I decided that instead of making new threads for each of my 'not-so technical' renders, I'll just post them in this one as I do more? If that's okay. :)
I'm not new to the forums or to TG2, but I am a frequent browser and check out all the images, and I'm not progressing as fast as some of you. :o I hope I learn some more by being here, and any comment is welcome. :)
Also, I only have the preview.
This render took about 13 hours on a laptop with Vista(crap), 768MB of RAM, and a 2 GHz processor. I think it took so long because of the faint reflective shader.
This one was a terrain test, trying to understand the shaders more.
i think one render per thread is better. when i say one render, i mean first render then evolutions of the first one, so it could be a 10 pics thread ;)
but if you open a thread just for your images (all of them) how can we write some C&C ? by quoting them ? mmmmh...
so, my opinion is that you have to make a new thread for each of your new render and not use just one as your galery ;)
Interesting terrain in the first image, but I think that the snow is too fine, and the reflective shader is unnecessary in this case.
If you want use a reflective shader it's possible to disabled "ray traced reflection" in this shader. The result is the same, but you win time ! ;)
Oh, okay guys. Thanks. For my next render, I'll post a new thread. :D
And, Phylloxera, thanks. I don't remember why I even put the shader, it's kind of old. :\ I'll keep that tip in mind! My next render is inspired by you, that render you did with trees and fog. I'm doing one with trees too, but I'm new to populations. ;)
I agree that the snow in the first one looks a little fine and broken up, a little too rough.
I definitely think you will get more helpful comments by posting one image per topic and one ot two at a time.
I agree with everyone and must say I really like your terrain. That's a very nice craggy terrain.
If you want to use a reflective shader to add subtle reflections or specular to a surface, it's best to disable ray-traced reflections. If the reflections are subtle, you probably won't mind the difference in the image but the render times will be much shorter. Even without ray-traced reflections, the reflection shader approximates the reflections of surrounding objects by using information that was gathered during the GI pre pass, and I've tried to calibrate it to give nice results. However, the reflections are then affected by your Enviro Light settings and GI detail/quality settings.
Matt
Thanks everyone. I'll remember those tips on my next renders. Does anyone want the tgd for the terrain? Or... if theres a way to save just the terrain, I'll be glad to upload it. :)
There's a file upload thread for uploading files.