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General => Image Sharing => Topic started by: Zairyn Arsyn on October 10, 2011, 08:41:12 AM

Title: dome like hills overhead
Post by: Zairyn Arsyn on October 10, 2011, 08:41:12 AM
PF terrain with simple shape shaders set to circle(a total of 8 ) with different displacements and radiuses.
NWDA stone bed was used

models used:
NWDA pine trees 22m & 27m

more renders coming soon (as well as extra populations)

C&C welcome.
Title: Re: dome like hills WIP
Post by: :) on October 11, 2011, 08:32:05 PM
Is very good, better than most here I think :) done well
Title: Re: dome like hills WIP
Post by: AP on October 11, 2011, 08:36:07 PM
That is entirely relative.    ;)
Title: dome like hills v3 WIP
Post by: Zairyn Arsyn on October 12, 2011, 03:24:07 PM
added a second PF terrain and some of Walli's Grass from the NWDA site.
Stone monoliths modeled and textured by me.

i'm not completely happy with the quality of this one i think the scene looks better with RTO on, and something about the texture of the monoliths does'nt look right to me... (its UV mapped.)

the original is 3800x1600

C&C welcome   
Title: Re: dome like hills v3 WIP
Post by: Walli on October 13, 2011, 02:07:32 AM
cool! I think I would try to add another population. Just a stripe in front of the forest, probaly same trees but use the offset to move them downwards, so that the base trunk vanishes under the terrain. That way you can simulate "edge population", because at the rim of a forest you usually find plants with branching all the way down to the ground.
Title: Re: dome like hills v3 WIP
Post by: Dune on October 13, 2011, 03:13:42 AM
Nice update and a good idea from Walli. Due to some darker rocks (on the left) you seem to have some floating grass, which is not true of course. Perhaps hit seed one more time?
Title: Re: dome like hills v4 WIP
Post by: Zairyn Arsyn on October 13, 2011, 09:34:59 AM
i got lucky, my new PC did a windows update & restarted,  :P fortunately the render was already done by the time it happened. :)

walli and dune, i only saw your comments this morning, after this render was done, i will have to make changes later.

original resolution, 3800x1600
http://-zagadka-.deviantart.com/#/d4cowr8

you can see the monolith texture a little better in this one, plus i added three of Mr. Miley's bushes
one of the grass pops still needs to be fixed - its still partially submerged below the terrain.

c&c welcome.
Title: Re: dome like hills v4 WIP
Post by: Tangled-Universe on October 13, 2011, 02:24:06 PM
Interesting work, looks pretty good. Nice stones, they are FrankB's stones from NWDA, aren't they?

I have a couple of suggestions for improvement if you don't mind:
The trees are all standing perfectly straight which looks kinda boring imho. In the object maker give them say 4 degrees rotation on X or Z so they will all just not stand straight up.
Also there seems to be a bit lack of size-variation which together with the straight trees gives a very monotone look.

Renderwise I think it's a lot more interesting to have your new monster machine flex his muscles on renderquality rather than huge ass resolution :)
Try something like AA32, set to 1/16th first samples and pixel noise threshold 0.15 or 0.2. Set atmosphere samples to 8 and enable RTA.
For GI choose 2/4/6 with SS-prepass, but no surface details.
With these extreme AA settings, which are perfectly render-able on your 2600K you can get awesome results with the cubic b-spline AA filter, which normally is inferior at lower settings.
Try it! :)

Cheers,
Martin
Title: Re: dome like hills v4 WIP
Post by: Zairyn Arsyn on October 13, 2011, 02:39:21 PM
32AA!! ok i will try it
i'll make the rotation changes when i get back home.

yes those are frankB's stones from NWDA, i've been meaning to give them little variation in there distribution, soon.
Title: Re: dome like hills v4 WIP
Post by: Tangled-Universe on October 13, 2011, 03:00:31 PM
AA32, yes...but not without the other settings I mentioned, otherwise it will be enormous overkill. It is a bit already of course.
Title: Re: dome like hills v4 WIP
Post by: inkydigit on October 13, 2011, 03:37:05 PM
this is coming together really well....looking forward to an update...

cheers

J
Title: dome like hills v5 WIP
Post by: Zairyn Arsyn on October 14, 2011, 08:29:13 AM
first 32AA render...
followed TU's render settings recommendations

render time was actually under 3hrs  :)

will make more changes when i can...
rendering a even higher resolution version with the same setting to see how it handles (ram usage)

Comments & Critiques welcome
Title: Re: dome like hills v5 WIP
Post by: Tangled-Universe on October 14, 2011, 11:14:10 AM
That looks better, isn't it? Especially the bushes look less noisy.

One thing which you could add is soft shadows. Perhaps throw half a dozen trees just behind your camera to the right.
They could cast longer shadows into the image. Soft shadows would make it look very realistic and pretty awesome.
Roughly expect a doubling of your rendertime though.

Here's an example: http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=11025.msg113559#msg113559 (http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=11025.msg113559#msg113559)
Title: Re: dome like hills v5 WIP
Post by: Dune on October 15, 2011, 03:19:12 AM
It softens up the veggies a lot. Great. But what about the stonelike grey surface? Why not make it sandy. It's very smooth. Or make it a cracked hard rock surface, with some gribble in the gutters.
Title: Re: dome like hills v5 WIP
Post by: Cyber-Angel on October 15, 2011, 07:18:12 PM
Would it be possible to center the image, focusing on the two hills with the monoliths? The compensation with that half hill on the left, makes for (IMHO) a visually disturbed, unbalanced composition! Other wise nice work?

Regards to yo.

