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General => Image Sharing => Topic started by: Mor on May 01, 2011, 09:29:14 AM

Title: Heavily populated
Post by: Mor on May 01, 2011, 09:29:14 AM
I just got new Core i7 2600 / 8 GB / GTX560 Ti 1 GB / 1 TB HDD, so 64bit support had perfect timing :)

I decided to do some populations testing to see do I get TG choking, so here it comes:

- NWDA spruce pack 7 populations used
- Birch tree from Ashundar
- Marc Gebhart's white birch, 2 populations
- Marc Gebhart's generic pines, 2 populations
- Walli's fresh grass 2 populations
- Walli's dry grass, 1 population
- Mr. Lamppost's basic bush pack, 1 population

1920x1020, 0.8 detail, AA 5, rendertime 45min

(http://www.melnworld.com/tg2/heavily%20populated.jpg)



Title: Re: Heavily populated
Post by: Tangled-Universe on May 01, 2011, 09:43:31 AM
That's a pretty image, nice work :)

Quote from: Mor on May 01, 2011, 09:29:14 AM
I just got new Core i7 2600 / 8 GB / GTX560 Ti 1 GB / 1 TB HDD, so 64bit support had perfect timing :)

...

1920x1020, 0.8 detail, AA 5, rendertime 45min

Must...have... ;D
Title: Re: Heavily populated
Post by: Henry Blewer on May 01, 2011, 11:30:47 AM
"1920x1020, 0.8 detail, AA 5, rendertime 45min"

This would be about 16 hours on my P4. Yep, it's time for a new machine!

I think I would increase the AA to 8. You have the power, and the image would look better for it. It will be worth the time as it's a very nice image. With higher AA the populations would be more distinct.
Title: Re: Heavily populated
Post by: Mor on May 01, 2011, 02:19:44 PM
I rendered another one with higher settings. Object quality from very high to ultra high for all populations, detail from 0.8 to 1 and AA from 5 to 8. Rendertime about 1h 40min :)

(http://www.melnworld.com/tg2/heavily%20populated%202.jpg)
Title: Re: Heavily populated
Post by: Tangled-Universe on May 01, 2011, 02:24:56 PM
Looking pretty again. Nice scene!
If you could make a central point of focus/interest than this would come along very well.

Quote from: Mor on May 01, 2011, 02:19:44 PM
I rendered another one with higher settings. Object quality from very high to ultra high for all populations, detail from 0.8 to 1 and AA from 5 to 8. Rendertime about 1h 40min :)

I'm a bit confused here...

By default the renderer renders with "ray trace objects" (RTO) enabled and thus the detail setting in the object/population is obsolete.
So, did you render this with or without RTO?

The idea is that if you do NOT use RTO that AA8 is lowish.
If you DO use RTO then AA8 is very high.

In my experience, when having RTO enabled, AA6 with max samples looks as good as AA8 1/4th samples, but is also quite a bit faster.
Title: Re: Heavily populated
Post by: Mor on May 01, 2011, 02:49:39 PM
Quote
By default the renderer renders with "ray trace objects" (RTO) enabled and thus the detail setting in the object/population is obsolete.
So, did you render this with or without RTO?

The idea is that if you do NOT use RTO that AA8 is lowish.
If you DO use RTO then AA8 is very high.

In my experience, when having RTO enabled, AA6 with max samples looks as good as AA8 1/4th samples, but is also quite a bit faster.

