Here's my first image using the new high def Firs from NWDA.
I'd like to add some pine needles to the ground but I'm pushing what this machine's capable of.
This is fairly low quality really - AA 6, detail 0.5. any higher and I get bucket render probs. (memory)
other stuff used:,
Grass from Mr_Lamppost
Reeds from X-frog
pronghorns from DAZ 3D
C&C welcome.
You may get a little more out of your machine by mixing these new firs in with some of Walli's Plant pack pines. The antelope are a nice touch.
yeah, good tip njeneb, I'll try that
Here is a tip (from Walli) to better cope with these memory hungry models: "...you could reuse the shaders inside TG. By default TG loads every texture as separate instance for every object, even if it is the very same texture. But inside the internal network you can relink the shaders - so all trees could use the same shaders/textures. This reduces memory consumption."
Other than that, Kevin, I found that incresing the grey color inside the default shader nodes for the needles by 0.1 - 0.2 points helps a lot with lighting. The needles don't let a lot of light pass through, so self-shadowing is quite intense. AA 2/4 does help a bit but not as much as one would think... but saving as exr and then upping shadow lightness in post is quite effective...
I would also love to see such a scene with these models rendered in another render... just to see how other renderers can cope with the lighting of these models.
regards,
Frank
Quote from: FrankB on January 15, 2011, 02:23:52 PM
.....But inside the internal network you can relink the shaders - so all trees could use the same shaders/textures. ...
Hi Frank/Walli,
Just how do you go about doing this?
Thanks for the other tips by the way!
regards
Kevin
when you are inside the internal shader network, you can select one part and then there is this network button - if you click it you can assign already existing shaders. I will try to put up some screenshots until tomorrow.
I made a simple test a week ago or so, and it saved me several 100mb of RAM.
Thanks Walli I'll look forward to it.
Quote from: Kevin F on January 16, 2011, 03:11:41 PM
Thanks Walli I'll look forward to it.
Any progress?
Thanks
Quote from: FrankB on January 15, 2011, 02:23:52 PM
Here is a tip (from Walli) to better cope with these memory hungry models: "...you could reuse the shaders inside TG. By default TG loads every texture as separate instance for every object, even if it is the very same texture. But inside the internal network you can relink the shaders - so all trees could use the same shaders/textures. This reduces memory consumption."
Other than that, Kevin, I found that incresing the grey color inside the default shader nodes for the needles by 0.1 - 0.2 points helps a lot with lighting. The needles don't let a lot of light pass through, so self-shadowing is quite intense. AA 2/4 does help a bit but not as much as one would think... but saving as exr and then upping shadow lightness in post is quite effective...
I would also love to see such a scene with these models rendered in another render... just to see how other renderers can cope with the lighting of these models.
regards,
Frank
Hi Frank and Walli,
I've been trying to use these trees in several scenes (they look so bad I don't want to post them) plus I don't think we should have to rework them after purchasing them. Would it be possible for Walli to rework them and give us a free update? I really think there's something wrong with two of the needle shaders check- needle 1, needle 12. Maybe I'm wrong but the colors don't show up in the small preview window when working with the individual shaders, if you know what I mean?
I'm really surprised because all the other plants Walli created are great with no problems for me.
Anyone else having problems with these trees?
Thanks
Jay
Update: OK I will post my results :) raw render fro TG and shadow/highlight adj in photoshop. As you see you can lighten the trees, however it lightens other parts of the scene as well which I really don't want.
Hi Jay,
I am still developing a scene with these models, my initial results agree with what Frank says-"I found that incresing the grey color inside the default shader nodes for the needles by 0.1 - 0.2 points helps a lot with lighting. The needles don't let a lot of light pass through,..."
I will check some more.....
Hi,
I personaly like to have a lot of contrast in my pictures, lowering contrast in post can be easily done, the other way around you are more limited.
Standard TG settings are set, so that you get a nice sky. Now compare to a photograph, if you choose an exposure to get a nice sky, the rest of the scene (if not lit directly from the front), will come out dark.
If you choose an exposure to get nice objects, then the sky tends to blow out. And in my eyes this happens with the trees here in Terragen.
I attached a simple example. Just a simple population of two trees, nothing changed. The first one uses exposure 1.5. You can see that you have a nice blue sky and in contrast much darker trees. But not black.
Now I upped the exposure to three. As I would expect, the sky starts to blow out and now the trees get brighter. Actually you can see a nice difference between trees close up, where you have nice brightness/color and then to the background, where everything seems to get darker and of cause with a blueish tint due to atmosphere. This is what I would expect from a photograph and this is what I want to have by default in my renders.
I am perfectly aware that I use "dark settings" compared to many other people. This is even more valid when looking at my Vue assets. Vue is a perfect example where people tend to use to bright objects/materials, you just get a muddy and lifeless render.
And by the way - I didn´t darken the objects, its the standard setting in TG and I think it is one of the reasons why TG by default looks more realistic compared to default Vue (to bright and saturated).
Of course I want the customers to be happy. So if you have a problem with those settings, I can of course resave the TGO´s with brighter values. So let me or Frank know what you want and what you need!
best,
Walli
I have been altering the translucency setting on the leaves lately. (On other objects/trees. I have not gotten the new firs yet.) This seems to help maintain the nice sky and helps make the leaves more realistic. I use values between 0.35 and 0.5. It depends on the angle of the lighting and light intensity.
Quote from: buzzzzz1 on January 20, 2011, 06:00:39 PM
Update: OK I will post my results :) raw render fro TG and shadow/highlight adj in photoshop. As you see you can lighten the trees, however it lightens other parts of the scene as well which I really don't want.
Jay, I leave the full response to Walli, agreeing with him that dark, strongly self-shadowing needlework models just need to come out dark.
My comment is more for your two renders. I think an exposure right in the middle of the two exposures shown would be just right.
Also, there is a built-in lighting fall-off with the raytracer: meaning the farther the trees the darker they will be. draw the closer on the same lighting, and they'll appear brighter. When the models are rather dark themelves, this lighting fall-off will become apparent quite quickly.
Nice clouds by the way! :-)
Regards,
Frank
Guys this is a long shot , but could "GI surface details" settings (Edit :Or higher GI in general)make any difference here in the lighting of the dark needle parts?
Just a thought! Would love to see a crop render.
@Kadri: even if it helps, it's not worth the render time increase, IMHO
Quote from: FrankB on January 22, 2011, 04:44:20 AM
@Kadri: even if it helps, it's not worth the render time increase, IMHO
Yes , i would try to change the textures or do it in post too :)
Quote from: Walli on January 16, 2011, 01:03:32 PM
when you are inside the internal shader network, you can select one part and then there is this network button - if you click it you can assign already existing shaders. I will try to put up some screenshots until tomorrow.
I made a simple test a week ago or so, and it saved me several 100mb of RAM.
Hate to keep pushing this Walli, but any chance of the screenshots?
Thanks
sorry, here it comes.
Lets say you have two trees, then choose one that should be your "original". In this example this is the 19mt version. Then go into the internal network of the other tree (8mt version in this case), select an Object part, klick the green plus sign, look for your original and assign the according shader.
Thats most helpful with shaders where big textures are used
Thanks very much. I'm off to try it!
Using GI surface details ... I encountered that the Surface shaders were brightened up, but the objects did not. Maybe this issue is from early days only.