Frank's Free Edition Road WIP Thread

Started by FrankB, February 24, 2013, 12:34:44 PM

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Tangled-Universe

Yes it *is* possible. ;)

Btw, just before going to bed I also gave your clouds a shot. It's rendering now, or is finished, will have a look after work.
Using the final density modulator you can add variation in lighting in the 'core' of your cloud.

FrankB

yeah, I tried final density modulation for hours, but it kept appearing in the wrong places with the wrong strength, and it's pure chance you find a fractal, or deviate from your original fractal, and make it look just right in all places

Maybe I am picky here. No, I am picky most definitely.
I have worked with TG2 V2 clouds for so long, and they are great, but we all know they still have their limitations.
You are great at clouds, too, Martin, I am sure you will come up with an awesome result, but you too are going to understand the problem when it comes to getting the light scattering like the real thing in V2. Just saying, I'd like to be proven wrong.

V2 clouds look best when the light is *not* from behind the clouds, this way the problem isn't so apparent.

Also, Matt, your comment sounds like you feel challenged... that's the best news of the day for me. We can only benefit from that, one way or the other ;-)

Cheers
Frank

Tangled-Universe

I second Frank about Matt. Flex your TG (cloud)muscles for us Matt ;)

I reckon that in certain circumstances clouds are a pain.
Actually the current cloud shader is excellent for clouds with lower density settings.

Frank, I think this has to do with scattering indeed, although I do not share the same opinion on how to fix it or what the best sun position is.

What will come now isn't new to you Frank, but I'd like to share some of my insights on cloud parameters:

The trick is the scatter curve.

In TG2 the "fake internal scattering" has in my opinion a wrong label and should be called "scatter curve", because this is what it essentially is simulating. So what does it do then?

If you consider sunlight directly lighting a volume (cloud) then that light gets scattered.
Very simplified you can state that the light either gets scattered in the forward direction or in the backward direction.
Forward means that the scattered light will esentially have the same direction as the incoming ray from the sunlight source.
Backward means that the scattered light will esentially bounce back in the same direction the incoming ray from the sunlight source came from.
In real life this scattering is very complex and heterogenous or anisotropic.
This anisotropy of scattering is simulated in the cloud node and you can influence its weight with the fake internal scattering setting.

Depending on sun position this will either result in a glowing effect or a darkening effect.
The strength of those effects are also influenced by cloud density and the glow settings.

"Fake internal scattering" (FIS) is the setting which controls the 'curve' on how this behaves.
A setting of 1 means that both forward and backward scattering are equally balanced for all densities of the cloud.
A setting of <1 means that direct light will be scattered more in forward direction.
A setting of >1 means that direct light will be scattered more in backward direction.

In the case of having your sun in front of the camera this means that for low FIS cloud edges will glow stronger.
For FIS >1 these edges will tend to become darker (silver lining effect, for instance).

All in all you may understand now that it's all in the mix of cloud density, glow, FIS and sun heading/elevation.
A very potent but definitely complex mix!

Tangled-Universe

Here's an attempt to get some variation in clouds. It's a bit too much, I know.

FrankB

ah, maybe open a separate thread, please? :-)

cheers!

FrankB

So, here is another update.
It's relatively low AA, as the original render size this time was only 3k. It's mostly obvious for the background vegetation, I think.

I just saw that one of the tires isn't textures, I have to dig into that. And other things.

Cheers
Frank

folder

Frank

as usual a great scene.  can you explain how you got the grass to go across the sss road and the rocks to sit along side. have tried various means including intersect but to no avail  if anything this contest is pushing our terregan muscles


folder

FrankB

Quote from: folder on March 13, 2013, 08:04:50 PM
Frank

as usual a great scene.  can you explain how you got the grass to go across the sss road and the rocks to sit along side. have tried various means including intersect but to no avail  if anything this contest is pushing our terregan muscles


folder

Thanks! I am not using a SSS road, mine is from the road and tarmac pack. There i  have a mask for the surrounding landscape, where the rocks will sit on. It's the road mask run through a complenent color shader, if I remember correctly. You should be able to do the same with the sss road, or put it into a surface shader as a blendshader and invert the blendshader.
The grasses sit in the cracks, and I just used the cracks as a density shader for the populator.

cheers
Frank

folder


Jo Kariboo

I like the subtil and nuance detail on the road. ! Nice torrid light to !   :)

FrankB


TheBadger

It has been eaten.

FrankB

So here is the last iteration for another week. I have to pause for a week, but then will be back in full force!!!
This one is a quick experimentation with a fake DOF, and a few other things. The "derailed" car isn't sitting well yet and one of its tires looks funny. The plant on the right doesn't look good, and the yellow blossom cactus on the left is barely visible.
I have a few more objects in mind that I would like to add.

But I am quite fond of the general desert texture. Believe it or not, but I have spent a lot of time giving it its particular look.

Anyway... it's fun!

Cheers
Frank

Jo Kariboo

Nice variation. I prefer the last one for its aspect in general. Maybee a fake dof but that gives the impression to me that it more hot in this desert.

Oshyan

Surrounding desert is looking much more realistic now, indeed. The rest of your crits are right on, I think. Particularly, I would say the car is not working how it is. It seemed fine on the road, but a crash may be hard to make look realistic? The road in the distance also still does not seem quite properly attenuated by distance, a bit too bright I think, but...?

- Oshyan