I would appreciate your opinions, as I'm not sure about the abbey. Any other c&c welcome.
Abbey me, plants walli and Mr Lampost
Cant see any problem with the abbey...
Picture looking great for me :D
It does have a grand feel. Nice :)
First,
The terrain is really freaking great. Rocks color texture, all of it.
As far as the abby goes, it does not make sense to me. I mean, where it is with no road and no other structures, it does not make visual or logical sense.
But, the idea makes sense and I like it a lot. I think you need to use a structure that would be built way up there where no one can get to, think monks. Or if you are sure you want ruins, use something where one would find an 'oracle'.
But if the abby is what you want, move it done to the open space lower right (don't hide it in the back) and give some indication of how the building was used; remnant of a path/road.
IMO based on the rocks and colors and feel. The location you currently have the abby would suit a fortress much better. But should still have a road/path to that peak.
Just what I think.
the terrain and surface are really great and the plants blend in in a nice way! About the abbey - probably you can blend that object into the terrain, here in our area we often have old ruins that seem to grow out of the rock
here you can find some examples, how the buildings blend into the rock formations: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=fr%C3%A4nkische+schweiz+burg&t=lm
Thanks. Badger, the brown streak wending it's way up the mountain is a path! old, no longer used and beginning to fade. However I am not happy with the abbey. Walli, I like the idea of it being more of the rock. I shall investigate.
Wonderful texturing! Great cloud formations, not sure about the Abbey though. A really fine image Mick!
I like this, especially all the lighting variations as the terrain recedes. I have no problem with the abbey being located where it is.
We don't know the history of the mountain or the culture of the area or what's on the other side of the mountain. (there could well be a helicopter pad over there and this ruin was purpose built to do one single wedding for some romantic billionaire)
I think there could be more lighting or color variation in the abbey ruin itself to bring its features out of darkness.
Quote from: TheBadger on July 17, 2014, 08:22:27 AM
The terrain is really freaking great. Rocks color texture, all of it.
As far as the abby goes, it does not make sense to me.
Agree with TheBadger on both counts. There's something about the abby that seems out of place.
Quote from: fleetwood on July 17, 2014, 09:43:27 AM
We don't know the history of the mountain or the culture of the area or what's on the other side of the mountain. (there could well be a helicopter pad over there and this ruin was purpose built to do one single wedding for some romantic billionaire)
I like your thinking ;)
I've extracted the mesh - there's a road on the other side of the hill quite naturally formed by the original power fractal ;D - I shall not be using it - you'll have to imagine it :( changing the landscape round is too much fuff :-\ I might do another pic though.
The abbey seems to be rather huge,as indicated by the size of the arches.
Therefore it would help,if there was a little something like a pillar with a
piece of wall or so a bit further away than the main chunks to suggest a
larger covered area to the viewer.
Also one of the arches should be broken to enhance the "ruinity".
Maybe hit the cirrus seed another time; it seems like its cloud lines are extended into the rock (under the abbey).
The rock textures and plant distribution are outstanding realism. Little more to do here.
The ground texturing work, rocks, etc. from foreground to background is excellent. Reminds me of the Scottish Highlands (or pics I've seen, at least). I think if you want that brown track to look like a trail of some kind, you should try to figure out how to flatten it a bit relative to the terrain, because to my eye it doesn't really read as "path" right now. Other suggestions for the abbey may be on target, but I really like the scene overall already.
- Oshyan
Quote...figure out how to flatten it a bit relative to the terrain...
Not wanting to selfpromote, but the NWDA is open again and there's a nice 'road preset' that does just this. Mind you, it needs building up from the bottom, with the road or path at 0/0/0, can't be applied just to any 'ready terrain', though you can later shift the terrain to its perfect position. And it will only work on procedural terrains.
I Have it already - I'll study it and see if I can make it work here. I've extracted the mesh and started to model a castle that grows out of the rocks in a more natural way.
Update, path now flatter looks better.
Thanks all for the sugestions - and challenges!
Quote from: mhaze on July 18, 2014, 02:38:37 AM
I Have it already - I'll study it and see if I can make it work here. I've extracted the mesh and started to model a castle that grows out of the rocks in a more natural way.
Update, path now flatter looks better.
I think your going to have a fantastic fantasy scene here with the realism TG really helps with.