Yes, the RTO was enabled. It's good to learn something new as I've been a little confused does that population detail setting actually affect to anything :D But now all of sudden it all makes sense, thank you.
At first I intended this scene to be just a test for limits of populations, but as this came along quite nicely, I think I keep on working on it.
Title: Re: Heavily populated
Post by: Themodman101 on May 01, 2011, 04:52:10 PM
haha, I love when that happens. A test turns into something grand :)
Title: Re: Heavily populated
Post by: max_thehitman on May 02, 2011, 08:38:50 AM


That´s fabulous. Great scene. If it was my pc working on such a scene it would probably take about
80+ hours to render!  :P Yeah, I know, I have to get myself a better and faster machine. I am still in the
Jurassic era with a Flinstone mouse running inside my computer. LOL
Congrats on another fine artwork!
Title: Re: Heavily populated
Post by: Henry Blewer on May 02, 2011, 11:47:42 AM
Much better. You can also try different pixel filters. 640 x 480 renders pretty fast. Render the same scene using each filter, then make a larger image in a paint program which has text to label the filter used. This will give you an easy way to find the right filter for the scene.
Title: Re: Heavily populated
Post by: Zairyn Arsyn on May 02, 2011, 01:47:35 PM
HOTDAMN!! wow! 45min!!!  i need to get a sandy bridge i7 2600 system  :) 8)
Quote from: Mor on May 01, 2011, 09:29:14 AM
I just got new Core i7 2600 / 8 GB / GTX560 Ti 1 GB / 1 TB HDD, so 64bit support had perfect timing :)

I decided to do some populations testing to see do I get TG choking, so here it comes:

1920x1020, 0.8 detail, AA 5, rendertime 45min

great render, the dense populations makes it seem more realistic, though it takes longer to populate and render normally.
Title: Re: Heavily populated
Post by: jbest on May 05, 2011, 01:42:20 AM
Wow, it looks awesome. It's a good thing you rendered it, my slow-slow-slow laptop would probably crash after 60+ hours  ;D 8) ;)
Title: Re: Heavily populated
Post by: Mor on May 06, 2011, 06:47:30 AM
Some update.

- Added two populations of shrubs from NWDA community store
- Added slightly modified rockelO by dandelO  :D
- Added low terrain following mist on ground.

Most of time went tweaking the mist and I'm not quite happy with it or I have just stared it for too long :)
Any ideas, comments?

(http://www.melnworld.com/tg2/heavily%20populated%203.jpg)
Title: Re: Heavily populated
Post by: Henry Blewer on May 06, 2011, 07:12:05 AM
Looks good. I get the stared at it too long thing quite often. Work on the next. Take a look at this in a week or two, then tweak some more. Makes it fresher for me.
Title: Re: Heavily populated
Post by: Dune on May 07, 2011, 03:32:41 AM
Henry (njeneb) is right; you should freshen it up (other light?). And I'd say, pay more attention to a nice composition/layout of the image. It is very nice in a photographic sense, but not really artistic. You should find a focal point and lines that your eyes follow to take up the whole image. This is positively meant, of course.
Title: Re: Heavily populated
Post by: Henry Blewer on May 07, 2011, 08:59:34 AM
Good advice. I have done hundreds of these random population renders. After a while they all begin to look alike.
Title: Re: Heavily populated
Post by: Dune on May 08, 2011, 03:55:04 AM
Ah, I misread Henry's last sentence. Missed the 's' in 'makes'. But my point stands.
Title: Re: Heavily populated
Post by: Mor on May 10, 2011, 01:16:40 PM
Quote from: Dune on May 07, 2011, 03:32:41 AM
Henry (njeneb) is right; you should freshen it up (other light?). And I'd say, pay more attention to a nice composition/layout of the image. It is very nice in a photographic sense, but not really artistic. You should find a focal point and lines that your eyes follow to take up the whole image. This is positively meant, of course.

Yes, this is a good advice and my intention is to start modeling things (ruins, castles, etc.) to my images, as soon as I develop my modeling skills :)


Here's final version of this one and now I'm happy with the mist. Also made the strange rock bigger and got somewhat eerie feeling to the image as the mist could originate from the rock :)
Both are the same image, but latter has been autoleveled by XnView.

(http://www.melnworld.com/tg2/heavily%20populated%204.jpg)

(http://www.melnworld.com/tg2/heavily%20populated%205.jpg)
Title: Re: Heavily populated
Post by: Henry Blewer on May 11, 2011, 07:43:52 AM
I like the large rock. It seem lonely though.