Windows 7 i7 2600K Render Test

[efflux]

An early TG2 planet rendered with new clouds to test my i7 system. I was forced back to Windows (from Linux) due to a painting app I want to use and possibility of using TG2 again. Speed is amazing so I have new TG2 enthusiasm. I was going to ditch this whole angle of graphics because I was sick of the time it takes but I'll probably do some TG2 stuff in future now. It took me ten minutes to create these clouds. Time wasting is massively reduced on my new machine.

Render was output as EXR, exposure corrected in Blender (which can handle EXR) and then various levels etc tweaked in Lightzone.

[Tangled-Universe]

Ghehe, I kinda predicted this response by you
I have an i7 2600K too...actually stepped over from a Q6600 2.4GHz...still 2-3 times faster and it is much more fun to design/fiddle scenes when you don't have to wait ages for detailed tests

Looking forward to see your new work. Still remember this (more colorful) scene you made quite a while ago.

Cheers,
Martin

[inkydigit]

awesome...very cool planet!

[Oshyan]

I missed seeing your work around here! Glad to see you're back into it.

- Oshyan

[Kadri]

Efflux you were the guy who comes from 6 months to 6 months and said "Linux is..." for me 

Good that you use TG2 again! I like your images

[efflux]

I prefer Linux to Windows and even OSX. Linux is not the best though. This is:

http://haiku-os.org/

We should all be using this or rather what it's based on - BeOS and we probably would be if it wasn't for Microsoft criminal business practice. Microsoft themselves admitted that BeOS could have destroyed them.

Haiku has a long way to go though, a lot further than Linux. There isn't even a 64 bit.

Windows 7 is good. The best Windows OS that I have tried. However, it will degrade over time like all the rest. Security is dire but I won't be connecting it to the net anyway. I have my fresh Windows install backed up for when it goes bad.

[Henry Blewer]

Could you share the Blend file for this? The EXR setup I use really stinks...

[efflux]

Actually my previous Blender node description wasn't right. I corrected it to a working method but I'm not sure exactly what is going on. I'll try to find the best way to set this in Blender then post back.

[Henry Blewer]

Cool. BMP is ok, but EXR is so much more reasonable for postwork.

[TheBadger]

Great image! would never of thought TG2 could produce it. It looks like its from an animated film.

[efflux]

I deleted a previous post to avoid confusion because I'm not entirely clear about what these Blender nodes are actually doing. The Blender nodes I used to change the EXR are these:



The first RGB Curve node has white level set as black and Fac brought back down from 1.0 to move away from an entirely black image. This sorts the bright exposure areas i.e. sky - the part I most need to exposure correct. The next curve makes further adjustments. I'm not actually sure exactly what is actually going on here. Does Fac stand for factor? I can't find other nodes to do this initial adjustment that can be done with the RGB Curves node.

EDIT - a composite node needs to be connected to the end of that Blender node network to get a file output.

[Zairyn Arsyn]

first render: the terrain reminds me of snake scales
nice looking clouds too,

i should have a sandy bridge machine in a week or so...

[Henry Blewer]

That node setup is quite similar to the one I had. Mine had some more nodes that did not work like I thought they should. It never occurred to me to use two RGB curve editors together. Perhaps my thinking has become too linear.

Thanks for sharing the node setup.

[efflux]

I think what may be happening is that we are "normalizing" the EXR in that graph. I think the EXR will be sending an output way beyond the 0-1 needed for the RGB curve.

[Xynedia]

.