Dont just dump the abby right off though. See if you can fit parts of it in in the near fore. If the quality is good enough, and your position can fit, a destroyed building below a castle will tell a nice little story, potentially. Also the presence of the abby will help define the culture of the city state the castle represents... Some one mentioned the culture, and I thought that was a great thing to add to the process!
And yeah, I know back seat driving it lots easier than winning a race. But its a lot of fun too! ;D
Sadly, the abbey is not suitable for close up - but I was planning to redo it anyway - so a good idea I'll play with it.
The flattened path. I gave up on Dunes method. I don't really understand what he is doing with the road - so simple lateral displacement seems to do the trick.
castle test - just a marker at the moment. I'll remodel everything when I'm happy.
Thats pretty cool! :)
Are you going to stay relatively reality based, or push it into the realm of something like LOTR or Game of Thrones? The good part about where you have the castle is that its far enough away, that you can get away with more trickery.
Let me make a suggestion: that path needs to be fortified if it is to be the primary access to such a massive structure. Something like this: http://worldhistoryforusall.sdsu.edu/images/bigeras/era4/roman_road.jpg
Your setup is great and the rocks are very believable. Good stuff, anxious to see this progress.
Quote from: otakar on July 18, 2014, 03:18:18 PM
Let me make a suggestion: that path needs to be fortified if it is to be the primary access to such a massive structure. Something like this: http://worldhistoryforusall.sdsu.edu/images/bigeras/era4/roman_road.jpg
Your setup is great and the rocks are very believable. Good stuff, anxious to see this progress.
Thats cool! I was thinking about it too. But I did not come up with an idea. The image in your link is a pretty great starting place. I think Dune did a bunch of work making walls like that for some road or path a while ago. May be useful here even if his road cant be used.
By the way, this new path look and works a lot better.
That shouldn't be too hard.
Great idea otakar. Not sure I can make it work. Path is a painted shader and broken up to look old and overgrown. I may be able to add a few sections of wall but given the difficulty of working with painted shaders I'm not sure how. The castle will be ruined and very old - hence the over grown track. Maybe I can add the remains of fortifications. This was never meant to be the main access it's far too steep just a backdoor! Dune your methods of making roads may not work here due to the switchback nature of the path that has to find a natural and precise way through the terrain and anyway I don't really understand how to make roads your way. Some help would be appreciated. Badger I want the castle to be a generic ruin an archetypal castle
Mick, you can quite easily get something you want with my road pack. I've thrown something together yesterday, just to see whether I could get the mountain the way I wanted it to fit to the path/road. Added another transform shader under the main terrain fractal and did some moving and rotation. Don't mind the grass, that's just one object.
Cheers Dune - starting from scratch I'm sure I could make it work but with 20 odd SSSs shaping the terrain, moving anything would become a time consuming and mind bending nightmare! at least for me it would. Next time maybe! It's certainly worth the effort to make use of your path ideas as the add a much greater sense of realism. BTW your rocks are looking better, still brown but better just need some cracking now!
I've just had a thought I wonder if it is possible to warp an SSS with a painted shader?
Nope >:( at least I haven't been able to make it work!
That's a freakin' awesome surface - wow!
I wouldn't know why not, Mick. It's color based.
Hi Dune, if you look carefully at the result I don't think you are displacing the SSS only adding or subtracting colour. Try a few variation and you'll see what I mean.
No, it's bent alright. What you see is when the painted shader is open. The line is bent by the white painted spots. The right side is bent in, the left is bent out.
Quote from: Dune on July 24, 2014, 10:31:21 AM
I wouldn't know why not, Mick. It's color based.
Why no worky...set up as shown I am fairly certain but I see no effect....maybe a clip to demo this effect
Hi Bobby,it looks like you forgot to set the SSS to position in terrain/texture.
Hope you had a nice small tour btw.
Quote from: j meyer on July 25, 2014, 10:51:42 AM
Hi Bobby,it looks like you forgot to set the SSS to position in terrain/texture.
Hope you had a nice small tour btw.
That may well be Jochen...still not up to speed as consecutive to the "awesome" tour's last show I found out my former partner whose care I'd been assisting in over the last few years had suddenly passed on. Better for her as she was only getting more unable every day; but a bit hard on those left behind. With a few weeks perspective I'm good with the way it worked for her, no lingering with tubes everywhere just a quick up and out....weird synchronicities in my life...
will check it out cuz I suspect you're correct.
Excellent rocks surface !!!