Cyber-Angel     
Title: Re: dome like hills v5 WIP
Post by: TheBadger on October 15, 2011, 07:29:09 PM
Quote from: Cyber-Angel on October 15, 2011, 07:18:12 PM
Would it be possible to center the image, focusing on the two hills with the monoliths? The compensation with that half hill on the left, makes for (IMHO) a visually disturbed, unbalanced composition! Other wise nice work?

Regards to yo.

Cyber-Angel     

Yes I agree. Now that you have worked out other issues perhaps you will show some other angles, or just more of this world in general.
Title: Re: dome like hills v5 WIP
Post by: Zairyn Arsyn on October 16, 2011, 07:55:49 PM
Quote from: TheBadger on October 15, 2011, 07:29:09 PM
Quote from: Cyber-Angel on October 15, 2011, 07:18:12 PM
Would it be possible to center the image, focusing on the two hills with the monoliths? The compensation with that half hill on the left, makes for (IMHO) a visually disturbed, unbalanced composition! Other wise nice work?

Regards to yo.

Cyber-Angel     

Yes I agree. Now that you have worked out other issues perhaps you will show some other angles, or just more of this world in general.
done, new pov added
now i added FrankB's advanced cracks to them ground, now i just now i just have to perfect the surfacing.
bbl with a new render.
Title: Re: dome like hills v5 WIP
Post by: Zairyn Arsyn on October 17, 2011, 08:35:21 AM
soon, TheBadger, soon, i just need to show another render with the new ground surface
Quote from: TheBadger on October 15, 2011, 07:29:09 PM
perhaps you will show some other angles, or just more of this world in general.
Title: dome like hills v6 (cracks)
Post by: Zairyn Arsyn on October 17, 2011, 08:41:42 AM
added frankB's advanced cracks with some changes to frankB's fake stone bed.
added a third Pine Tree population in the middle ground.
added soft shadows

this isn't the full size the original was 2800x1800
render time was little over 4 hrs.

C&C welcome.
Title: Re: dome like hills v6 (cracks)
Post by: Tangled-Universe on October 17, 2011, 11:21:22 AM
I see you reverted back to your big resolution rendering ;)
I still think the lower resolution with the somewhat ridiculous AA looks a lot better, especially on the bushes (in the background).
That's a personal thing of course :)
This cubic b-spline filter together with that crazy AA still gives sharp images, but with that natural looking softness. I think I love it ;D lol

The softshadows really add something extra, though the new brighter lighting makes the shadows themselves a lot brighter and thus the soft shadow benefits are somewhat lost. See where I'm going?
How did you hook up Frank's crack shader into your network? There seems to be a conflict somewhere because you have some facetted faces.

I hope you consider my suggestions constructive and not as me being negative :)

Cheers,
Martin
Title: Re: dome like hills v6 (cracks)
Post by: FrankB on October 17, 2011, 12:22:35 PM
I think the cracks look alright, but i am more worried about the stones. They don' look like my fake stone bed at all.

Anyway, slowly this image is becoming interesting. Good teamwork here :)

Regards,
Frank
Title: Re: dome like hills v6 (cracks)
Post by: FrankB on October 17, 2011, 12:30:33 PM
One more thing. I think the image will reach the next level by refraining from using an even distribution of all the same object models. You need a distribution shader for say the bush model, that clumps them together in one part of the area, and leaves them out entirely in other parts. Then you would add a second and a third model, each using their own distinct clumping distribution.
A hint of a treaded path leading through the vegetation towards the hills would be the cherries on the cake.

Lastly, contrairy to Martin, I see no gains from his way of applying AA settings. Maybe in direct comparison, but I am not sure if it is worth it really. Your last render looks good quality wise (to me).

Regards,
Frank
Title: Re: dome like hills v6 (cracks)
Post by: Tangled-Universe on October 17, 2011, 01:18:24 PM
Quote from: FrankB on October 17, 2011, 12:30:33 PM

Lastly, contrairy to Martin, I see no gains from his way of applying AA settings. Maybe in direct comparison, but I am not sure if it is worth it really. Your last render looks good quality wise (to me).

Regards,
Frank

That's a matter of taste of course. However, I do agree with you that if you have a modest/slower machine that it is too much.
It's only a "gain" because it is possible without having to wait for too long when you have a latest generation rendering slave :)

Just after submitting the above I realized that his previous render with crazy AA took <3 hours @ 2k resolution, while this one took ~4 hours @ 2.8k resolution.
It's not that bad actually.
Title: Re: dome like hills v6 (cracks)
Post by: Zairyn Arsyn on October 17, 2011, 01:19:18 PM
i checked the render settings this morning after this render was done and it was only 9AA (not sure how got set on that) so it wasn't nearly so high this time :) , personally high AA isn't so much a problem for me if my computer can get it done for in a certain amount time, as long as its done before i wake up/get home.

@frank
yeah i made some modifications to the stone bed, maybe too much.

never strayed away from the big resolution rendering, TU.
now that i have 16GB and a 2600k i can push them farther. ;)'

will post a node network screenshot later.
Title: dome like hills overhead
Post by: Zairyn Arsyn on October 18, 2011, 10:32:18 AM
different pov, rendered this late last night.

some of the populations need to be extended. fixed that, now doing another render from a different pov showing more of the other "domes".

C&C welcome
Title: Re: dome like hills overhead
Post by: Dune on October 19, 2011, 03:07:56 AM
The down to earth version is more exciting, Zaai. If you want another POV, why not more underneath one of the spikes, looking up in wide angle?
Title: Re: dome like hills overhead
Post by: Zairyn Arsyn on October 19, 2011, 09:05:15 AM
Quote from: Dune on October 19, 2011, 03:07:56 AM
The down to earth version is more exciting, Zaai. If you want another POV, why not more underneath one of the spikes, looking up in wide angle?
i got your reply this early morning, i managed to set up a new POV before i left for work, should be done when i get home.