Announcement: TU Canyon & Rock Surface Pack now available @ NWDA

Seth · May 09, 2009, 01:32:35 PM

Quote from: buzzzzz1 on May 09, 2009, 12:57:39 PM
Why is the atmo quality set at 128?

because Martin owns a render farm at home so he just put very high value everywhere to impress us all ^^

Aagam · May 09, 2009, 01:43:10 PM

Quote
Quote from: Aagam on May 09, 2009, 12:49:01 PM
I have a question. What's the approx. render times of these images? I have a decent computer and would love to use these. It looks like they would take a long, long time?

That depends on your computer of course, decent can be anything of course For the image linked below my computer rendered around 5 hours (4 x 3GHz Q6600).
http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=6272.msg66508#msg66508
Keep in mind that the rendersettings and especially atmo are quite high, as well as the resolution. Also there's extra complexity with 4 fake stone shaders and my sand (which essentially is my snow-package). Although complex, this technique does render fairly quick. As you may have seen I accidentially left the atmo samples at 128 so reducing that will already reduce the rendertime.
I can safely say that without all the bells and whistles this could be rendered at that resolution and more optimised settings in ~3 hours.

Wow 3 hours per image? Seems around right... there goes my animation idea

Tangled-Universe · May 09, 2009, 02:09:20 PM

Quote from: Aagam on May 09, 2009, 01:43:10 PM
Quote
Quote from: Aagam on May 09, 2009, 12:49:01 PM
I have a question. What's the approx. render times of these images? I have a decent computer and would love to use these. It looks like they would take a long, long time?

That depends on your computer of course, decent can be anything of course For the image linked below my computer rendered around 5 hours (4 x 3GHz Q6600).
http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=6272.msg66508#msg66508
Keep in mind that the rendersettings and especially atmo are quite high, as well as the resolution. Also there's extra complexity with 4 fake stone shaders and my sand (which essentially is my snow-package). Although complex, this technique does render fairly quick. As you may have seen I accidentially left the atmo samples at 128 so reducing that will already reduce the rendertime.
I can safely say that without all the bells and whistles this could be rendered at that resolution and more optimised settings in ~3 hours.

Wow 3 hours per image? Seems around right... there goes my animation idea

I wouldnt throw that idea away too quickly. What resolution do you have in mind and which settings? Keep in mind that it were rendertimes for 1600x900 and GI 2/4 with detail 0.85 and atmo 128.
For animation of 800x450 it already takes ~4 times less time.
Then reduce detail to 0.75 and keep AA. GI at 1/3 and atmo samples to 64.
~30 minutes / frame...rough guess, but it won't be far from it.

rcallicotte · May 09, 2009, 02:23:07 PM

Martin's right. If we think in terms of a small version of HD (800x400) and maybe lessening of the quality standards, the renders might be much less. The ratio works out differently than you might expect, too.

Seth · May 09, 2009, 02:37:11 PM

it will be quite insane to try to do an animation with the same setup than for an HD still render !!!
and insane is not really the word i am thinking of, to be honest

Aagam · May 09, 2009, 02:44:22 PM

Oh ya I know it's surely possible... just too bad rendering with very high quality doesn't take a few minutes

The animation would probably be around 800px width, I haven't fully settled on it yet. I have yet to build everything of course. I use a pretty powerful iMac that I got last year, fully upgraded, and render times for previous projects haven't been all that bad, so I think something would be possible here. As you said, with some dropping of quality settings it can still look great while making render times doable. I'm just very impatient

Anyway when I get stuff going I'll be sure to keep you updated

Tangled-Universe · May 09, 2009, 02:57:09 PM

Quote from: Aagam on May 09, 2009, 02:44:22 PM
Oh ya I know it's surely possible... just too bad rendering with very high quality doesn't take a few minutes

The animation would probably be around 800px width, I haven't fully settled on it yet. I have yet to build everything of course. I use a pretty powerful iMac that I got last year, fully upgraded, and render times for previous projects haven't been all that bad, so I think something would be possible here. As you said, with some dropping of quality settings it can still look great while making render times doable. I'm just very impatient

Anyway when I get stuff going I'll be sure to keep you updated

Yeah surely do! If I can be of any assistance then please let me know.
What kind of iMac is it btw?

