Some objects put together

[Dune]

I just finished this medieval dwelling, tested it in TG and one thing led to another. Added some apartment blocks, a guy on the roof and one near his broken down car. Made the windows glassy, added a light source inside and another guy... women are all gone from this desolate town    (only his hand is poking through the window). TG is really great fun!

[FrankB]

Very nice. Always amazed at how productive you are.
Will you be continuing with this scene? It has a lot of potential.

The following is not a critique, just a general observation with the use of man made objects in Terragen. It's a problem I also need solved for my renders.
So if I look at the individual parts of this image, each of them could almost be mistaken for a photo, but how is it that altogether, some of it looks like a scene from a computer game? For example in the foreground house, when I look at the bricks in the wall, they seem right. Windows look good, roof looks good... but what is it that's missing so that we would not mistake this for a photo? One thing that gives it away for me is that the house edge is such a perfect line so it becomes obvious that the bricks are not displaced and stick out a bit. Or the clean wall bottom above the dirty ground maybe. But I really guess it's mostly the bump mapping instead of a proper displacement... right?

Cheers
Frank

[Dune]

I don't know, it was just a haphazard mix of stuff for fun. But I agree with your observation that it is very hard to really make renders like a photo, due to the straight (poly) edges indeed. You see it in trees, buildings, etc. It's the bump mapping instead of displacement. I'll try something without raytraced objects, see if that works better.
I also think the edges should be slightly rounded to give a better 'displacement'. But that is not as easy and ups the poly count. I'm currently struggling with morph maps in Lightwave, apply texture first, then morph a wall (so I understand), so that the texture stays intact even from another angle. Hard stuff.

[inkydigit]

I like this also, Ulco, very nice foreground detail, and the closest house looks good too...I am intrigued as to what will come next?...
cheers
Jason

[Dune]

I tried another house, made the corners slightly rounded (rooftop, walls), but it doesn't change much in the way they are rendered (with bump). Flat as ever. Perhaps they should even be more rounded...

[inkydigit]

classic comedic terragen!
very good Ulco!
edit:
btw where did the houses come from?

[Dune]

I made them.

[inkydigit]

Thanks Ulco...very nice they are too!

[Volker Harun]

The second one really improved ... do you use fill lights???

[j meyer]

You could try a normal map for the bumps,but both (normal or bump map) won't
be as good as displacement or,even better,real geometry,i'm afraid.
From my point of view it's not only visible on edges,the shadows are not
correct,too.Sometimes even the lighting that's on texture photo can be a
problem.

Volker - you mentioned problems with shaders and displacement with sculptris.
            Could that be mac related? Tried it last year with good results.Diffuse
            and bump map were exported fine (i guess that's what you meant by
            shaders and displacement,if not please ignore my babble)

[Volker Harun]

While answering J.Meyer, I am trying to stay as much on topic as possible.

The effect on normals I encountered on objects sculpted with sculptris was using Win XP (running on Parallel's Desktop for Mac). This has another restriction: I cannot paint with sculptris. So the exported objects were always untextured.
In fact I never use textures on objects, as the colour information does not tend to match my current scene. If I had a building, I would export all the bricks grouped together with a map, everything made of wood one map, and so on.
Inside TG2 I do the colouring, the displacements and so on. This keeps the objects a bit more integrated - at least I have more control ,-)

I was asking Ulco about fill lights, as they have a very 2Dish affect on some scenes ... this effect is anti-proportional with the sun's strength.
The overall effect is coming from a scene that has less shadows than ought to be ,-

Regards, Volker

[Dune]

There's one sun a 9 elevation ~90 right, and a shadowed fill at 15 high, ~90 left, just to give the apartment blocks some light. And you're right about texturing, I try to make as many texture shots as possible, but it's not always easy to get them with diffuse light (and from the right angle). I could have made the roof of hundreds of 'real' tiles, or vertical rows, but of course the more detail the heavier, and the more work. It depends on the kind of scene one wants to make, and how 'reward' will be gained. Some things can easily be adjusted in post, especially for 2D use. Like dents in a straight house's edge to make the bricks stand out.
What is the difference between a bump and a normal map? You can only use it in the default shader to apply 'displacement', can't you? So what would be the difference in effect?

[Kadri]

...
What is the difference between a bump and a normal map? You can only use it in the default shader to apply 'displacement', can't you? So what would be the difference in effect?

http://www.game-artist.net/forums/support-tech-discussion/7756-bump-maps-vs-normal-maps.html

The picture alone says a lot there Dune. But in TG2 it is a different thing of course. I am curious too!

[Dune]

Thanks, Kadri. Just read it and looked at the images. But would this work in TG2? I'm afraid not. I'll try a bump versus normal map, see what comes out.

[Kadri]

... But would this work in TG2? I'm afraid not....

I think you are right , but i am waiting for your test