannes on April 23, 2017, 04:51:39 AM
By the way, there is some minor postwork: a little chromatic aberration, saturation and brightness, and some glare which can be seen on some of the reference images. This glare effect could have been done in TG probably, but testing out the amount of bloom until it's OK takes a lot of time, since you have to render the frame each time completely.
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: inkydigit on April 23, 2017, 06:39:18 AM
another super scene!
love that Aluminium shader workaround too!
:)
J
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: bobbystahr on April 23, 2017, 09:05:24 AM
Brilliant, you have to have the patience of a Saint to get this done...well done man.
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: KyL on April 23, 2017, 10:22:14 AM
Very nice model!

The aluminum shader trick works really well!
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: archonforest on April 23, 2017, 10:28:11 AM
2 thumbs up! 8)
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: zaxxon on April 23, 2017, 11:54:45 AM
Just a sensational render Hannes!
Title: Re: ISS New
Post by: DocCharly65 on April 23, 2017, 12:59:51 PM
Quote from: Hannes on April 23, 2017, 03:15:09 AM
Since the two models (NASA and Kuhn) show different stages of the configuration, I took some parts of the NASA model and sticked it onto the Kuhn model. I don't know, if this is correct, but I thought it looks cool.

I like it as it is and I guess I won't fly there today to check if it's correct ;) ;D
No - really! Great work and congratulations to your patience!
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: Hannes on April 23, 2017, 01:33:04 PM
Thanks a lot, guys! I really wonder why I didn't get tired of that..
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: archonforest on April 23, 2017, 01:56:53 PM
Quote from: Hannes on April 23, 2017, 01:33:04 PM
Thanks a lot, guys! I really wonder why I didn't get tired of that..

passion? :D
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: Jo Kariboo on April 23, 2017, 03:24:07 PM
Beautiful work again. This aluminum is perfect. Just a little criticism for what some of the station white parts, several overexposed looks.
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: Hannes on April 23, 2017, 04:00:59 PM
Yes, but although it wasn't intended to be, I found that on some photographs some white parts look overexposed as well. So it's not bothering me too much... ;)
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: masonspappy on April 23, 2017, 09:25:30 PM
Wow, that's remarkable! Well done Hannes!
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: Dune on April 24, 2017, 01:41:29 AM
Your patience paid off, Hannes. Terrific job on the object, and the render is really cool!
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: otakar on April 24, 2017, 04:41:54 PM
Awesome.
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: Hannes on April 24, 2017, 05:16:01 PM
One last try. I found that on most of the real photographs the ocean part of the earth looks way more blueish and bright than on my last image, so I decided to render another one. I played with the atmosphere settings and came up with this one.
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: cyphyr on April 24, 2017, 07:45:05 PM
Spectacular work. Pretty much indistinguishable from the genuine article.
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: bobbystahr on April 24, 2017, 09:27:20 PM
Quote from: cyphyr on April 24, 2017, 07:45:05 PM
Spectacular work. Pretty much indistinguishable from the genuine article.

Kinda what I been thinking since seeing that last photo
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: Dune on April 25, 2017, 12:59:51 AM
So, when can we expect the Animation?
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: DocCharly65 on April 25, 2017, 03:04:00 AM
Quote from: Dune on April 25, 2017, 12:59:51 AM
So, when can we expect the Animation?

Dito! ;D

But really! Spectacular!
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: Hannes on April 25, 2017, 09:02:28 AM
Quote from: Dune on April 25, 2017, 12:59:51 AM
So, when can we expect the Animation?

I'm trying some things...
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: bobbystahr on April 25, 2017, 09:18:17 AM
Awesome, I also await with bated breath....
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: Hannes on May 03, 2017, 01:10:24 AM
Here's another view. The earth is a photograph mapped onto a giant plane in the background (I wanted to see if that works). Using the existing background didn't look good. Too blurry.
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: DocCharly65 on May 03, 2017, 03:02:09 AM
Cool! Good that the mapped photograph worked - I should have tried that much earlier :)
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: Dune on May 03, 2017, 03:04:06 AM
Works like a dream.
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: bobbystahr on May 03, 2017, 09:14:54 AM
good trick Hannes...works well...
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: Hannes on May 10, 2017, 04:28:05 AM
A last (?) one. I edited the Soyuz module and added some stuff (some more details and there's some sort of grey cover wrapped around it on the reference images).
I tried to recreate an image like those you can find when you google ISS NASA. This time there's no photo. Everything is in the scene like it is. But I did some minor postwork: some color grading, a little chromatic aberration and some sharpening.
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: Dune on May 10, 2017, 08:03:53 AM
Makes you feel like flying (floating), great. So is the cloudcover procedural? If so, very good!
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: bobbystahr on May 10, 2017, 09:09:12 AM
What Ulco says and iff'n that's a TG Earth very nicely done....
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: Hannes on May 10, 2017, 11:27:06 AM
Thanks guys. It is a TG earth, but the cloudcover isn't entirely procedural. It's a mix of a high res image map combined with a cloud fractal.
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: Cocateho on May 10, 2017, 03:47:59 PM
Honestly don't think I could tell this from a photograph, very nice!
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: Jo Kariboo on May 10, 2017, 09:41:52 PM
Excellent!  :)
Title: Re: ISS
Post by: DocCharly65 on May 11, 2017, 12:28:14 AM
Beautiful view!
Very great work!