Martin

Aagam · May 09, 2009, 03:29:03 PM

It's the 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo model, 4GB of RAM. It's a great machine, I've been very pleased with it. Render times are good, however I have to be careful with heating since these computers get very hot. I used to render on my Macbook Pro and I found TG2 just pushed the computer too far. It rendered very well until it got very hot, then the computer just automatically slowed everything down. When I started to work with video last year, I decided I might as well upgrade to the iMac.

I have access to Mac Pro's through my University, however since it's summer now, they are out of access. Unfortunate but nothing I can do about it

Hetzen · May 09, 2009, 03:48:05 PM

Just a quick point on CG animations at HD, it's common practise to render out at 1280x720 rather than full 1080p, then stretch the render up. For two reasons, one it softens up the sharpness you get with CG renders which fit in better with live capture footage, especially if you need to match up camera noise, and secondly it's just over half the render time.

*edit, the attachment has absolutely nothing to do with this post. It seems to have left itself in the browser for some reason.

FrankB · May 20, 2009, 12:32:27 PM

@ Hetzen: that is actually a quite nice "sea test"

What are you planning to do with it? Use it for the NWDA image contest?

Back to the canyon and rock surfaces from TU.... Quite a few people now have the pack, and to be really honest, I can't wait to see a couple renders from you guys published here!
In a sense, such a preset really is like a child - as the father (in this case TU), you want to see it grow and live - if you know what I mean. So at least what I'm concerned, I can't wait to see your renders made with it!

Cheers,
Frank

Tangled-Universe · May 22, 2009, 02:15:36 PM

Quote from: FrankB on May 20, 2009, 12:32:27 PM
@ Hetzen: that is actually a quite nice "sea test"
What are you planning to do with it? Use it for the NWDA image contest?

Back to the canyon and rock surfaces from TU.... Quite a few people now have the pack, and to be really honest, I can't wait to see a couple renders from you guys published here!
In a sense, such a preset really is like a child - as the father (in this case TU), you want to see it grow and live - if you know what I mean. So at least what I'm concerned, I can't wait to see your renders made with it!

Cheers,
Frank

Yes guys, I want some birthday-presents!

Martin

Aagam · May 22, 2009, 05:17:18 PM

Quote from: FrankB on May 20, 2009, 12:32:27 PM
Back to the canyon and rock surfaces from TU.... Quite a few people now have the pack, and to be really honest, I can't wait to see a couple renders from you guys published here!
In a sense, such a preset really is like a child - as the father (in this case TU), you want to see it grow and live - if you know what I mean. So at least what I'm concerned, I can't wait to see your renders made with it!

Cheers,
Frank

I'm looking forward to it to. Once I find some time I'll purchase it and use it in that animation

Aagam · May 24, 2009, 03:30:47 PM

Purchased it today

FrankB · May 24, 2009, 03:33:33 PM

Thank you :-)

buzzzzz1 · June 21, 2009, 12:04:40 PM

Quote from: FrankB on May 08, 2009, 05:14:29 PM
The long awaited baby is born!!!

Hi all,

... geeez, I don't even now how to begin

OK, so here we go... Ladies and gentlemen, please behold our beautiful new baby. It weighs just a few megs and it's a girl (telling by her beauty). The mother, Tangled Universe, is exhausted but happy beyond compare.

Please welcome to this world: the TU Canyon and Rock Surface Pack @ NWDA

Close to 5 months of research and testing went into perfecting the TU Canyon Pack. I would not have thought it possible that we'll be able to actually "paint" highly detailed canyons one day, but here it is.

I'm amazed. Bet you will be too!

I'll make it short and let the product page speak for itself: http://nwda.webnode.com/products/tu-canyon-pack/

Best Regards,
Frank

I purchased the non-commercial version of this when it came out. Played with it for a while and decided to put it aside because I wasn't getting results I expected based on the incredible introduction we were given. Maybe I'm just not intelligent or talented enough to use it. Has anyone had a successful render based on this pack? If so would you be so kind to point me to it? I've been looking for something produced with this but haven't seen anything or seen any comments on the use of it?

I know TU put months of work into this and Frank said it was amazing and after all I only paid a few bucks for Martins work but I was expecting to be able to make use of it. Hope this doesn't piss anyone off because I've hesitated saying anything for a while now. I'll just consider it a donation to research that I can't use but hopefully someone else can.